The Question of 200.000 Yugosl.Avs in Austria Beograd 1947
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THE QUESTION OF 200.000 YUGOSL.AVS IN AUSTRIA BEOGRAD 1947 THE SLOVENE CARINTHIA AND THE BURGENLAND CROATS BEOGRAD 1947 D 3 1 -07- 2012/3 З Н MEMORANDUM of the Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia on Slovene Carinthia, the Slovene frontier areas of Styria and the Croats of Burgenland According to the decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers taken on December 11, 1946, in New York, - the preliminary work for the peace treaty with Austria has begun. In view of this fact, the Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia deem it necessary, in connection with the claims already submitted to the Council of Foreign Ministers in the Memorandum of February 18, 1946, to state their general views on the question of the settling of relations between the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia and the re-established Austrian State. I 1) The declaration of the Moscow Conference of October 1943 should be the starting point for all the Allied and the Associated Powers when determining their relations with post-war Austria. Two principles had been laid down in this decla ration: The re-establishing of independent Austria and the responsibility of Austria for taking part in the war on the side of Hitlerite Germany. 2) Accepting fully both principles of the Moscow Declaration, which are inse parable, the Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia wish to point out, that the responsibility and guilt of Austria for her participation in the war on the side of Hitlerite Germany consists: a) in th e making of plans and preparations for the aggres sion against Yugoslavia, for the annexation of Yugoslav territories and the germanisation of the Yugoslav popula tion. Such plans and preparations had been .made in Austria already before the Anschluss. They consisted in the revival of the old Austrian ideology on the right of the Germans to germanise Yugoslav lands, in the founding and spreading ■ of the Nazi theory on the necessity of the annihilation of the Slovene people, in the bringing up of special cadres for the regime of occupation and for the carrying out of the policy of germanisation in Yugoslavia, in the creation of special Austrian centres for the organisation of the Fifth Columm etc. All the above-stated, as well as other, preparations were strengthened even further after the Anschluss; b)in the all-round participation in the Hitlerite aggres sion against Yugoslavia. Without resistance Austria became the principal military base, whence Hitlerite Germany launched her attack against Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. The whole economic potential of Austria became a component part of the Hitlerite war potential, without resistance, too, and served fully the Hitlerite war machine. The officers commanding the Hitlerite troops, which had attacked Yugoslavia, were to a large extent Austrians. These troops were led by Austrian generals, who besides other plans, made the one for the bombing of Belgrade and carried it out. Austrian military formations and Austrian soldiers became part of the Hitlerite army and participated in the agression against and occupation of Yugoslavia. c)in the occupation of Yugoslav territories and the com mitting of war crimes aga;inst the Yugoslav population. The military, Gestapo, administrative and economic personnel in the occupied territories of Yugoslavia was organised by and consisted mostly of Austrians, who, together with Germans from the Reich, committed appalling crimes against the Yugoslav population (mass slaughters, bestial tortures, shooting of hostages, concentration camps, forced labour in Austria and Germany, deportation of the Yugoslav popula tion etc.) and plundered Yugoslav property, which was taken in the first place to Austria. 3) The Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia consider, that the causes for such a participation of Austria in the Hitlerite aggression against Yugoslavia and in the committing of such crimes against the Yugoslav peoples are to be found in the old Austrian tendencies to enslave the Yugoslav peoples, to wrench Yugoslav national territories, to germanise forcibly the Yugoslav population, tenden cies which did not disappear in the Austria created after World War I, but, on the contrary, continued to develop and grow, not only on account of the existence of aggressive forces in Austria itself, but also on account of a series of international circumstances. Among these circumstances, the leaving of a large part of the Slovene national territory — Slovene Carinthia and the Slovene frontier areas in Styria — under the Austrian yoke, and the abandonment of the Croats in Burgendland to ruhtless Austrian oppression, is of a paramount significance. Instead of putting an end, after World War I, to the age-long oppression of the Yugoslav peoples and the germani sation of Yugoslav territories by Austria, and thus dealing a death blow to her aggressive and expansionistic forces, the leaving