Croatia is manipulating… …to get half of the Piran Bay

The Piran Bay has never been Croatian By the Treaty of Osimo from 1975 Slovenia has territorial exit to open sea through the maritime border between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Italy to the point T5 in the West and the line between the Savudrija cape and T6 in the East. Croatia wants the part of the Slovenian sea that is marked with red on the picture. Why?

Croatia wants half of the Piran Bay, because… maybe Croatia’s aim is to be the key player on the former Yugoslavian territory and it’s in its interest to break down Slovenia’s strategic position. the important Slovenian port of Koper is competing with Croatian ports. in 2007 the Croatian government gave a Croatian oil company concession to explore if there is any oil and gas in the Northern part of the Adriatic Sea near the Slovenian border – a border that Croatia onesided puts in the middle of the Piran Bay.

Croatia wants to solve the border issue strictly by international law, because… …the administrative border today between Slovenia and Croatia, technicly gives Croatia a chance to get half of the bay, even if the bay never has been under Croatian jurisdiction. Why?

Croatia has got a chance to get half of the Piran Bay by international law, because… during the totalitarian regime of Yugoslavia, Croatia has administrativly slowly grabbed for Slovenian land: The red border on the picture is the old Slovenian-Croatian border being on maps in the 50’s and 60’s, at the Mirna river. In and outside the circle, the lower border is the Slovenian Municipality of Piran’s former border. Croatia claims the upper border in the circle today goes strictly at the Dragonja river, in spite of the fact that land and villages in the yellow part in the circle are still under Slovenian jurisdiction.

The Slovenian-Croatian border at the Mirna river in the Swedish encyclopaedia from Norstedts in 1962

The changing of the border was forced upon the people When the Croatian Municipality of Buje took a third of the Municipality of Piran, and the assessment municipalities Kaštel and Savudrija became Croatian, the people of Savudrija wrote a petiton and argued that they wanted back under the Municipality of Piran. But they and the then president of the municipal council of Piran, Davorin Ferligoj, were rejected with the words that they demolish the unity between the Yugoslavian nations where no borders shall exist. The picture shows the old border of the Municipality of Piran - now the silly border goes on the coastline on the upper half of the peninsula.

Other forced changes of the border When the Slovenian village of Štrigova was annexed to Croatia in 1947, 70 Slovenes were massacred during the protest against the annexation. When Istria, which historically was a Slovenian speaking territory, was annexed to Croatia after the 2nd World War, many Slovenians there and on the Kvarner Islands argued against it. Being accused of anti-government activities many Slovenians from the town of Reka and other parts of Istria were sent to prison and to Goli otok,”barren island”, the Yugoslavian Gulag.

Croatia is slowly crawling upwards chewing Slovenian territory… Istria with the Kvarner Islands historically was one of the Slovenian speaking territories (see the map of Slovenian lands) Istria was a part of the Slovenian Duchy of Carniola under the Austrian Empire. the last historically indisputable internationally recognized border is the border between the Austrian Empire and Hungarian Kingdom. After WW2 the by Italy occupied Istria was annexed to Yugoslavia in return for annexation of other Slovenian speaking territory to Italy. …It is Croatia that officially claims half of the Piran Bay, which never was Croatian, and not Slovenia that officially claims back Istria.

Slovenia wants the border dispute to be solved by ”ex aequo et bono”, the principle of justice, but… …Croatia refuses. As the administrative border on land has changed the way described, Croatia has better chance to get what it wants by strict international law, counting on enforced fact, not taking into consideration how the borders historically changed. …without the ex aequo et bono it is possible that Croatia gets what never belonged to it, instead of Slovenia getting back the former part of Municipality of Piran, which would be an elegant solution of the problem taking the Treaty of Osimo into consideration.

Croatia is manipulating by… including inaccurate Slovenian-Croatian borders in its Accession Documents to the EU (leading to Slovenia blocking Croatia’s EU-negotiations) – if Slovenia would accept them it wouldn’t have a chance at the Court in the border issue. calling the border issue a bilateral problem that has nothing to do with Croatia’s accession into EU and getting international support in that – knowing that it puts Slovenia against the wall if Slovenia would have to accept that, for the reason mentioned at the point above. accepting mediation by EU only if Slovenia before that cancels the blockation of Croatia’s EU-negotiations – knowing that it to Slovenia would mean the same as at point one.

Since the independence Croatia has also … taken onesided actions alongside the Slovenian-Croatian border despite agreements that neither Slovenia nor Croatia would do so until the border issue is solved. erased the Slovenian minority in Croatia from the Croatian constitution in 1997 saying it’s not an autochthonous minority.