Page 98 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

The Governments of the United Kingdom Treaty enters into force, the Memorandum of
and the United States will withdraw their Understanding signed in London on 5 October
military forces from the area north of the 1954 and its annexes shall cease to have effect in
new boundary and will relinquish the ad- relations between the Republic of Italy and the
ministration of that area to the Italian Gov- Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’ (Trea-
ernment. The Italian and Yugoslav Gov- ty on the Delimitation of the Frontier 1987;
ernments will forthwith extend their civil Drašček 2005).
administration over the area for which they One of my interlocutors who was involved
will have responsibility. in the negotiations for the Treaty of Osimo re-
called: ‘Slovenia had the main word in these ne-
gotiations… it was the most interested party, es-
The Treaty also included boundary adjust-
ments. This meant the villages of Plavje/Pla- pecially due to the question of the minority…the
98 vie, Spodnje Škofije/Albaro Vescovà, Elerji/ relations with Italy were friendly, but when there
Elleri and Hrvatini/Crevatini were transferred was a strain in relations…the minority was the
most affected… this is why our aim was to have
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
to the administration of the Yugoslav Govern- ti
ment and annexed to Yugoslavia. After the sign- good relations’ (Interlocutor 15).
ing of the Memorandum, the two governments The signing of the Treaty of Osimo brought
were obliged to ‘appoint a Boundary Commis- the long frontier negotiaitons to an end and a po-
sion to effect a more precise demarcation of the litical agreement was finally reached. All the in- ta
boundary in accordance with the map at Annex ternational treaties enabled the development of
I’ (Memorandum of Understanding 1956; Troha better relations and cooperation between the
1999). two states. How these arrangements affected the
everyday reality of the border population will be
However, the border issue was not com- di
pletely resolved. Yugoslavia recognized the addressed in the following paragraphs.
Memorandum and the border as definitive by Life ‘al konfin’ [On the Border]
ratifying it, while Italy considered it to be a de-
marcation line – an inconclusive, temporary bor- In the present paper, the principal interest is
der. Ital0y never submitted the Memorandum in the inhabitants of Northern Istria living on
to Parliament for ratification to highlight the the eastern side of the new border. Life after the
Memorandum’s temporarity (Škorjanec 2006, war was still challenging for people living on here
44). As Škorjanec explained in her research into the border/demarcation line. As an interlocutor
the process of Italo-Yugoslav border negotia- remembers:
tions, the debates and proposals lasted for twen- After 1954 it changed a little bit and then
ty years. There were (secret) discussions among the conflict between individuals started.
commissions and ministries during this period. When the milestones were set, some peo-
The main actors in the process were the foreign ple were irritated, rightly so. Because it hap-
ministers and the so-called ‘group of 4’. After ne- pened that the little land they had was now
gotiations between special political agents and on two sides... in Zone B and in Yugosla-
a meeting at Strmol Castle (Slovenia), followed via... and of course it was not pleasant be-
by meetings in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Strun- cause they needed border passes so they
jan (Slovenia), and after the formal initialling in could work on their fields [the interlocutor
Belgrade, the diplomatic solution was reached in is referring to the border line between Yugo-
Osimo (Škorjanec 2006). With the final signing slavia and zone B of the FTT, note PK]. So, studiauniversitatis
of the Osimo treaties on 10 November 1975, the on the other side... they started to move the
border between the two states was finalized. Ar- stakes as they wished. There was a lot of trou-
ticle 7 determined that: ‘On the date when this ble because they were accusing each oth-