23 November, 2015, at 6 pm
EPEKA Space, Maribor

As part of the events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., the scientific and research association for arts, cultural and educational programmes and technology, a social enterprise, is organising a talk with a living witness of this horrific period of world history – A conversation with academic Dr Anton Vratuša.

The period will be presented by the academic Dr Anton Vratuša, whose biography and activity during the last century and even today can only be admired.

The discussion will be moderated by Mirko Munda, retired journalist of Maribor’s Večer.

The talk will be followed by a short social gathering at Romana kafenava, the first Roma restaurant to operate on the principle of social entrepreneurship.

The event is part of the EU’s Europe for Citizens programme project “Roma Genocide – Part of European History”.

Academician Dr Anton Vratuša was born on 21 February 1915 in Dolnji Slaveče, Goričko. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 1941 and in the same year defended his dissertation Levec and the Ljubljana Bell. In 1950, while working, he completed his third degree in social sciences at the Higher School of Politics in Belgrade.

He participated in the NOB from 1941. From February 1942 to September 1943, he was interned in several Italian concentration camps, and then, until the end of the war, he performed various military and political duties, including deputy commander of the Rab Brigade and representative of the OF and the General Staff of the National Liberation Front and the National Army of Slovenia to the Garibaldini in northern Italy.

After 1945, he worked in the Federation and Slovenia as Head of the Edvard Kardelj Cabinet, Director of the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade, SFRY Ambassador to the UN in New York, Deputy Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, Chairman of the Executive Council of the Assembly of the SRS, etc. He lectured at universities in Belgrade and Ljubljana. He is an Honorary Doctor of the Universities of Ljubljana and Maribor and the founder of the International Centre for Public Enterprise Management in Developing Countries in Ljubljana. Since 1985 he has been a full member of SAZU.

His academic and journalistic work has focused on the Slovenian language and literary history, and he has subsequently established himself as a diplomat and author of numerous scholarly works on international politics, the Non-Aligned Movement, self-governance or participatory decision-making, human rights, sustainable development, the law of the sea, and nationalities and national minorities.

Despite his advanced age, he is still active in several fields, day in and day out, advising, researching and writing.

For more information, visit www.epeka.si / epeka@epeka.si / www.facebook.com/epeka.slovenia