Reflections on Osimo

Ten years ago, we published this book in Italian with the aim of refocusing attention on a delicate milestone in Italian and European history, namely the Treaty between the Italian Republic and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia signed in Osimo in November 1975. This agreement, signed well out of the spotlight in a picturesque village in the Marche region – chosen, indeed, for its inaccessibility – was destined to leave a lasting impression on the collective memory and on the fate of entire communities.

Publication of this edition in English is fruit of a need to share this reflection with a wider, international audience, since the issues addressed – borders, identity, forced exodus and historical justice – transcend our own past and even our own national history. Today, more than ever, these are European, if not global, issues, are reflected in the daily news, at the heart of increasingly frequent geopolitical crises, and even in the cultural and educational discussions of many western democracies.

In recent years, we have witnessed and, unfortunately, are increasingly witnessing a dramatic return of tensions, an a European and world level, thought to be long gone: wars at the edges of the continent, new divisions between power blocs, sovereigntist movements, historical revisionism and migratory crises that are testing our consciences and institutions. All this reminds us that the lessons of the past are never permanently learned and that History, if ignored or omitted, threatens to repeat itself in new ways and with new victims.

For this reason, we decided to provide a translation of our work, originally published for the ‘Forty years after Osimo’ conference1 held in Rome in 2016. The considerations it contains, enriched over time with new ideas and thoughts, seek to shed light on a historical event too often simplified if not forgotten altogether. And yet, the Treaty signed in Osimo reflects dynamics that remain current: the importance of international diplomacy, the role of States in safeguarding their citizens, and the profound consequences of political decisions on the lives of ordinary people.

Our hope is that this English-language edition not only informs but also sparks questions, discussions and reflections among a foreign readership previously unaware of what took place on the Northern Adriatic Coast in the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, from the foibe massacres and the exodus of Istrian and Dalmatian Italians to the ideological clashes and nationalist tensions, Italy’s eastern border experienced decades of painful suffering and division, including the prospect of a Free Territory of Trieste (an independent territory intended to be managed by the United Nations and only declared illogical in conception by the London Memorandum of Understanding of 1954), a wall dividing Gorizia right down the middle like the far better-known one in Berlin, and a border in perpetual movement resulting in struggles and suffering for thousands of people. It is no surprise, then, that a full understanding of the events of that period requires a more in-depth approach to analysis and reporting of local, national and even international interpretations. Only then may we obtain the overview we need in order to truly understand the significance of what took place.

Today, in a world beset with new uncertainty and collective fragility, looking back on Osimo is a way of looking to the future, using History and memory as tools for understanding the present and navigating the future.

2025 saw Nova Gorica and Gorizia come together as European Capitals of Culture, a strikingly relevant award undoubtedly destined to seal the history of the Adriatic border, perfectly blending the people’s desire to rediscover their roots with their yearning to look to the future with optimism. For decades, these two cities were starkly divided by a barbed wire fence, fracturing the fluidity of the area, family lives and individual and collective memories, and casting a shadow over the future. The charming railway station, inaugurated in 1906 by Archduke Franz Ferdinand to link Trieste with Central Europe, now finds itself situated on the Slovenian side of an area once literally divided in two by the 1947 Treaty of Paris, marking the separation of two opposing worlds: East and West. Throughout the entire Cold War, that threshold, now home to flower pots and where you can step from one State into another, was a very symbol of ideological distance. Since 2007, that barrier has been replaced by a space uniting the two cities, known to Italians as ‘Transalpina Square’ and to Slovenians as ‘Europe Square’.

All this, however, is only possible when accompanied by an awareness of what came before, entailing respect for the various underlying interpretations, a path also chosen by the European Parliament in 2019 when it adopted a resolution on ‘the importance of European memory for the future of Europe’, equating Nazism to Stalinism and observing not the colour or content of that ideologies but, rather, its oppression, integration through terror, and hyper-trophic occupation of public space.

To paraphrase Joachim Gauck, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany: we are not responsible for our past, but we are responsible for how we relate to it. And this relationship determines our present and our future.

This book is our small contribution to mindful memory. Ten years after its first release, and fifty years after that 10 November 1975 in Osimo, our hope is that it enables readers from other countries to understand a piece of European history, in the belief that only through true awareness of the past may we hope for a more just, more cohesive and more human future.2 The debate that has arisen in recent months leading up to the anniversary, with publication of fresh and important works, confirms that we are on the right path.

