FRANKFURT, Oct 18 (Hina) - As part of the Book Fair, a conference was held in Frankfurt on Friday under the headline "National Sovereignty - Historic Task of Our Time" focusing on the political concept in the works of Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman.
FRANKFURT, Oct 18 (Hina) - As part of the Book Fair, a conference
was held in Frankfurt on Friday under the headline "National
Sovereignty - Historic Task of Our Time" focusing on the political
concept in the works of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. #L#
The talks were attended by Jozef Ehrenkranz from the Centre
for Christian-Jewish Understanding in the United States, Professor
Adolf Hampel with the Guennzen University, Croatian Deputy Foreign
Minister Ivo Sanader and director of the Croatian Information and
Culture Bureau, Ivan Bekavac.
Rabbi Ehrenkranz stressed he had read with great interest
Tudjman's book "The Horrors of War", and had visited Croatia on
several occasions.
He expressed his satisfaction that he had finally obtained the
truth about Croats in World War II, as in opposition to the negative
allegations spread by enemies of Croatia during the Second World
War.
Professor Adolf Hampel stressed Tudjman's excellent
acquaintance of problems of national minorities in the whole of
Europe, and pointed out his expertise as a historical scientist in
his political function.
Sanader began his address with an expression of gratitude to
Rabbi Ehrenkranz for his efforts to spread the historical truth
about Croats during WWII.
Publishing company "Narodne Novine" presented at the Book Fair
on Saturday a book "Thought of Croatian Freedom", a compilation of
fragments from Franjo Tudjman's books written in the period from
1957 to 1990.
The sub-title of the book is "From National Imperil to State
Independence".
The book's editor, Bekavac, said the book displayed a summary
of Tudjman's basic ideas about the rights of small peoples,
boundaries between civilisations, European integrations, Croatia's
history and freedom, about Croatia's environment.
Tudjman had published about 10,000 pages of scientific and
political texts about these issues, and they were all connected by
the thought of Croatia's freedom, which gave the book its name,
Bekavac said.
Historian Andjelko Mijatovic said that in his historical
research, Franjo Tudjman not only advocated the freedom for the
Croat people, but also the sovereignty and freedom for all small and
big peoples, starting from the fact that the freedom of all nations
in general depended on their national sovereignty.
Mijatovic said that already in the 50's, in the book "War
Against War", Tudjman had pointed out that the fate of small peoples
was in their own hands, that it did not depend on the plans, will or
omnipotence of their aggressor .
His further research of this issue were presented in the book
"Big Ideas and Small Nations" published in 1969 and in the book "
Issue of Nationality in Modern Europe" issued in 1981.
Mijatovic stressed that in his works, Tudjman had always
pointed to the fact that small nations could not be melted into a
national, holistic pot and lose their national sovereignty.
On the eve of the Soviet intervention in the Czech Republic in
1968, Tudjman was warning at congresses in Bratislava and Prague
that national sovereignty and the right of nations to freedom had
become the basic postulate of international relations in the modern
world. Apart from the unsolved Croatia's nationality issue, in his
texts from the 80's Tudjman warned about two dozen nationality
issues in Europe, of small nations, as well as big nations, such as
Germany.
(hina) lm jn
181850 MET oct 97