Prehajati meje : vpogledi v nastanek in razvoj kulture dialoga in miru v prostoru Alpe-Jadran

slovenian

2014

volume 24, issue 1

Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Using historical and other sources the article illustrates the fact that the Alps-Adriatic region, founded in Venice on 22th November 1978 by the Working Community of the same name, has remained an important "crystallizing point of European integration" to this day. In the 35 years of its existence the Alps-Adriatic project has presented a unique case of creation of a culture of dialogue and peace, hiding in itself the lesson of the Second World War - to shake off the threat that totaliarianism, genocide and after-war violence pose to humanity. Its uniqueness consists in the fact that in the cold-war period it worked hard in favour of cross-border contacts and cooperation among people, regions and countries of different ideological, political and economic views. Also after the collapse of communist regimes the Alps-Adriatic project presented an important agent in the reshaping of conflicts into non-violent form. The article points out that these efforts could only began to be fully implemented with clear definition and recognition of state borders, brought about by the London memorandum in 1954 (which was finally ratified by the Osimo Agreements of 1975), by the Austrian State Treaty (1955) and by the Udine Agreement (August 1955), which provided for (partial) crossing of state borders. The fact that the territory of the Udine Agreement spread towards the north up to Austria, influenced also many subsequent interventions aimed at the strengthening of mutual relationships, among others the founding of the Conference of security and cooperation in Europe, which had an essential role in the elimination of the "iron curtain". It is not a coincidence that since the mid-1960s the Alps-Adriatic region has contributed to the creation of a new vocabulary of spatial policy with topoi like: "the mission of integrating nations", "promotion of neighbourly contacts", "bridge of friendship between three neighbourly states": national minorities were not to be considered as crystallizing points of tensions and conflicts among countries but first and foremost as "human capital" for cross-border cooperation. A significant role in the transformation of the Alps-Adriatic region from "territory of conflict" into "territory of dialogue and peace" was played before its formal foundation, i.e. since 1950 by the Slovene (and other) border minority communities. The article points out that this transformation was first based on the policy of oblivion. This was not about some damnatio memoriae or "suppression", but above all about mitigation of conflict potentials in the atmosphere of live history, to the benefit of prevention of retributive measures and vindictive feelings, of social and political recovery, and of paving the way for the future. From the 1960s on there has been a turnabout in the direction of the remembrance boom. An important role in this sense was played by the students' movements, which expressed the cathegorical imperative "Auschwitz never again" (Th. W. Adorno) and were mostly anti-war and peace-oriented. Since the 1990s this turnabout has been expressed especially in the cultivation of the remembrance of the victims of Nazism and Stalinism which implies the assumption that also seemingly unfriendly enemies can live with each other, not against each other or just side by side. The existence of tradition or a scheme of conscious or unconscious memory and its Europeanization had and has in that context a strong evocative power.

21.09.2015