Commemoration for Janko Vranyczany: A man of strong Croatian identity, open to the world

“Croatia is a full-fledged member of the EU and NATO family. The work that Janko Vranyczany Dobrinović had begun is now finished. He was a man of strong Croatian identity, yet at the same time free and open to the world...

“Croatia is a full-fledged member of the EU and NATO family. The work that Janko Vranyczany Dobrinović had begun is now finished. He was a man of strong Croatian identity, yet at the same time free and open to the world” – are some of the words that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić, expressing condolences to his family, used to describe the bard of Croatian diplomacy at today’s commemoration.

She recalled, among other things, that Vranyczany had been representing Croatia in Brussels since October 1991 as the head of the Croatian Office for Relations with the EC and NATO, and later, after Croatia’s recognition, as the Croatian ambassador to the EU and NATO.

“Even at the age of 71, when he became a diplomat, he was working with the same energy and enthusiasm as someone who was just starting his career,” Pusić said, recalling that when he lived to see the achievement of his goals, Vranyczany said: Now you can carry on by yourselves.

Pusić said that many had learned from this great diplomat, awarded, among others thing, by the Grand Oder of the King Dmitar Zvonimir.

The commemoration for Janko Vranyczany, who passed away in Brussels on 6 May at the age of 95, was attended by numerous Croatian and foreign diplomats, including Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, who, recalling working with ‘a citizen of the world, but first and foremost a Croat’, said: “I will remember him with a broad smile. He was a class unto himself.”

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