REPORT ON FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE
Premise;
This short document highlights the main issues that need attention and all the normative and legislative references currently found, demonstrating the failure to fully implement and the incorrect and partial interpretation by one or more organizations, with detrimental consequences for the Free Territory of Trieste and all the organizations that signed the Peace Treaty of Paris of 1947, and who have the right to use the Free Port of Trieste.
Facts:
September 30th, 1382, marks the anniversary of the spontaneous devotional act with which the small independent city of Trieste relied on the House of Austria, which at that time in history was represented by the Duke of Habsburg, Leopold III, Trieste chose to remain free instead of becoming a colony of Venice like the other coastal towns of the northeastern Adriatic. Thus began the voluntary link between Trieste and Austria that lasted 536 years, until November 1918, with a transition of Italian sovereignty following the defeat of the Habsburg Empire during the First World War.
At the end of the Second World War (1945), Italy, accepts their defeat to the Allied and Associated Powers, therefore losing several Territories, including the greater part of Venezia Giulia, of which Trieste was a part of.
The international community understands that the Territory of Trieste represents an internationally logistic junction essential for the development of Central European countries (and not only) and that there could be a potential danger that some nations could fall subject too as a result in ”partial” policies designed to favor some realities while being detrimental to others. The persistence of these lands with a multitude of cultures and ethnic groups that characterize an intimately multicultural nature is also recognized. Therefore, having found this reality a fact, it was decided to give life to an International State with an International Port that could guarantee impartial logistic and economic policies in favor of European development and promote the protection of multiculturalism and multilingualism. This is reality of the Free Territory of Trieste and the Free Port of Trieste.
The international community actually sanctioned its commitment to this by approving the 16th UN Resolution on 10 January 1947: http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/1947 with the aforementioned resolution the United Nations Security Council takes responsibility for ensuring the integrity of the Free Territory of Trieste: “The Security Council received and examined the annexes to the proposed Treaty of Peace with Italy, with it’s creation and governance of the Free Territory of Trieste (including at the end the draft for the Free Port.
It thus registers its approval of the following three documents:
(1) The instrument for the provisional regime of the Free Territory of Trieste.
(2) The Permanent Statute of the Free Territory of Trieste
(3) The instrument for the Free Port of Trieste, and the relative acceptance of the responsibilities that are transferred on it as a result of this. ” Following the international commitment mentioned above (and in line with ) the Treaty of Peace with Italy is ratified (February 10, 1947) which contains among the various clauses also those relating to the birth of the Free Territory and Free Port (Annex VIII to the treaty). Italy signs the treaty as the losing power and as a result of this loses its sovereignty over the territories that are signed over to the new international nation (art.21), not only, it is also obliged to a considerable series of obligations and requirements that would favor the Territory Free (referring in particular to economic / financial aspects, to the supply of electricity and water, to retirement obligations, etc.).
The Treaty of Peace also imposes certain guarantees towards the Free Territory of Trieste as well as to Yugoslavia, all of which are useful obligations to ensure that the new nation cannot be isolated with its logistics, energy and financial levels from the neighboring states.
Rights:
1. -With the Belgrade agreement of June 9th 1945 between the Anglo-Americans and Yugoslavia, the occupation of the partisans of Tito ends and the Allied Military Government is established, with which the military administration is started.
2. On March 16th , 1946, the Italian Government with the decree(luogotenente no. 99) Convening of the electoral meetings for the referendum (held on June 2, 1946) the institutional form of the State and the election of deputies to the Constituent Assembly. but with the art.1 it excludes the Venezia Giulia, Trieste included, therefore six months later with the signing of Treaty of Peace of February 10 1947, it became the Free Territory of Trieste.
3.”Exceptions are made for the Electoral College of Venezia Giulia and for the Province of Bolzano, for which the convocation of the electoral meetings will be arranged with subsequent measures” *Annex.1
4. April 1946, the talks between the Allied and Associate Powers begin in Paris to define the issues with the nations that lost the war.
5. June 2nd 1946 In Italy the Referendum on the institutional form of the Italian State is held, but Trieste as per Decree 99/46 (Point 2) is excluded from the vote.
6. After the Paris talks are over, the Report is sent to the United Nations Security Council, which on January 10th 1947, with the 16th Resolution, Constitutes the Free Territory of Trieste. *Annex.2
7.February 10th 1947, Given the Resolution of the UN Security Council, Italy is invited to Paris to sign the Peace Treaty with the Allied and Associated Powers. With Article 21 it definitively lost its sovereignty over Trieste.
8. ART.21.1 – “The Free Territory of Trieste, consisting of the area lying between the Adriatic Sea and the boundaries defined in articles 4 and 22 of the present Treaty, is established under this Treaty. The Free Territory of Trieste is recognized by the Allied and Associated Powers and by Italy, which agree, that its integrity and independence will be ensured by the UN Security Council.
The Italian sovereignty over the area constituting the Free Territory of Trieste, as it is defined above, will cease with the entry into force of the present Treaty. “*Annex.3
9. As proof of this legal situation, on September 15th, 1947, in Trieste, the PROCLAMATION No. 1 was issued to the population of the Free Territory of Trieste of the British-American Zone with which the Major General, Commander of the British and American Forces (TS AIREY) the Allied Military Government as the holder of the government and administrative powers as well as the jurisdiction over the inhabitants of the area itself. *Annex.4
10. In April 1948, the signing of a first convention for economic cooperation called OECE (what we call the OECD) was signed. This convention came into force on July 28, 1948, ratified by 18 European states plus Turkey, among the founding members also the Free Territory of Trieste. The TLT is therefore fully recognized also at an economical level.
11. On October 5th, 1954, United States, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and Italy, agree for the passage from the Military Administration (GMA) to the civil administration, giving the provisional mandate of Free Territory Management of Trieste to the Italian Government. *Annex.5
12. On May 20th 1983, the Director of the United Nations Security Council responds to the letter of a citizen of the Free Territory of Trieste, arguing that the election of the Governor of the Free Territory of Trieste can be resumed only on the initiative of a member state. *Annex.6
13. On 23 October 2015, following the escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, transmitted a letter to the Security Council in July 2014 to be given by the members of the Council which drew attention to this question. The Secretary General carried out a search for historical precedents of similar situations that required various forms of protection of territories and their inhabitants. In this document on page 10 and 11 the issue of the Free Territory of Trieste is also dealt with. *Annex.7
14. The Treaty of Peace of Paris 1947 cannot be undermined, from the Treaty of Osimo Wich is a simple bilateral international agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia. *Annex.8
At the current time, there are no international treaties that have ratified the passage of the Free Territory of Trieste to the sovereignty of the Italian state.