Speech by the President at the state ceremony marking Rudolf Maister Day
Ptuj, 22.11.2008 | speech
The President of the Republic, Dr Danilo Türk, attended the state ceremony marking Rudolf Maister Day, where he delivered a speech.
Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia at the state ceremony marking Rudolf Maister Day
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today we are gathered here in Ptuj, this historical town, to honour the memory of Gen. Rudolf Maister-Vojanov, one of the greatest sons of the Slovenian nation. We are gathered on the day when we celebrate the anniversary of his resolute and successful actions which, 90 years ago, provided the Slovenian nation with territorial integrity and above all achieved the integration of Maribor and Štajerska into their homeland. With his determined action, the effective basis for Slovenian statehood was created. Without the determination and capability of Gen. Maister, the entire later history of the Slovenians would probably have taken a different course. It seems unlikely that without his resolution, we would ever have achieved our independence and state autonomy.
It is therefore proper to remember each year his great deeds and his merits for our existence as a sovereign nation and for our own state. Let us just reflect on Maister’s risk and skill in mobilizing 4,000 volunteers for the defence of the northern border in less than a month, in November 1918. A venture of such magnitude at the end of World War I, when people were weary of arms and communications were scarce, deserves our utmost respect.
It is also right to recall that Gen. Maister was not only a military commander, but also a versatile man, a poet, a painter, a lover of books and organizer of cultural life. Today, his private library is a valuable asset to the University Library of Maribor and is part of our national cultural treasure. With his life and work, Gen. Maister showed how the military profession is linked with cultural sensitivity and patriotic consciousness. This model is important also today, not only for people engaged in the military profession, but also for the rest of us. Today’s commemoration is thus an opportunity to recall our memory of this great Slovenian hero and visionary man.
The legacy of his life’s work must be understood comprehensively, and we should ask ourselves what the meaning of his legacy is today and what our duties are if we want to be worthy of his memory.
The Slovenian nation has a very long history of shared life within multi-national states and a very short experience of its own sovereignty. In the Habsburg Monarchy, the Slovenian nation was one of those subjugated peasant nations which achieved full cultural consciousness only in the 19th century, meaning essentially that it became a cultural nation at that time. In the Habsburg Monarchy, the Slovenians were more of a national minority, especially since our ancestors did not have the opportunity to live in a single administrative unit. Indeed, the majority of Slovenian people lived separated from the ethnic Slovenian home territory, which was the Kranjska (Carniola) province.
The critical change that we Slovenians have not yet experienced to its utmost potential, and even less managed to comprehend fully, has been our transition from a cultural into a political nation. This transition has been unfolding throughout the 20th century and has not been fully completed yet. Gen. Maister’s role in this transition was of critical importance. The achievement of territorial integrity in the Štajerska region of the northern border was among the very foundations for the existence of the Slovenian nation and for all of its further development as a political nation.
Later developments called for new heroic decisions taken during the National Liberation Struggle against Nazism and Fascism. We are particularly proud of this part of Slovenian history. With this struggle we finally consolidated the Slovenian national territory as much as possible. With the National Liberation Struggle against Nazism and Fascism, the Slovenian nation took its place among the nations which co-created the current world order. The National Liberation Struggle against Nazism and Fascism secured us a place among the founders of the United Nations organization, which is the central place of the world order even today.
The period at the end of World War II also brought some tragic events and serious crimes, such as the mass liquidation of defeated forces. World War II, in a manner of speaking, pushed the world off its moral hinges and provoked mass violations of human rights; this fact should continue to serve as a lasting warning, committing us to protect human rights both now and in the future. It also commits us to learn the truth about ourselves and our historical destiny to the full and without embellishment, and to redress the injustices inflicted in our recent past to the maximum extent possible.
In the former common Yugoslav state, in which the majority of Slovenians lived for the greater part of the 20th century, human rights were often violated. We must be aware of this and strive to redress past injustices. However, we should also bear in mind that during that period, the Slovenian nation finally accomplished its transition into a political nation and eventually, towards the end of the 1980s, proved its ability to protect the human rights of all people living on its territory.
By resolutely advocating our unity at the time of gaining independence in 1991, the Slovenian nation also proved that we were capable of fully asserting our right to self-determination and to our own state. Again we had to fight for our state with armed force. These days we remember the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Territorial Defence, which carried the heaviest burden of the military effort to gain independence. At today’s celebration, I would particularly wish to emphasize the gratefulness of our entire community to all the members of the Territorial Defence, and also to all those who protected the independence of Slovenia and the success of its independence with weapons in their hands. Having thus earned our sovereignty and statehood with armed action, we were in the end able to constitute a political nation with its own state.
Our sovereignty is incontestable proof that we are a political nation. However, the question arises of whether we are well prepared in Slovenia for all the accompanying challenges and responsibilities. It is also questionable if we understand well our political situation and its potential in the new circumstances, and whether we always demonstrate the maturity called for. These are serious questions. Serious answers to these questions require many years of political experience. Literary dreams will not suffice here. Genuine experience is required, but of this we have but little. Our experiences from the time before independence are not particularly useful, because they were largely related to socialism, an ideological project that has passed away. Those from the time since we gained independence are short-lived and few in number, especially because the major part of our political energy was dedicated to joining the European Union. This project, together with our joining NATO, provided us with assurances of security and new development possibilities, but at the same time it deprived us of the opportunity to first have an in-depth experience of the true meaning of sovereignty.
