European Parliament recognizes Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians
IRINA MIROCHNIK
The European Parliament voted for a resolution recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
507 deputies voted in favor, 12 voted against.
The adopted resolution expresses solidarity with the people of Ukraine and honors the memory of the millions of people who died as a result of the purposeful actions of the Stalinist regime to organize an artificial famine.
“The European Parliament recognizes the Holodomor, the artificial famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, caused by the conscious actions of the Soviet regime, genocide against the people of Ukraine; strongly condemns such actions of the totalitarian Soviet regime, which led to the death of millions of Ukrainians, and significantly undermined the foundations of the Ukrainian the text of the resolution.
Ukraine calls on the world to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 organized by Stalin’s regime as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. To date, 22 states have done so.
Why is it important for Ukraine that the world recognizes the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide
Genocide of the Ukrainian people
The recognition of the Holodomor as genocide is, first of all, the establishment of truth, historical and legal justice, says Ivan Petrenko, candidate of historical sciences, deputy director of the Holodomor Research Institute: “This is recognition and condemnation at the world level of the fact that the Russian communist totalitarian regime deliberately And the whole world, accordingly, should know and understand the criminal essence of Moscow, which it is trying to cover up with the falsification of history and various political lies.”
“Moscow is showing its criminal nature even today against Ukrainians. And today it is committing genocide of Ukrainians, and this became possible, not least because the civilized world, for the most part, delayed recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, flirted with Moscow, turned a blind eye to its crimes.
On November 16, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appealed to the parliaments of the states of the world to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-33 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
“Both then and now, Russia tried to impose its will on Ukraine, and when faced with resistance, it decided to resort to brute, undisguised force and genocide. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls on the parliaments of the world’s states to restore historical justice and recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 to Ukraine as a crime of genocide Ukrainian people. This will be an important signal to all the forces in the world that can take new genocidal actions, and a significant contribution to ensuring a peaceful and secure future for future generations,” the Ukrainian parliament said in a resolution.
Who in the world has already recognized the Holodomor?
The European Parliament may recognize the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people during a vote scheduled for December 15, 2022. This is stated in the agenda of the meetings of the European Parliament.
On November 30, the German Parliament recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The resolution was supported by deputies of four parties. Among other things, the deputies call on the federal government to continue to politically support the memory of the victims of the Holodomor and its international publicity, as well as to continue to strongly oppose any attempts to launch unilateral Russian historical narratives,” the deputies said in a statement on the website of the Bundestag.
On November 24, the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was recognized as a genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Parliament of Moldova and the Upper House of the Parliament of Ireland. “A truly historic decision by the Senate of Ehren (upper house of the Parliament of Ireland – ed.) to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Ireland is one of our closest friends who are not afraid to call a spade a spade,” the embassy said in a statement.
The Moldovan parliament recognized the Holodomor as “a consequence of planned measures with the deliberate destruction of opponents of the communist regime and a key instrument of the policy of enslavement of those times.”
Earlier, the same decision was made by the Romanian Parliament. MP from the ruling National Liberal Party, Alexandru Muraru, noted that they came to states that recognize and take on not only the memory of the famine of 1932-1933, but also “recognition of the genocide, systematic actions, direct, cynical, criminal actions of the Soviet Union and its leaders for the physical destruction of the Ukrainian nation”.
The Holodomor has already been recognized as genocide of the Ukrainian people by Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Australia, the Vatican, Brazil, Georgia, Ecuador, Estonia, Canada, Colombia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the USA, Portugal, and Germany.
According to Ivan Petrenko, the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide by the world community should help bring Russia to legal, historical, economic responsibility, to pay Ukraine the relevant material compensation: “This should help ensure that this crime never happens again. The world should condemn Russia, promote its political reformatting and disarmament.”
“The process of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide was constantly subjected to insane obstacles from Russia, whose agents and money were involved in slowing down the recognition and spreading the truth about this crime. Also, during certain periods of the development of independent Ukraine, Ukrainian political regimes that pursued a pro-Russian, anti-state policy, also significantly hampered the recognition process.
According to the historian, Ukraine must continue to make efforts so that the world recognizes the Holodomor as genocide: “For the international community to recognize the terrorist, criminal essence of Russia, to carry out appropriate political and legal procedures,” says Ivan Petrenko, “which should make Russia one way or another answer for the crimes against Ukrainians who do not have a statute of limitations.”
Events for the 90th anniversary of the tragedy
An event in memory of the victims of the Holodomor “Hunger as a weapon: its long-term consequences for man and human development” was held at the UN Headquarters in New York. In the West, in particular, there was talk of the Russian regime’s use of hunger as a weapon of mass destruction.
A conference on crimes was also held in Turkey in 1932-1933. Bashkent University (Ankara). “Every year in Turkey, more and more people learn about this terrible tragedy. Publications are published, stories appear on television, scientific and student circles are increasingly interested in this issue,” Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey Vasily Bodnar wrote on his Facebook page. “Our task today “not just to expel the infidels from our land, but also to deprive them of the opportunity to continue to commit evil on a global scale. The key here is to bring the Russian Federation to legal responsibility for crimes in Ukraine, as well as other states.”
The National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holodomor presented the exhibition “Leisa, who saw the Holodomor”. The museum showed the original album with photographs of Kharkov in 1933 and the camera with which they were taken. These items belonged to the Austrian engineer Alexander Wienerberger, who worked in Kharkov at the Plastmass plant in 1932-1933. He secretly photographed hungry and starving people, lines for bread, mass graves. In 1934 he took the film to Austria. Wienerberger gave the Austrian cardinal an album with photographs of Moscow, Crimea and Kharkov. Subsequently, the photographs were published in the printed memoirs of the engineer.
Historian Yaroslav Hrytsak said that there is almost no discussion among Ukrainian historians whether the Holodomor is genocide.
“Most of the historians I know are on the thesis that the Holodomor was a genocide. I also think so. Discussions arise in connection with the latest publications of Grigory Kasyanov, where he questions this. But I think that these discussions are more scientific and not political ones.
Yaroslav Hrytsak added that most of the discussions about the recognition or non-recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people are not in Ukraine, but in the West. According to him, over the past 10-15 years there has been a big shift, and the term “Holodomor” has taken root in the scientific world. “That is, there is a consensus in this respect,” the historian says. “There is no consensus only as to whether it was a genocide. How good is the current concept of genocide for describing the Holodomor? “solutions, not scientific.”
Attitude of Ukrainians to the Holodomor
93% of Ukrainians agree with the statement that the Holodomor of 1932-1933 was a genocide of the Ukrainian people. These are the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Rating group on November 21-22, 2022. 3% of respondents deny this, and another 4% of respondents found it difficult to answer.
Over the past ten years, the number of those recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-33 as genocide of the Ukrainian people has grown by one and a half times, sociologists say.
[Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)]
Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking. You can send your articles to editor@mahabahu.com / editor@mahabahoo.com ( For Assamese article, Unicode font is necessary)