«Quegli Italiani che oggi onoriamo non sono dimenticati»

14 DIFESA ADRIATICA Marzo 2008
Italian President Napolitano’s Speech
“The Italians we honor
today are not forgotten”
February 10 th , at the Quirinale
Presidential Palace, with Italian
President Napolitano present, the
ceremony for the commemoration of
the Day of Remembrance took place.
Among those present were the Vice
President of the Senate, Milziade
Caprili; the Vice President of the
Chamber of Deputies, Giorgia Meloni;
the Vice President of the Council of
Ministers and the Minister of Culture,
Francesco Rutelli; the Defence Minister,
Arturo Parisi; Constitutional Judge,
Paolo Maddalena; the Vice President
of the Federation of the Associations
of Istrian, Fiumani and Dalmatian
Exiles, Lucio Toth; the President of the
Commi sion for the examination of the
conce sions of recognition for the foibe
victims’ surviving family members,
Alberto Ficuciello; as well as other
members of the government and of
Parliament, and family members of
Foibe victims.
Minister Rutelli had, previously in
the day, awarded commemorative
medals and citations to the foibe
victims’ families. During the ceremony
itself Minister Rutelli and Lucio Toth
Following is the entire text of the
speech given at the Quirinale on
February 10 th , 2008, by the Vice
President of the Federation of the
Associations of Exiles and President of
the National Venezia-Giulia and
Dalmatia Association,at the solemn
ceremony of conferment of honors for
the relatives of foibe victims, by
National President Giorgio Napolitano.
Encouraged by your words of a
year ago, Mr.President, we wanted to
examine more thoroughly the primary
reasons for the events which occurred
involving the Italian of the Eastern coast
of the Adriatic.
The words of a Head of State
express the will of an entire nation, and
we are grateful to you for the message
you sent to all Italians on February 10 th ,
2007, allowing us to feel, after so many
years of silence, that we were close to
the hearts of all of our people, and to
the history of our country, which we
have always loved and will always
continue to love.
But we also asked ourselves, as was
our duty, why this message was not
fully understood, neither inside nor
outside our borders.
The law defining the Day of
Remembrance speaks of “the most
ample context” in which the tragedies
surrounding the Foibe and Exodus are
placed. This past year, along with the
scholars who are close to us and our
cause, we have reflected on this
“ample context”.
After all, we, as Istriani, Fiumani
and Dalmatians, are not the only
people to have faced persecution,
ethnic cleansing and genocide due
solely to its national identity. It is right,
therefore, to compare our situation to
that of other nations, near or far.
Giving equal emphasis to sense
and sensibility, reflection and political
passion, we realized that, at the roots
of the dramatic situation of our
homelands – where we lived peacefully
alongside others of the same land
but who spoke different languages –
there are causes, both intrinsic and
spoke. President Napolitano also
spoke, and his speech was followed
by a concert entitled “Homage to the
Day of Remembrance”.
__________________________
This is the second year that I have
presided over the ceremony for the
Day of Remembrance. Last year I
clearly stated my thoughts. And certain
negative reactions to my speech –
outside Italy – did not shake my
conviction that it was right for me, in
the name of our Republic, to have
expressed my opinion using those
meanings and sense of purpose that, I
am glad to say, I heard in Minister
Rutelli’s speech here today. Today,
therefore, I shall add only some brief
considerations, as I greet with heartfelt
sentiment those of you who have just
received solemn recognitions, albeit
late in coming, and all of those who
are here today, representing the
odyssey of suffering for which the Day
of Remembrance has been dedicated.
I feel that the time has come for us
to ask ourselves, in the deepest sense,
the significance of this Day, which we
explicit, regarding our particular
geographical position and the history
of Europe itself, causes which are near
and causes which are more remote.
Certainly, among the explicit and
near causes we must consider the
clashes of nationalistic ideologies of
the 1800s, and the socio-political
causes of the1900s, which led to the
destruction of our fathers’ dream of
being reunited with the Mother
country and the detachment from the
Motherland which had nourished us
for so many generations.
