Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 17 – In words that
echo Eugene Lyons’ 1953 classic, Our Secret Allies: The Peoples of Russia, Hanna Hopko, chair of the Verkhovna Rada’s foreign affairs
committee, says that the non-Russian nations within the borders of the Russian
Federation are more important allies of the Free World than are the members of
the Russian opposition.
Her
comments came at a conference on “The Peoples of the Russian Federation:
Between Assimilation and Self-Determination” held on Monday at the Ukrainian
Diplomatic Academy and attended by numerous Ukrainian politicians, scholars, activists,
religious figures and emigres from Russia (facebook.com/Free.IdelUral/posts/411509579405607).
Hopko said that Ukrainians in
particular have a special moral responsibility to cooperate with and provide support
to the non-Russians because Moscow had dramatically increased its repression of
those nations after Putin invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea and sparked the war
in the Donbass.
“The demonstration of Ukrainian
solidarity with the peoples of Russia, who are experiencing harassment and
russification,” of course, “is dictated not only by moral obligations but also
by national interests: We clearly understand that the indigenous peoples are
important partners of the Free World, more important than the so-called Russian
opposition.”
Other speakers at the session
developed these points. Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis,
said that there is a direct link between Moscow’s oppression of non-Russians
within its borders and the Kremlin’s willingness to attack neighboring countries
like Ukraine.
“When the peoples of Russia acquire
the right to freely decide their fate, then they will be able to define as well
the forms of state formations or state formation in which they would like to
realize their rights … It is possible that in place of the present Russian
Federation may arise several such state formations,” the Crimean Tatar leader
continued.
Mufti Said Ismagilov, the head of
the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of Ukraine, argued that “the best defense of
our Ukrainian national interests is to begin to play in the Russian field. The
most harassed in Russia are ethnic minorities, in the first instance Muslim
peoples.” And it they who are displaying “the greatest resistance to the policy
of assimilation and deprivation of their own languages” (idelreal.org/a/29884839.html).
Syres Bolyaen, the co-creator of the
Free Idel-Ural Movement, said that Ukraine was showing the way forward for the
peoples now ruled by Moscow. “We believe in Ukraine. We ever more often hear
from Bashkirs, Tatars, and Erzyan’s ‘Ukraine turns out to be our supporter!’
These words motivate us to get involved in educational work.”
“We believe in a strong independent
Ukraine and in the free future of the peoples of Russia. Glory to Ukraine!” he concluded.
And Nafis Kashapov, a Tatar activist
of Free Idel-Ural now living as an émigré in Warsaw, said that he had come from
Poland specially to take part in this conference. “I want to thank Ukrainians
for their support of our people. This support is worth its weight in gold for
us! And I want to use this opportunity
to express enormous gratitude to Mustafa Dzhemilyev who more than once saved me
from being handed over to the hands of the Russian special services.”
The meeting called on the Verkhovna
Rada to support the draft appeal to the United Nations, the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO, the Parliamentary
Assembly of the OSCE, and national parliaments around the world to condemn “the
violation of the rights of the indigenous peoples in the Russian Federation.”
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