This book is a translation – incorporating certain modifications and adaptations necessitated by the passage of time – of the volume published in 2018 by Cedam – Wolters Kluwer Italia under the title Quarant’anni da Osimo, edited by Davide Lo Presti and Davide Rossi as part of the CISR series.

Davide Lo Presti and Davide Rossi

This publication is the final product of a research project entitled ‘The Expropriated and Nationalised Assets of the Yugoslav Regime: New Perspectives or the End of an Illusion?’ This project, promoted by the Associazione Coordinamento Adriatico of Bologna, was financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, in accordance with Law no 72 of 16 March 2001 governing ‘Interventions for the protection of the historical and cultural heritage of the communities of Italian exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia’, with subsequent extensions and additions (Law No. 193 of 28 July 2004; Law no 269 of 27 December 2006, art 1, section 1322; Law no 191 of 23 December 2009) and the Convention stipulated on 30 November 2010 between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the Federation of Exiles’ Associations of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia.

The editors extend their heartfelt thanks to all those who made the realisation of this study possible. The entire work was conceived, discussed and edited with a unity of purpose and in the spirit of a division of tasks according to specific needs and circumstances. The author of the text is clearly indicated in each chapter.

We thank the Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (SIOI - Italian Society for International Organisation) and its President Franco Frattini for their hospitality and support.

Davide Lo Presti and Davide Rossi

The Treaty of Osimo, signed on 10 November 1975, sanctioned the (de facto) state of territorial separation created on the eastern border, first with the Peace Treaty of 10 February 1947 – which was followed by the partial, lame implementation of the Libero Territorio di Trieste (T.L.T. – Free Territory of Trieste) and the unhappy partition of Istria and Carnaro – and later with the London Memorandum of 1954, rendering the borders between Italy and the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia definitive. A lively debate arose just one day after the news of its signature, generated by the diverse and very distant opinions of those who considered it the result of Realpolitik, those who saw the Treaty as an indisputable demonstration of Italy’s ancillary role (accused of having abdicated the defence of its national interests for some time in the name of maintaining international relations with Western powers, first and foremost the United States of America), and those who simply considered this affair the most recent betrayal perpetrated by the Republic to the detriment of its citizens.

Were we not to go beyond the mere historical fact of events that have been relegated to a time distant from us, from our everyday life and even from geopolitics now devoid of its distinctive symbols (above all the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain) and permeated by a European Community increasingly open to the Balkans, remembering the events of Osimo today could, at least to many, appear merely an exercise in style, an apparently futile effort. Such a perception will, however, be proved wrong as soon as we abandon certain historical preconceptions and embark on a conscious path of in-depth examination of the events of the Treaty of Osimo, an agreement that, in all likelihood, had only a limited impact in the legal sphere – having confirmed a de facto condition that had been consolidated since the1950s – but it is, nevertheless, of exceptional interest due to the many political questions it has raised and the divergent journalistic, even more than historiographical,3 analyses it has generated.

More than forty years have passed since that cold November day in 1975 when, in a private villa in Osimo, a little-known town in the province of Ancona, and amid fears of disturbances and reprisals, the fateful treaty was signed. Four decades seem a sufficiently long period time to ensure the emotional detachment necessary to go beyond the judgements expressed and wave of disappointment among the parties directly involved,4 and try to shed fresh light on a question that still today maintains many obscure elements.

Also within the Julian-Dalmatian associations, the psychological blow was enormous and left wounds that have not yet healed completely. Many of those people were blamed for a lack of vigilance, if not outright collusion and betrayal, as was the case of Senator Paolo Barbi - President of the Associazione Nazionale Venezia Giulia e Dalmazia (A.N.V.G.D. - National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia) – who, although one of the few Christian Democrats to vote against ratification, was accused of complicity in internal party choices.

Above and beyond the veneer and the particularly simplistic interpretations, the decision taken at Osimo was a painful and difficult one, as can be seen in its difficult passage through the Italian Senate where, under the presidency of Amintore Fanfani, whose relationship with Prime Minister Aldo Moro was often tense, it was only ratified in February 1977.