Korcok: Bologna Rehabilitated Dubcek with Honorary Doctorate

Bologna, November 27 (TASR) - Slovakia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (a Freedom and Solidarity/SaS nominee) participated in a ceremony at Bologna University past week to mark the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Alexander Dubcek, held 33 years after he was granted an honorary doctorate, TASR learnt from the Foreign Ministry communication department. "In November 1988, on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of its founding, it was precisely Bologna University that gave Dubcek international rehabilitation by granting him an honorary doctorate," said Korcok in his speech. From that moment, according to Korcok, Dubcek regained his personal and general social dignity. His honour from Bologna was followed by many other honorary doctorates and international awards. For example, in 1989, the European Parliament awarded Dubcek the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. "Bologna University was the beginning of Dubcek's return to public life, at a time when normalisation and the communist regime were still continuing. It's enriching to see that Italy still preserves its relationship and sympathy with Alexander Dubcek," emphasised the head of Slovak diplomacy. The participants in the event included former Italian premier and president of the European Commission Romano Prodi, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Piero Fassino and Emeritus Professor of Bologna University Guido Gambetta, who was involved in granting the honorary doctorate to Dubcek and enabling him to visit Bologna. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio gave a video speech to the event, and part of a letter from the former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano was read according to the Slovak Foreign Ministry. Before the main event, Foreign Minister Korcok laid a wreath at the bust in Bologna's Alexander Dubcek Park, and visited an exhibition of photographs with the title: "Alexander Dubcek, Symbol of the Czechoslovak Spring" in the hall where Dubcek was awarded his honorary doctorate in 1988. Alexander Dubcek is considered one of the most important Slovak politicians because he served as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from January 1968 to April 1969, and so became a symbol of the reforms known as the Prague Spring, which culminated in 1968. This democratisation process was forcibly ended by the military intervention of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact in August 1968. Dubcek had to leave his position under pressure from the Kremlin. Historians regard this as the beginning of the normalisation process in former Czechoslovakia. After the Velvet Revolution, Alexander Dubcek became speaker of the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia in December 1989. mcs/am