The contradictions between opposing
national aspirations in such a
borderland could only lead to a clash
between those who wanted this region
to belong solely to Italy, and those who
shared equal nationalistic feelings for
the same region, and thus wanted it to
belong to another State.
The clash between different imperialism,
which was at the heart of the
First World War, and the clash between
opposing ideologies, some totalitarian,
which was at the heart of the Second
World War, did not favor reciprocal
comprehension, but rather pushed it
away, leaving deep scars, rancor, and
vindication.
That which couldn’t be understood
then, in a state of prejudices and
ideologies, pretenses of racial or
nationalistic superiorities, today, as
adult citizens of a united Europe, we
can and we must understand. But there
are also remote causes, intrinsic to the
essence of our identity as Italians of
the Eastern coast of the Adriatic, which
must be explored and deepened with
serenity of spirit.
The Liberal roots
of Adriatic Irredentism
Who can find fault with us, as
exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia,
for having loved the Italian nation, felt
a part of it, for having preserved our
language and our culture in the face
of threats and pressures that put our
own security and well being at risk?
And even our own lives?
As we deepened our research,
have strongly and justly refused to have
cancelled from our collective memory.
Honoring the victims of those tragedies,
along with recognizing the
injustices suffered, and the suffering of
the survivors and their descendents
who were forced into exile, cannot and
must not be taken out of the context of
a comprehensive vision — as Mr. Toth
so eloquently elaborated in his speech
– a serene and unilateral vision of that
tormented, tragic period of history,
marked by opposing totalitarianisms.
We need to take heed of that plague
called extreme nationalism, of the total
lack of respect for the rights of “others”,
of the exaggerated exaltation of one’s
own ethnic or historical identity, which
plunged our continent into a barbarian
state of war.
Today, the wounds left from those
troubled times have been healed in a
Europe which is peaceful, united and
dynamic; a Europe aware that the
elements which unite it are infinitely
stronger than those which divided it in
the past, or could divide it now: a
Europe which, thanks to a culture of
peace and civil cohabitation, has been
able to prosper as no other region in
the world.
And yet, this stable Europe has
witnessed the Balkan States, a vital part
of its history and identity, become the
scene of bloody conflict just a few short
years ago, situations that have torn
apart States, communities, families, in
especially regarding 19 th Century
liberal and democratic ideals and their
development, it is impossible not to
note how these ideas have been the
basic inspiration for the protection of
the Italian tradition in the Istrian
peninsula, among the islands of the
Quarner Gulf, and along the coast of
Dalmatia.
Autonomism was the key to this
political mindset, which noted the
multilingual aspect of our regions and
wanted to preserve its characteristics
as an asset and vital resource for the
nations it represents, and not reason
for hatred and conflict.
As Autonimism failed, due to the
international political situation that
ignored us, Adriatic Irredentism took
root, similar to the kind in South Tirol.
Within this movement the prevailing
attitude was not one of closure and
excess, but rather a national movement
that brought together different peoples.
The words and actions of Nicolò
Tommaseo, Antonio Baiamonti, Carlo
Combi, Antonio Grossich and other
leaders of the “Italian Party” of Istria,
Dalmatia and Fiume were extremely
far from chauvinist oppressiveness.
Scipio Slataper and Giani Stuparich
were just as far from these attitudes.
These liberal roots explain, on the
one hand, the openness towards our
aspirations regarding the most advanced
part of the Italian culture of that
time, both in the Republican and
Catholica and Socialist spheres; on the
other hand, they explain the drama that
our people lived through, along with
their leadership class, upon the rise of
the fascist regime which, while it
sought to claim its place as the heir of
the Risorgimento, it was in in philosophical
and moral contrast to it.
But if we head even further back
into the past, we can observe an even
deeper root of Latin and Veneto
peoples in the region, in much more
ancient times as well as in the modern
era. These autochthonous roots are the
consequence of a juridical culture,
jealously preserved within the representative
institutions of our free cities,
Rome, Quirinale Presidential Palace, February 10th, 2008. The President
of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, greets some of the Foibe
victims’ family members, who were presented with citations and medals
on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Foibe and Exile
a dark return to the horrors of the past.