of Slovene Carinthia and of the Croats of Burgenland under the Austrian rule raised the hopes of these aggressive forces, that they could continue their policy of conquest and germanisation of other Yugoslav territories, thus rendering the further oppression and forcible denationali sation of the Slovenes of Carinthia and the Croats of Burgenland possible. Not only this fact — the leaving of Slovene Carinthia, of the Slovene areas of Styria, and of the Croats of Burgenland under the Austrian yoke — but also the way in which this enslavement was given an international sanction, strengthened and emboldened the aggressive and expansionistic forces of Austria. The decision to hold a plebiscite in Carinthia, taken at St. Germain in 1919, sanctioned a state of affairs created by age-long germanisation; it gave formally the same rights to the germa- nisers and their Yugoslav victims, but, in fact, it favoured the germanisers by leaving their economic, social and political positions, obtained by force, untouched; it inflicted a crying injustice on Yugoslavia, and created a more favourable situation for Austria, because it separated without justification from the plebiscite territory a purely Slo vene territory, the Zila Valley (Gailtal), handing it to Austria, and the predominatly Slovene territory of the Kanal Valley (Valcanale), handing it to Italy, and the Mežica Valley and Jezersko, also purely Slovene territories, handing them to Yugoslavia before the plebiscite, thus reducing artificially and according to plan the number of Slovenes; the drawing of the plebiscite lines (the separation of economic centres) enabled the germanisers to augment their political and economic pressure on the Slovene inhabitants and exploit, in favour of Austria, their economic dependence on the Austrian industrialists and big landowners; by a series of administrative and technical measures it rendered possible gross forgeries in favour of Austria; finally, in spite of the resuit, which — under such conditions — gave Austria 59% (22.025) of votes, and Yugoslavia 41% (15.279), the whole plebiscite area was Jianded over to Austria. The fate of Slovene Carinthia, after World War I, was greatly affected by the interference of imperialistic Italy, who strongly supported the Austrian pretensions. it was Italy who insisted that a large part of Slovene Carinthia, the Zila Valley, should become a part of Austria, and the Kanal Valley, a part of Italy, without any plebiscite. Italy, as the nearest of the great powers carrying out the plebiscite, gave Austria other advantages, which enabled her to seize Slovene Carinthia. Slovene Carinthia, on account of its geographic position, was a good base for an attack on Yugoslavia, and this was one of the reasons for the insistance of Italy, that Austria should become a partner in her aggressive plans for the encirclement of Yugoslavia. Later, Slovene Carinthia became the starting point for the linking up of Italian and German expansionistic tendencies directed towards the Balkans. The sanctioning of the age-long germanisation and conquest of Slav territories by Austria, encouraged the Teutonic expansion towards the East, paving the way to the policy of Munich and the breaking out of World War II. 4) Bearing in mind the decisions of the Anti-Hitlerite Coalition, the interests of peace and the creation of democratic and good relations between Yugoslavia and Austria, the Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia consider it necessary to liquidate the sources of aggression in Austria. Every hindering of the union of Slovene Carinthia and the Slovene areas of Styria with the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, and the denying of the rights of the Croats of Burgenland, is not only a support given to the Austrian and Nazi aggressive germa- nising traditions, but is a hindrance for the true democratisation of Austria, the building of her free and independent state, and the establishment of correct relations with Yugoslavia, with which she is bound to co-operate closely. mz* 1 9 ^*>»/0»«^ The Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia base their demand for the union of Slovene Carinthia and the Slovene areas of Styria with Yugoslavia, and the protection of the national rights of the Burgenland Croats, which derive from the principles and decisions of the Anti-Hitlerite Coalition and are inspired by the interest of building a democratic peace, on historical, ethnical, geo graphic and economic facts, and the contribution of the peoples of Yugoslavia, and of the Yugoslavs in Austria in particular, to the struggle against the German aggres sors. These facts were already exposed in the Memorandum of February 18, 1946 The Government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia deem it necessaiy to point out again: 1) The present-day Slovene Carinthia is only a remnant of the former, several times larger, Slovene territory. Austria wrenched a large part of this territory by force from the Slovene people and germanised it. The first Slovene state — Caran- tania — was situated on this territory.