STA, 15 February 2020 - President Borut Pahor has expressed sadness over the "abuse of 10 February, the Foibe Remembrance Day," and regret that high representatives of Italy ignored the historical truth Slovenia and Italy established together.
Addressing a World War II commemoration on Friday in the town of Komen, not far from Slovenia's border with Italy, Pahor was quoted by his office as saying he regretted that "high representatives of the Italian state still do not respect the mutually agreed historical truth for the period between 1880 and 1956 as determined by the final report of the Slovenia and Italian mixed historic and cultural commission".
PRS na spominski slovesnosti ob 76. obletnici izgnanstva in begunstva ter 75. obletnici vrnitve.
— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) February 14, 2020
Pred spominsko slovesnostjo je predsednik republike položil venec k spomeniku padlim žrtvam v narodnoosvobodilni vojni in v izgnanstvu pred Kulturnim domom Komen. pic.twitter.com/jzfPQ4QyvQ
Sunday night the Italian neo-Fascist movement CasaPound put up banners describing World War II Partisans as assassins, issuing a protest following an attempt in December to deny the suffering of Slovenians at the hands of Fascists.
The banners were raised in Slovenian towns and villages on the eve of the Foibe Remembrance Day dedicated to the victims of post-WWII killings by Yugoslav Communists, many of whom were thrown in Karstic chasms called foibe in Italian.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry condemned the smear campaign and urged the Italian authorities to respond and "take measures in accordance with their powers"
The ministry added that Slovenia respected the Italian Foibe Remembrance Day and that it expected "the same respect for Slovenian and other victims of the resistance against the occupying Fascism, in particular civilian victims who massively perished in Italian concentration camps."
Yesterday, Pahor said that he had great hopes for the joint commemoration Italy and Slovenia are preparing to mark 100 years since the Fascists burnt down the Narodni Dom community centre of the Slovenian population in Trieste.
Pahor will attend the ceremony planned for 13 July alongside his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella. He also expects that the building, which had been renewed, would be returned to the Slovenian minority in Italy. "It should be a great day, a turning point we all will remember with joy," he said.
