Mr. President, authorities, Julian Dalmatian friends.

76 years have now passed since the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty. A diktat that sanctioned the almost complete loss of Venezia Giulia that had joined Italy at the end of the First World War.

Today we are here to celebrate the memory of the sad period of civilian killings in the autumn of 1943, followed by the widespread killings at the end of the conflict, including the first massacre of civilians committed in Pola in August 1946, the first massacre in the history of our Republic. These were the premises for the subsequent exodus.

I would like to insist on the value of what was decided by our Parliament in 2004.

The world of exiles was given a voice not only to remember but above all to make those who were unaware of those events aware of a reality that was part of our national history and thus build a common memory that would involve the younger generations.

Today's anniversary therefore allows for a moment of shared reflection on the meaning of a political choice that has allowed us to interrupt a long period of uncertainty and to objectively consider the meaning of the exodus from the Julian territories, safeguarding the memory of a region closely linked to the history of our national community.

It is by virtue of the law that a constructive bond has been strengthened between the institutions of the Republic and the associationism that our Federation expresses.

We must not forget that for years the people of the exodus had been completely marginalized in international forums where the future of the region was to be decided. The Julians were denied the right to self-determination.

They had no say in the preliminaries of the peace treaty and other international instruments in which their fate was decided and therefore not even in the negotiation of the Osimo agreement.

They had not even been able to make their voices heard in the institutional referendum of 2 June 1946, nor in the Constituent Assembly that would have pronounced on the Peace Treaty and therefore would have directly concerned them.

Today, eighty years after the tragic days following the catastrophic 8 September 1943, a situation continues, for us unjustifiable and incomprehensible, of failure to recognize the burial sites of the civilian victims of the foibe of the autumn of that year and the spring of 1945. It may seem unimaginable but on the hundreds of places of the killings there are no signs of recognition. The victims' families are not recognized as having the possibility of a presence and an act of human compassion.

In order to put an end to this unacceptable state of affairs, we are certain that we can rely on a decisive intervention by our institutions and on the constructive interest of our diplomatic representations towards the local authorities.

The Federation of our associations has set up a research project together with the Italian Union present in Slovenia and Croatia for a reconnaissance and mapping of the sites with the aim of placing a sign of remembrance on hundreds of places in Istria, in the Rijeka area and in Dalmatia.

We are certain that we can count on decisive help from our institutions.

With these premises we reiterate our heartfelt gratitude to the President of the Republic for having constantly shown himself attentive to the meaning of the values ​​that characterize our identity, aware of the sacrifices borne with dignity and decorum by the community of exiles. We are grateful to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture for having followed with commitment the implementation of projects aimed at safeguarding our cultural heritage and to the Ministry of Education for the incessant activity aimed at spreading knowledge of our events in schools.

Joseph of Vergottini 
President of the Federation of Associations of Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian Exiles