Following the KHD's scientific symposium, people met to lay a wreath at the memorial plaque for the fallen on both sides from the days of the border fighting over the years 1918 and 1919 on the cemetery wall of Völkermarkt. The honorary chairman of the homeland service, Doctor Josef Feldner, recalled this in his commemorative words, that reconciliation, as the Carinthian Consensus Group has been pushing forward for years, must be a lengthy and sustainable process. And the chairman of the General Majster Association Vladimir Ovnic explained, that Slovenia is also willing to take this path of reconciliation.
In the afternoon of the same day we met in Bleiburg/Pliberk, where the Carinthian Homeland Service held its traditional “Meeting of Cultures” for the first time in the Slovenian Kulturni Cathedral. The choice of this venue was also intended by the Carinthian Homeland Service as a sign of opening up to the Slovenian ethnic group, but did not meet with undivided understanding everywhere.
On the one hand, some representatives of the German Carinthian majority population apparently stayed away, On the other hand, there was little sympathy for the organizers from the local representatives of the Slovenian minority. This went so far, that an extremely loud private parallel event was allowed in the same building, the musical performances of the cultural groups from the Canal Valley, from Slovenia itself and from Carinthia.
Nevertheless, this meeting of cultures was also a well-attended and sociable event, the singing is particularly important for their success- and music groups from all three different regions of the Alps-Adriatic region contributed.
Overall, the Carinthian Homeland Service has once again shown itself with these events, that, on the one hand, as a bearer of the tradition of defensive struggle and referendum, he wants to continue a conciliatory processing of historical events in dialogue with former opponents and, on the other hand, he wants to develop new dimensions of contemporary homeland security.
Post cover photo: Wikipedia/Neithan9/public domain
