Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said Tuesday that the ministry has launched an investigation into how Karl Smolle, a representative of the Slovenian minority in Austria, managed to get hold of diplomatic dispatches sent by the Slovenian embassy in Austria.
According to Rupel, an internal inquiry has been launched while later "all institutions" will be included to get to the bottom of how Smolle, a citizen of Austria, managed to come into possession of Slovenian diplomatic correspondence.
The affair began when Smolle, the vice president of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS), claimed in a recent interview for the daily Dnevnik that Slovenia was talking to Austria about a deal which would be harmful for the Slovenian minority regarding bilingual city limits in the province of Carinthia.
Smolle has also called on the ministry to publish other dispatches - he claims to hold four of them - besides the one already published to disprove his claims. The ministry rejected the call and decided to launch an investigation instead.
Rupel said that Slovenia supports the Slovenian community in Austria regardless of its various party links and ideologies. He also believes that the issue regarding bilingual place signs, in particular Smolle's statements, went beyond all bounds.
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