This opportunity was not given historically to us, because the possibility of entering the Euro-Atlantic community simply had to be seized. This, of course, is undisputable. The nation described as “being in delay” cannot afford another historical lateness. Today we are aware in Slovenia that, even within the European Union, we are a sovereign country – so how must we act to be genuinely, and not just formally, such a state?
It is obvious that Slovenia must conduct itself with self-confidence in Europe and in the world, which means that it must act with competence. We have to be principled and consistent. We must have good knowledge of and clear positions on the main issues that are of common interest. And we have to be active. This year, Slovenia held successfully the presidency of the European Union. During the four years of its EU membership, Slovenia has also thoroughly proved its capability to fulfil all European criteria. We do not need to receive any lectures on European standards of conduct.
At the same time we must – like any other EU Member State – look after our own national interests with vigilance, and if need be, with vigour. This is relevant to all policy areas, whether they are agricultural subsidies or foreign policy, and to all issues related to further expansion of the European Union.
In the process of creating a place of our own in the European Union and the world, we must preserve those past achievements that we ensured by signing international treaties: the 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy is still considered applicable law; the content of the Special Statute from 1954, annexed to the London Memorandum of Understanding, is still relevant under the Osimo Agreements. It remains an assessment criterion for the exercise of rights in Trieste province and beyond, but – in compliance with the principle of non-discrimination – also the rights of Slovenians in the provinces of Gorizia and Udine. The Osimo Agreements were inherited in their entirety, and it is in our interest that their authority is ensured continuously. We are concerned to hear about the planned budget cuts for schools and culture in Italy, to which the Slovene national community is entitled according to international law. We must do our utmost to prevent the shrinkage of these internationally recognized rights.
The Austrian State Treaty continues to be a treaty which binds both Austria and Slovenia. There is no reason whatsoever to relinquish it. Article 7 of this treaty, defining the rights of Slovenians in Austria, has not yet been fully implemented, and we must persist in our commitment to having it implemented. Bilingual signs in Austrian Carinthia continue to be an unfulfilled obligation of Austria and a legitimate and legally well-founded right of Slovenians living in Austria. In the future, Slovenia anticipates more decisive moves of the Austrian government towards the implementation of this particular right, as well as other rights stipulated in the Austrian State Treaty.
The current situation of Slovenians in Hungary, who have a different and in some aspects even harder history, is not satisfactory either. We are expecting more efficient actions by the Hungarian government pertaining to all those problems of the minority that a modern European state is already capable as well as obliged to resolve.
International treaties, together with those concluded decades ago, should be respected. The rights of minorities as defined by international law must be respected and asserted. Espousing these rights can never become subject to a statute of limitations, and it cannot be considered outdated or outlived. Quite the contrary – it is one of the crucial tests of the sincerity of today’s Europe in its understanding of the rule of law.
Espousing the rights of minorities is also one of the tests of our maturity and our national or patriotic consciousness. Such consciousness must always be a beacon of the civic education we have yet to develop – to the benefit of all people in Slovenia.
However, modern patriotism and modern civic education must contain an awareness of ourselves, of our historical experience and the historical traumas endured by the Slovenian nation. Moreover, it must include a great deal more; it must take into consideration all the elements that exist “here and now” and that influence our present and future. Which, then, should be the values we in Slovenia strive for, and which the achievements, so that we can be proud of our country in the future?
Contemporary patriotism must include high standards of technological and economic achievement, ecological awareness and a high level of aesthetics, but above all, also high standards of integrity. In Slovenia we will be prouder of our country the more successful we are in our technological and economic development, and in preserving our natural environment, and the more effective we are in eliminating corruption, crime and unrestrained, unjustified and unlawful amassment of riches by some. All of these are obligations that our commitment to patriotism imposes on us.
Since Slovenia has become an independent and sovereign country, patriotism and civic education must also comprise the clearly defined values we wish to use in our communication with the world. This is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance: the fundamental values that constitute a starting point for everything – for our being and our liaising – offer themselves on their own. These are the universality of human dignity and human rights, and the commitment to the equality of people and nations. The Slovenian state emerged as a sovereign country precisely for the reason that it wanted to protect human rights and dignity on its territory, and thus allow for the development and prosperity of its society. These fundamental values must therefore be the focal point of our civic education.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The role of Gen. Maister is not only a matter of history – his legacy is alive and relevant. When we ask ourselves how Gen. Maister would react today, we certainly do not think a fight for our borders is required. This fight is already behind us, and it has created conditions that allow us to contemplate the quality of our society and the position of Slovenia in the world in a much more open and challenging way than we have done in the past. Hence, let us be ambitious in our national and international activities, though without forgetting that we can persist in them only if we provide cohesion and belief in the future of our society and our patriotic consciousness. These will be the sources of our strength and inspiration when coping with the huge tasks ahead. And this will also be the best possible way to commemorate Gen. Rudolf Maister-Vojanov.