Let this, then, be the warning for
us, on the Day of Remembrance. If
unity will not prevail in the face of
discord, if dialogue will not prevail in
the face of prejudice, then nothing of
what we have worked so hard to
achieve can be considered permanent.
In such a situation, the memory of the
victims we honor today, and their
sacrifices, would be the first to be
damaged.
Let us show, then, in concrete
ways, that those Italian honoured here
The text of Lucio Toth’s speech given at the Quirinale during the ceremonies of February 10 th
which sought to link the ancient
common Libertates with the model of
modern liberal democracies.
The modern age has not been
capable of preserving this civil society,
pushing our lives into the downward
spiral of the ideological exasperation
of the 1900s. This “short century” of
barbarianisms brought upon us, as an
ultimate consequence, the tragedy of
the Foibe and the drama of our Exodus,
under the force of a cruel Communist
dictatorship.
Why do we not return to the source
of these ideals, in a Europe that is
seeking its own identity and a sense of
unity?
Why don’t we use our own painful
experience to promote a change for
good: a project of shared living and
sense of community among all the
nations of the Adriatic?
This is the question that we ask
today, of those who still refuse to open
heart and mind to the highest and most
true meaning of the Day of Remembrance.
And we Italians of Istria, Fiume
and Dalmatia ask this: a return to
Reason and Truth: our place in the
history of the Italian nation, its culture,
and its civic progress.
The artists, the musicians, and the
scholars of these regions made decisive
contributions to Italian culture, often
serving as a bridge to Central and
Eastern European cultures. It is not a
matter of considering only literature of
Trieste of the 1900s but rather a long
chain of humanists, architects, and
scientists who linked the Roman-
Byzantine tradition of the East Adriatic
to the Rinascimento and the modern
and contemporary era. This is a
contribution that has continued into
our day, in all sectors of life at a national
level, from market production to the
public administration, sport, cinema
and theatre.
It is also right to remember that men
and women from Istria, Fiume and
Dalmatia participated in the process
of national unification: in politics,
diplomacy, and the wars of independence.
The Exiles gave their lives
today are not forgotten, and that the
pain of many has not been in vain. Let
us show that we have learned the
lesson of history, and that we desire to
contribute to the development of ties
of fully reciprocal comprehension, and
fruitful collaboration with nations and
people who have entered, or desire to
enter, the great family of United
Europe.
The President
of the Republic of Italy
Giorgio Napolitano
“Our place in the History of the Italian Nation”
for the nation, and their children have,
too, in the latest decades, as members
of the armed and civilian forces which
serve the Republic.
We ask that this contribution be
recognized, in order to respect history.
And that, in school books and university
texts, the names of Pola, Fiume,
Zara, Pirano or Rovigno not be
ignored, but that they may named, and
serve to feed a brotherhood on both
sides of the Adriatic.
Of the three elements that make
up a State – nation, territory, and
institutions – the loss of the second
does not imply the cancellation of the
first. This can be confirmed in Article
51, comma two, of the Italian Constitution.
It follows naturally to include, as a
corollary to these considerations, the
aspirations of the Exiles to see a full
recognition of their rights in terms of
the abandoned properties and goods
that their ancestors acquired as fruits
of their own labor, and which a
freedom-choking regime took away
from them. In the same way, they aspire
to have these “beni abandonati” justly
repayed, by a State that is honest,
capable of recognizing its juridical and
moral obligations towards a people
who gave literally everything to their
nation. In the same spirit, our Italian
brothers who are still present in our
home region have the right to be
protected. They have kept their Italian
identity alive through great hardships.
For them, we request, starting with
bilingualism, the “protection of
diversity of identity”, one of the basic
points of European integration: Italy
was one of the founders of the
European community founded upon
these ideals, and Slovenia is currently
the temporary head.
At the end of this road to justice
there will be the reconciliation that is
our final goal. For us, Mr. President,
this is the true sense of the Day of
Remembrance.
Lucio Toth
(traduzioni di Lorie Ballarin)