Euromaidan in English <https://www.facebook.com/EnglishMaidan>
A letter from Prof. Haran to the Editors of the Guardian.
Dear Sir/Madame,
Please find below my response to the article written by Mr. Seumas
Milne published by the Guardian this week.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/05/clash-crimea-western-expansion-ukraine-fascists
Once a great British politician who didn't allow his nation to succumb
to Hitler's aggression Winston Churchill remarked: "The fascists of
the future will be called anti-fascists". This maxima is deliberately
neglected by Seumas Milne who in his column for the Guardian follows
all kind of falsifications and propaganda stamps that Kremlin uses to
justify its sneak aggression against Ukraine and plans to annex
Crimean peninsula.
Mass protest of Ukrainians against corrupt and bloody regime of Viktor
Yanukovych which was called the Euromaidan was all but a rally of
far-right extremists in quest of imposing one nation exclusive rule
over all other ethnic groups in Ukraine. Although many Ukrainian
nationalists passionately joined the protest against Yanukovych's
plans to get Ukraine into Moscow-led Customs Union instead of signing
a beneficial future-oriented Association Agreement with the EU Maidan
was a place of multinational national solidarity in the face of
repressions. One shouldn't forget that Sergey Nigoyan, first victim of
police ruthlessness among Maidan defenders was ethnic Armenian who
came to support protest in Kyiv from Russian-speaking Dnipropetrovsk
region in Eastern part of the country. Jews actively joined ranks of
protesters and a religious Jew headed one of Maidan self-defense units
passing command status to his Ukrainian deputy every Friday after the
sunset for Sabbath time.
Crimean Tatars a Sunni-Muslim ethnic group that ruled in Crimea before
it was captured by Russian Empire in 1783 were en mass backing Maidan
since its early days and now decisively oppose secession of the
peninsula let alone its accession to the Russian Federation. They
still remember how in 1944 all their people were forcefully moved to
Central Asia under Stalin's order with their land and houses
transferred to ethnic Russians. That is where domination of Russian
population of Crimea stems from.
Not a single representative of ethnic or other minorities has yet
complained about the worsening of its position after the victory of
Ukrainian democratic revolution. Instead, they articulated their will
to have an Association Agreement with the EU signed as soon as
possible, which will bring additional safeguards against any
discrimination or violation of human rights. Moreover it is with the
deployment of Russian troops in Crimea that swastika signs appeared on
the walls of synagogue in Simferopol an administrative center of the
autonomy. And it is chief rabbi of Ukraine Jacov Dove Bleich who
publicly stepped up with the idea to hold the G7 summit in Kyiv to
display support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
One risks real logic conflict stipulating that rabbi could
theoretically dare speak in favor of government dominated by neo-Nazi
as Mr. Milne claims.
References to some clumsy comments made by some second-tier participants
of Maidan are weak arguments in favor of Russian blunt military
intervention. Any objective student of history would recall Nazi's
response to the Prague's assertive cultural policy as an excuse to annex
German-dominated Sudetenland by the Third Reich. Ukrainian nationalists
did already get a lesson of tolerance and moderation facing the
challenge of keeping the country's territorial integrity.
Under consistent European supervision Ukraine can introduce enough
guarantees for protection and development of its cultural and ethnic
diversity. But all these will be crossed by lack of Western robust
response to Russian aggression that would teach all nations that force
and triumph of will are again a shorter way to their dreams and
aspirations than dialogue and rule of law. Hope we still remember the
consequences of such developments for the continent.
Olexiy Haran
Professor of Comparative Politics,
Founding Director,
School for Policy Analysis
University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy
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