FIRST VOLUME OF "CROATIA AND EUROPE" PROMOTED IN UNESCO

PARIS, April 15 (Hina) - The French edition of the first volume of the "Croatia and Europe" project of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAZU) was presented in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Friday evening.#L# On that occasion a discussion on "European Identity - Croatia's Recollections" was held. The round table was conducted by the editor-in-chief of the HAZU edition, professor Ivan Supicic, renowned French historian Jacques Le Goff, philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, writer Luise Lambrichs, the widow of the recently deceased Mirko Drazen Grmek, to whom credit should be given for initiating the French edition of that volume. The French edition of the first volume of "Croatia and Europe" covers the early Middle Ages of the history of Croatian culture, science and arts (from the 7th to 12th century). The first volume, published by the Zagreb-based AGM and the Parisian publishing house Somogy in the end of last year, was prepared under the UNESCO auspices within a programme of the world's decade of the development of culture. One of more interesting topics raised during Friday's debate was the issue about the national and universal in contemplation of intellectuals. This topic was launched by thinker Finkielkraut who insisted that the universal rather than national lay in the grounds of the modern European democracy. He cautioned that one should not forget about "duality in historic situations" which engaged intellectuals. Those situations in the beginning of the 90ties were not the same in France where the struggle for Europe was carried out in conditions of the long- standing historical privilege of the existence of the nation and for intellectuals in Croatia, Finkielkraut said. Owing to a lack of understanding of the duality of situations, French intellectuals could not understand Croatia, and this was what Finkielkraut opposed. (hina) jn ms