- 28 Feb 2014 20:43
#14369888
News wrote:Anguish , restlessness and fear prevails in the ranks of the 150,000 Greeks living in Ukraine and particularly in Crimea after the neo-Nazi right section took over control of developments .
Terror has caused the declaration of the right-wing elements - which in the chaos that sank Ukraine, it managed to be the only organized political force - that will evict all national minorities , to "purify " the country . In Ukraine there are still significant communities of Greeks.
Alexandra Protsenko is the president of the Federation of Greek Communities throughout Ukraine, which has approximately 150,000 Greeks living there. According to gr.euronews.com, she does not hide that their panicked watching the news on TV, the changes taking place in the country .
Alexandra Protsenko-Pitsatzi
Of course, she stresses that "as a Greek community we are united, compact. The Greeks in Ukraine did not have any role in the recent controversy and generally remained neutral as nobody was chasing them. A minor concern is for some right-wing extremists , who emerged last and ask for example to take to jail or force to leave the country all those that do not speak Ukrainian" she specified.
Alexandra Protsenko , does not hide her concerns. "We have eleven MPs of Greek origin, who had problems. We are in contact with them, because of course we are interested to have a strong Greek presence in the House regardless of who is in charge. Commanders in six major regions are of Greek origin. There are also examples of Greek mayors in purely Greek villages, who were appointed by the Yanukovych government and we do not know now if they will be changed . Only in areas of Mariupol and Donetsk have 48 Greek villages and do not know how the latest developments will affect them."
According to the 2001 census, the Greek - Russian speakers now - totaled 93,000. They argue that their real number reaches 150,000 people, since many did not declare their true national identity then, because of inherited fear and post-Soviet national insecurity. The Greek communities are scattered throughout the country , with the main concentration area of Mariupol region , where the first twenty villages of immigrants of the 18th century have doubled. Greek communities meet in Odessa, on the border with Romania, on the northeast Kharkiv and Lviv ( Lvif in Ukrainian ), which is considered the birthplace of extreme Ukrainian nationalism .
They have organized themselves into associations, which amount to 105 and now have created and the Appellate Body, under the name "Federation of Greek Associations of Ukraine". The Greek language is taught in hundreds of children, while seats for Greek studies of Mariupol, Kiev, in Simferopol and Lviv universities have trained hundreds of teachers of the Greek language .
Bills being passed by the Ukrainian parliament after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich have caused the ire of Ukrainians of Russian descent, as well as Moscow, and are raising eyebrows around the world.
Among the bills passed by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) there is one of especial interest to Greeks, as it bans the use of their native language to minorities. Greek is an official minority language in Ukraine, which has a Greek diaspora community of 150,000.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has published an official statement, in which the most recent actions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were found illegitimate.
The statement runs that Ukraine is now "rubber stamping" laws violating the right of national minorities, including Russians. All this is being done with reference to revolutionary reforms.
The ministry noted that Ukraine is threatening Russian-speaking individuals and conducting a struggle against monuments of Russian culture.
More specifically, on February 23, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) voted the following bills:
4201 – Bill to ban Ukrainian Communist Party activity.
4217 – Bill to redress antecedents of the Soviet occupation of Ukraine.
4176 – Bill to repeal law penalizing Nazi propaganda.
4184 – Bill to place V. Avakov as minister of the interior and members of “Right Sector” party on ministry staff (Avakov also belongs to the party which many consider fascist). Σ
4215 – Bill to establish a “Pantheon of national heroes.”
4203 - Bill to curb state spending.
4215 – Bill to pay tribute to participants in the clashes during peaceful demonstrations.
4197 – Bill to place "Svoboda" party member Α.Mahnitskogo as Prosecutor General.
4204 – Bill delineating the duties of the President of the Uraine.
4191 – Bill to place "UDAR" party member V.A. Nalivaychenko as overseer of Ukrainian Security Agencies
4211 – Bill to fire incumbent officers and personnel of security forces and replace them with new personnel (the latter are believed to be members of extreme right wing groups).
4199- Bill to repeal the use of their native language by minorities, which refers to Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Greek.
On 25 February, the Rada also voted to send the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych to the international courts (The Hague) to be tried over the violence that led to at least 82 deaths in Kiev last week.
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