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Ambassador Martin Butora

At the end of May, we bade farewell to Ambassador Martin Butora and his wife Zora, who are leaving for Slovakia today after completing their tour of duty in the United States, which has lasted more than four years. Those have been very exciting years, filled with official and unofficial meetings, endless days and nights devoted to improving Slovakia's standing in the US and strengthening the Slovak-American relations, broadening the ranks of Slovakia's friends in the United States.

During his entire stay in the United States, Ambassador Butora has relentlessly fought for Slovakia's inclusion into Euro-Atlantic structures. His efforts were rewarded by invitation of Slovakia to both NATO and EU, inter alia by an overwhelming support of the US Senate for Slovakia's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

Almost five hundred guests came to say personal good-byes and best wishes to Ambassador Butora and his wife Zora during their farewell reception at the Embassy last week, which was just one of many farewell events for this remarkable couple. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Carter; Heather Conley, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; and Robert Bradtke, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs offered their words of praise and admiration for the work and achievements of Ambassador Butora. Representatives of the Slovak American Society of Washington announced that their two scholarships would be given this year in honor of the ambassadorial couple, one in honor of Martin Butora, one in honor of Zora Butorova.

Ambassador Butora was one of the co-founders and leaders of the Public against Violence, the leading Slovak movement in the Velvet Revolution against communism. From 1990-1992, he served as the Adviser for Human Rights to President Vaclav Havel. In 1993-1994, he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. In 1991-1998, he taught as an associate professor of sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague and Trnava University, Slovakia. In 1994-1996, he was the President of the Slovak P.E.N. Club. In 1995-1997, he coordinated a research project based on videotestimonies of Holocaust survivors from Slovakia in cooperation with the Fortunoff Video Archive at Yale University. In 1996-1998, he was the co-editor of Global Reports on Slovakia, comprehensive analyses of Slovakia's development. In 1997, he co-established and became the President of a public policy research think-tank - Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) in Bratislava, Slovakia. Since February 1999 until May 2003, he had served as the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the USA.

In 1999, he was awarded the Democracy Service Medal by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC.

He is author of several books, including two sociological monograhps and three fiction books, studies and articles on post-communist transformation, civil society, non-governmental organizations, political behavior, foreign policy issues, ethnic and nationalism issues, anti-Semitism, value orientations.

His wife, Zora Butorova, is a sociologist and author, one of the leading personalities in public opinion polling and gender studies in Slovakia.

--Press Office, Embassy of Slovakia

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