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SLOVENIA WISHES TO STRENGTHEN AND DEVELOP GOOD-NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONS
Marking the 75th anniversary of the incorporation of Libelice into Slovenia
Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Kucan
Libelice, 19 October 1997
 "The path of political dialogue and comprehensive cooperation based on equality is the only alternative (for Slovenia and Austria)", said Slovene President Milan Kucan in a speech to mark the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the incorporation of Libelice into Slovenia. Furthermore, he added that Slovenia is justified in expecting that the provisions of the Austrian state treaty will be respected in full, and that the historical facts of the Second World War will be given full recognition, in which regard he mentioned the AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia) resolutions on the seizure of German property, which were "part of the actions by the Allied military and political forces to punish the Nazis for their acts of evil".
People of Libelice, Koroska compatriots, esteemed guests,
Seventy-five years have passed since, two years after the Koroška plebiscite, the people of Libelice took their fate into their own hands and achieved the incorporation of their town into the mother country. This was indeed a courageous act of faith, upon which we may look back with pride and gratitude towards the people whose perseverance brought about a change to the political map of Europe on this little patch of land of ours, across which new borders had already been drawn, borders which at the time appeared final. Without the steadfastness and the perseverance of the people of Libeliče, without their enormous will to live together with their compatriots in the Slovene motherland, and without those others who helped them, Slovenia's borders today would not be the same. The events here in 1922 stand alongside those actions of our compatriots in Prekmurje and Primorska at the same time and later, which helped to make Slovenia's borders that much more logical, and within which our fellow ovenes, who unfortunately remained beyond these borders in Austria, Hungary and Italy, can identify their first mother country.
Ever since those turbulent days of the plebiscite in 1920-22, down the contradictory and bloody paths of history in the Second World War and its aftermath, questions of coexistence and cooperation between Austria and what is today the Slovene state have been raised and addressed; especially issues concerning the tolerant and democratic cohabitation between the Republic of Austria's core nation and the Slovene minority in Carinthia. From those days to this a Slovene minority has lived there. Yet to this day in Carinthia the anniversary of the plebiscite has largely been marked by glorification of the victory of the majority over the minority, rather than a celebratory confirmation of the democratic cohabitation between people of different nations in a common homeland of two languages and cultures. Sadly, democracy and justice all too frequently succumb to national pride.
The origin of Article 7 of the Austrian peace treaty and, its transformation from a bilateral obligation to an internal constitutional norm of a state that is now part of the European Union, is linked to the long and intensely painful, especially for the minority, history of the Second World War, with the aggression of Nazi Germany against Yugoslavia, including Slovenia, and with the postwar peace process of establishing order and drawing the political map in this part of Europe. This history must not be denied or forgotten. It must be properly recognised in order that we may understand the present and shape the future. History simply is the way it is, and it places an obligation on our two countries in their behaviour, especially that of democratic Austria itself in recognising and granting rights to the Slovene minority. This measure is certainly the most sensitive aspect of its modern European stature, for which it is rightly striving in the interests of all its citizens. But, sadly, other endeavours also exist. And again they have marked this year's celebration of the Carinthian plebiscite, although we had hoped that the years of triumphalism among part of the German-speaking majority in Carinthia, banded together in various militia organisations, were now behind us and that the official provincial authorities of Carinthia, for the pride and honour of the Austrian state, would be able to turn away from the past and look to the future, away from the conflicts, the restricting of rights and even denials of the existence of a Slovene minority, towards coexistence and the preservation of the Slovene national identity, and reject an approach that sets conditions on the Slovene state taking its place in European associations and embrace a joint approach in a common European home, striding arm-in-arm into a friendlier European future.
I can reaffirm before you all here today that Slovenia wishes to strengthen and develop good-neighbourly relations with all its neighbours. Just as our hand is extended to Italy, we extend it to all our other neighbours, though in the past our existence side by side has not always been so propitious with all of them. Personally, in meetings with the highest representatives of the Austrian state in Vienna and with the provincial politicians in Klagenfurt, Graz and elsewhere, I have invested great effort into achieving a conciliatory and mutual understanding of the past. All of these meetings, most of which have been friendly and open and in which goodwill has been expressed towards Slovenia, underline my belief that the path of political dialogue and comprehensive cooperation based on equality is the only alternative for both countries. But we are right to expect that not only will the provisions of the Austrian state treaty be respected in full, but also the undisputed internationally evaluated historical facts regarding the Second World War. Among these facts are the criminal occupation by Nazi Germany, of which Austria was then a part, and all the violence and genocide that went with it. The AVNOJ resolutions of November 1944 on the seizure of German property were part of the actions by the Allied military and political forces to punish the Nazis for their acts of evil. As part of Yugoslavia at the time, Slovenia also formed part of these Allied forces. During this war, the cruelty of which the inhabitants of this region knew only too well, Slovenia took action against those who occupied it and waged war against it. It did not take action against this or that nation, but against those who perpetrated evil and genocide against the Slovenes. Anti-Fascism, anti-Nazism and the rule of personal and collective human rights thus entered the very foundations of the Slovene state, where they remain today. Since then, as a state which maintains a high level of rights for its indigenous ethnic minorities, Slovenia has been and remains open to political dialogue and cooperation. All of this is part of the Slovene consciousness, our pride, our declaration before the world, and the foundation upon which we consolidate our coexistence with other states and nations.
Fellow Slovenes,
I believe we share a conviction that we are united by a common will. And that we are united by a pride in Libelice and the memory of events that took place here. Let us respect one another. Let us be tolerant of difference. Let us together create the living conditions and opportunities for all citizens of Slovenia to contribute to a better life together, and to allow the creation, on an equal basis, of a common European home with the other countries of Europe. And let us not forget Libelice; now, seventy-five years on, Libelice must not live as if it were a place of history, abandoned to its fate and forgotten by the Slovene state.
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