Free Territory of Trieste

Territorio Libero di Trieste
Svobodno tržaško ozemlje
Slobodni teritorij Trsta

Independent territory under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council

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1947–1954

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Flag	Coat of arms

Capital

Trieste

Languages

English (administrative) · Italian · Slovene · Croatian · Triestine

Religion

Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Judaism

Government

UN Security Council-controlled
temporary military government

President

1947–1951

Terence Sydney Airey
Mirko Lenac

1951–1954

Thomas Winterton
Miloš Stamatović

Legislature

Council of Government (never designated)

Historical era

Cold War

Established

1947

Disestablished

1954

Currency

Italian lira (zone A)
Triestine lira (zone B)^[1]

Today part of

Croatia

Italy

Slovenia

The Free Territory of Trieste (Italian: Territorio libero di Trieste, Slovene: Svobodno tržaško ozemlje; Croatian: Slobodni teritorij Trsta; Triestine and Istrian: Teritorio Libero de Trieste) was an independent territory situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the North part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II.

The Free Territory was established on 10 February 1947 by a protocol of the Treaty of Peace with Italy in order to accommodate an ethnically and culturally mixed population in a neutral independent country. The intention was also to cool down territorial claims between Italy and Yugoslavia, due to its strategic importance for trade with Central Europe. It came into existence on 15 September 1947. Its administration was divided into two areas: one being the port city of Trieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north west (Zone A); the other, larger (Zone B) was formed by a small portion of the north-western part of the Istrian peninsula.

The Free Territory was de facto taken over by its two neighbours in 1954 and this was formalized much later by the bilateral Treaty of Osimo of 1975, ratified in 1977.^[2]

Geography

Free Territory of Trieste identity card.

The Free Territory of Trieste comprised an area of 738 km² around the Bay of Trieste from Duino/Devin in the north to Novigrad/Cittanova in the south, and had approximately 330,000 inhabitants. It bordered the new Italian Republic to the north, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the south and to the east. The rivers of the territory included the Rižana/Risano, the Dragonja/Dragogna, the Timavo/Timava, the Val Rosandra/Glinščica and the Mirna/Quieto. The Territory's highest point was at Monte Cocusso/Kokoš (668 m). Its most extreme points were near Medeazza/Medjavas at 45° 48’ in the north, at Tarski Zaliv/Porto Quieto at 45° 18’ in the south, Savudrija/Punta Salvore at 13° 29’ in the west and Gročana/Grozzana at 13° 55’ in the east.

History

World War II

Boundary between the Free Territory of Trieste (Duino-Aurisina / Devin-Nabrežina) and Italy (Monfalcone).

Italy fought with the Axis powers in World War II. When the Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 and Italy capitulated, the territory was occupied by German forces who created the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, the capital of which was Trieste. The Yugoslav 4th Army and the Slovenian 9th Corps entered Trieste on May 1, 1945, after a battle in the town of Opicina. The 2nd Division (New Zealand) of the British 8th Army arrived on the next day and forced the surrender of the 2,000 German Army troops holding out in Trieste, who warily had refused to capitulate to partisan troops, fearing they would be executed by them. An uneasy truce developed between Allied and Yugoslav troops occupying the area until British Gen. Sir William Morgan proposed a partition of the territory and the removal of Yugoslav troops from the area occupied by the Allies. Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito agreed in principle on May 23, as the British XIII Corps was moving forward to the proposed demarcation line. An agreement was signed in Duino on June 10, creating the Morgan Line. Yugoslav soldiers withdrew by June 12, 1945.^[5]^[6]

Establishment of the territory

A postage stamp for Zone B of the Free Territory, 1948.

In January 1947, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 16 under Article 24 of its charter calling for the creation of a free state in Trieste and the region surrounding it. A permanent statute codifying its provisions was to become recognized under international law upon the appointment of an international governor approved by the Quatripartite Powers. On September 15, 1947, the peace treaty between the United Nations and Italy was ratified, establishing the Free Territory of Trieste. Official languages were Italian and Slovene, possibly with the use of Croatian in the portion of Zone B south of the Dragonja river. However, the territory never received its planned self-government and it was maintained under military occupation respecting the administrative division into two zones as decided by the Morgan Line: Zone A, which was 222.5 km² and had 262,406 residents including Trieste, was administered by British and American forces, while Zone B, which was 515.5 km² with 71,000 residents including north-western Istria, was administered by the Yugoslav National Army.

Cyclists from Trieste during the 1950 Peace Race, sponsored by communist governments in East Europe (hence the Stalin portrait in the background). There had never been an official Triestine team, since almost all Triestine athletes continued to be on Italian teams, as in the cases of the boxers Duilio Loi and Tiberio Mitri, cyclist Guido De Santi, and fencer Irene Camber.

