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Identity construction <strong>in</strong> the Balkan region - Austrian <strong>in</strong>terests and <strong>in</strong>volvement <strong>in</strong> a historical perspective<br />
aga<strong>in</strong>st “the Serb” who was defi ned as a “descendant of Gavrilo Pr<strong>in</strong>cip”, both nationalist<br />
and seen as responsible for the south-Slavic type of communism. To communicate this<br />
anti-Serb and pro-Croat sentiment <strong>in</strong> an easy ma<strong>in</strong>stream way one must know that the<br />
Austrian state television ORF for some time employed and gave voice to prom<strong>in</strong>ent<br />
exiled Ustashi such as Stjepan “Stipe” Tomičić, who changed his name to Alfons Dalma<br />
when he started his post-Ustasha career. Under this name he was editor-<strong>in</strong>-chief for<br />
current political aff airs <strong>in</strong> the most important media of the country between 1967 and<br />
1974 and left pro-Croat sympathies.<br />
Politically it was the time just aft er the conservative Christian Democrats (ÖVP) took<br />
over the foreign m<strong>in</strong>istry with Alois Mock <strong>in</strong> the key function. Although the coalition<br />
government together with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) was led by one of them, foreign<br />
politics were <strong>in</strong> the hands of a radical right and conservative w<strong>in</strong>g of the ÖVP. Th e<br />
masterm<strong>in</strong>d beh<strong>in</strong>d Alois Mock was a man called Andreas Khol, whose political ideology<br />
was strengthened under the secessionist movement <strong>in</strong> South Tyrol/Alto Adige aga<strong>in</strong>st<br />
the central state of Italy. One member of parliament with<strong>in</strong> the ÖVP fraction, Felix<br />
Ermacora, openly asked if Slovenia would like to become the 10th Austrian federal state,<br />
hence us<strong>in</strong>g the territorial dis<strong>in</strong>tegration of Yugoslavia to expand Austrian state territory<br />
accord<strong>in</strong>g to historical patterns. Ljubljana offi cials were not amused, as one can imag<strong>in</strong>e.<br />
On the side of the parliamentary opposition there was a small green parliamentary<br />
group, hold<strong>in</strong>g ten seats. Two of them belonged to members of the national m<strong>in</strong>ority<br />
of Croats with<strong>in</strong> Austria. In 1991 it turned out that one former Austrian green<br />
parliamentarian, Karl Smolle, from a Christian Slovene m<strong>in</strong>ority organization, became<br />
the fi rst ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, even when Slovenia was not yet<br />
recognized as a state.<br />
Geopolitically Austrian politics regard<strong>in</strong>g Yugoslavia and its dissolution functioned<br />
as a test<strong>in</strong>g ground for German foreign politics. What the German m<strong>in</strong>ister for foreign<br />
aff airs, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, did not dare to postulate, Mock expressed openly. So<br />
Austrian foreign policy fl ew kites for Germany to check if the United States would<br />
accept the aim of the German-Austrian axis to help <strong>in</strong> the division of Yugoslavia and<br />
thus to ga<strong>in</strong> economic and political <strong>in</strong>fl uence, especially <strong>in</strong> the northern republics.<br />
On the 20 June 1991 one could clearly see this function of Austrian foreign policy.<br />
Only one day before US Secretary of State, James Baker, was <strong>in</strong> Belgrade to tell all<br />
six leaders of the respective republics that the USA would not recognize Croat and<br />
Slovene <strong>in</strong>dependence, as had been announced <strong>in</strong> Zagreb and Ljubljana (and put <strong>in</strong>to<br />
practice) for the forthcom<strong>in</strong>g days, Austrian foreign m<strong>in</strong>ister Alois Mock went to<br />
Berl<strong>in</strong> to a meet<strong>in</strong>g of the Council of the Conference on Security and Cooperation<br />
<strong>in</strong> Europe (CSCE; today known as the OSCE: Organization for Security and Cooperation<br />
<strong>in</strong> Europe) to prepare for suspension of Belgrade’s membership from of the<br />
<strong>in</strong>ternational organization. Mock took the Slovene “foreign m<strong>in</strong>ister” Dimitrij Rupel as<br />
a camoufl aged person <strong>in</strong> the Austrian delegation to Berl<strong>in</strong> to openly aff ront Belgrade.<br />
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