(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 24 GIU - Slovenia and Croatia, today both members of the EU and Nato, will commemorate on June 25 the thirtieth anniversary of their respective declarations of independence from agonizing Yugoslavia, in 1991. The Croatian declaration initially had a symbolic value, whereas Slovenia explicitly authorized the government "to go to the facts," we read in 'The Yugoslav Wars' by the historian Joze Pirjevec.

Already on 25 June 1991, "the Slovenian police and customs officers managed to take possession without bloodshed - the book reads - of the thirty-seven border crossings with Italy, Austria, and Hungary, setting up checkpoints also with Croatia and replacing federal symbols with national ones." Thirty years ago, the decisions had severe consequences first for Slovenia, which saw with concern and anger the intervention of the Yugoslav federal army (JNA) on its territory in what was called the "ten-day war." And then for Croatia, engaged in a more prolonged, more dramatic, and bloody conflict with Belgrade, a war that cost about 20,000 dead and still has negative repercussions on relations between Serbia and Croatia.

Two Slovenian-language newspapers, Primorski Dnevnik of Trieste and Primorske Novice of Koper, came out today on newsstands with inserts and insights to celebrate the anniversary. "I want to thank the Slovenian people because they are a European example of the fight for freedom, for their land, to be a Western democracy," said the president of the FVG Region, Massimiliano Fedriga, speaking Wednesday at a ceremony for the thirtieth anniversary of Gorizia, with nearby Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture 2025. "Nova Gorica and Gorizia are two distinct cities, with different identities, and also with different histories in the last seven decades, but they have understood that together we grow better and more," said Gorizia mayor Rodolfo Ziberna. (ANSA).