Map of the territory, showing the two zones

Between October 1947 and March 1948, the Soviet Union rejected the candidacy of 12 nominations for governor, at which point the Tripartite Powers (United States, United Kingdom, and France) issued a note to the Soviet and Yugoslav governments on March 20, 1948 recommending that the territory be returned to Italian sovereignty. No governor was ever appointed under the terms of the UN Resolution. The Territory thus never functioned as a real independent state. Even so, its formal status was generally respected and in the B zone it issued its own postage stamps. The break between the Tito government and the USSR in mid-1948 resulted in the proposal to return the territory to Italy being suspended until 1954.

The Allied Military Government administered Zone A, which was divided into peacekeeping and law enforcement sectors protected by a command of 5,000 Americans ("TRUST", the TRieste United States Troops) and 5,000 British in "BETFOR" (British Element Trieste FORce), each comprising a brigade-sized infantry force and complete support units (signals, engineers, military police, etc.)

According to the estimates published by the Allied Military Government, as of 1949 in the A zone there were about 310,000 inhabitants,^[7] including 239,200 Italians and 63,000 Slovenes. The last Austrian census of 1910/1911 registered around 72,000 Slovene and 2,000 Croatian speakers in the area, and around 160,000 Italian speakers. According to contemporary Italian sources, in zone B there were 36,000-55,000 Italians and 12,000-17,000 Slovenes and Croats. According to the Yugoslav census of 1945, which was considered falsified by the Quadripartite Commission set up by the United Nations,^[8] in the part of Istria which was to become Zone B there were 67,461 inhabitants, including 30,789 Slovenes and Croats, 29,672 Italians and 7,000 people of unidentified nationality.

Dissolution

On 5 October 1954, the London Memorandum was signed in the British capital by ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, and Yugoslavia. It gave former Zone A with Trieste to Italy for an ordinary civil administration, and Zone B, which had already had a communist government since 1947, to Yugoslavia. In addition, Yugoslavia was given several villages in the Muggia municipality that had been part of Zone A: Plavje, Spodnje Škofije, Jelarji, Hrvatini, Kolomban, Cerej, Premančan and Barizoni. The castle and village of Socerb above San Dorligo della Valle was also ceded to Yugoslavian administration, according to the demarcation line defined by Annex I to the London Memorandum.

In 1975 the bilateral Treaty of Osimo was signed in Osimo and ratified two years later, definitively stopping respective claims over the former Free Territory of Trieste by Italy and Yugoslavia, as the London Memorandum only disestablished the territory de facto, but not de jure.^[9]

Governors of the Territory

Zone A

May 1, 1945 - July 4, 1945 Maj. Gen. Bernard Cyril Freyberg (New Zealand) *

July 4, 1945 - July 4, 1947 Col. Alfred Bowman (United States)*

July 4, 1947 - September 16, 1947 Col. James Carnes (United States)*

September 16, 1947 - May 31, 1951 Maj. Gen. Terence Sydney Airey (United Kingdom)

May 31, 1951 - October 26, 1954 Maj. Gen. Thomas Winterton (United Kingdom)

Zone B

May 1, 1945 - September 15, 1947 Dušan Kveder (Yugoslavia) *

September 15, 1947 - March 15, 1951 Mirko Lenac (Yugoslavia)

March 15, 1951 - October 26, 1954 Miloš Stamatović (Yugoslavia)

*Governors of all Julian March prior to the establishment of the Territory.^[10]

Economics

The economy of the area formerly part of the territory is based on its ports, namely the Free Port of Trieste and the Port of Koper/Capodistria. The first has a peculiar free zone (nowadays also offshore) status originated in 1719^[11] and confirmed by the Treaty of Peace with Italy of 1947, which allows the transformation of goods inside the area. This status is recognised by the international community and the European Union.^[12]^[13]

An extract from the answer given by Algirdas Šemeta on August 7, 2012, on behalf of the European Commission about the Free Port of Trieste:^[12]

Annex VIII to the Treaty of peace with Italy of 10 February 1947 stipulates in its Article 1 that the port of Trieste shall be a customs free port. Article 5(2) of Annex VIII provides that in connection with importation into or exportation from or transit through the Free Port, the authorities of the Free Territory shall not levy on such goods customs duties or charges other than those levied for services rendered.^[12] [emphasis added]

The port economy is suffering from poor railway connections due to high tariffs and from the lack of a modernized infrastructure.^[14] The "Galleria di cintura" railway between the new and the old parts of the Port of Trieste were renovated and enlarged in 2010,^[15] yet it remains largely unused.

Demographics

During the late 1940s and in the years following the division of the Territory, up to 40,000 people^[16] (mostly Italians) chose to leave the Yugoslav B zone and move to the A zone or Italy for various reasons: Some were intimidated into leaving, and some simply preferred not to live in Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the people who left were called optanti ("choosing"), while they call themselves esuli ("exiles"). About 14,000 Italians chose to remain in the Yugoslav zone, currently divided between Slovenia and Croatia.

While the Free Territory of Trieste amounted to approximately 370,000 inhabitants in 1949, today's estimate is around 330,000, meaning a decrease of approximately 10.8%. In comparison, the number of inhabitants in Europe has increased considerably during the same time period, making the area a clear case of population decline, especially in the Trieste area.