Different Perspective on Ukraine

     Since all the protest began in Ukraine, on multiple occasions I’ve been approached and asked by different people what do I think about it and on whose side I am on. It seems that as a former Soviet Union citizen and Uzbek national I should be able to relate to these sad and worrisome events in Ukraine. Well, I am very sorry do disappoint all of you that I am not on anybody’s side and I am just a curious observer. I care very much about everything that is happening in Ukraine and I’m deeply worried about wellbeing of Ukrainian, Russian and all other people from former Soviet Union that are in Ukraine and involved in these events.

      First of all, I am very happy that people rose up and spoke up about their interests, freedoms and complaints as this young woman did

     Most of the newly independent countries of the former Soviet Union are highly corrupt with no opportunities of bright future for young generations. Political and social systems are stagnant and not flexible for any changes or modifications. There is no room for independent thoughts or freedom of speech. In order to change this type of lives people have to get together, rise up, speak up and turn over these regimes. However, it is hard to realize that the main problem of these countries is not any particular authoritative leader but a fraud system as a whole.

     Now, in Ukraine people got together to overturn their democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovich that disagreed to sign a trade agreement with European Union that could’ve led to a future unification. It is very concerning why people decided to march and revolve against Yanukovich instead of democratically impeaching him. Violence always provokes evenfurther violence and that is exactly what happened in Ukraine.

     Further, people who appeared on Maydan square didn’t represent opinion and political stand of the entire Ukrainian population neither it represented the majority. Even if some people didn’t support Yanukovich’s leadership they did support not signing the agreement. These people supported trade relationship with Russia and that’s where the Ukrainian national identity crisis begins. The country at this moment was already divided internally between people supporting relationship with Europe and others that were supporting relationship with Russia.

        The new leading political party SVOBODA (from Russian FREEDOM) is a anti-Russian, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi party, whose emblem is a version of a Nazi swastika This new leadership began an anti-Russian pro-Ukrainian heritage campaign. New government tries to implement new passports where people have to identify themselves as Ukrainians, Russians, or Jewish that would allow Ukrainians receive special benefits, while others will suffer losses. They try to forcefully bust Ukrainian language and traditions, which further allows them to build Ukrainian national identity. However, in order to do so they oppress the use of Russian language and prohibit it use in media, education, jurisprudence, etc. What strikes me the most is that there are no radical differences between Russians and Ukrainians, as well as Belarusians. They are ethnically, culturally and traditionally the same people that share the same history, blood, culture and language. The base of all three languages is the same, but have slight dialectical differences. That’s why these nationalistic rivalries do not make any sense to me.

“The new parliament's first post-revolution legislative action was to repeal the law "On State Language Policy" -- a law passed in 2012 that allowed the use of "regional languages", including Russian, Hungarian, Romanian and Tatar, in courts and certain government functions in areas of the country where such speakers constituted at least 10 percent of the population. Thirteen out of Ukraine's 27 regions, primarily in Eastern Ukraine, subsequently adopted Russian as a second official language, while two western regions introduced Romanian and Hungarian as official languages. The annulment, which left Ukrainian as the only official language of Ukraine, was a direct attack on the cultural and linguistic rights of the Russian-speaking minority. After the European Parliament protested, demanding the new Ukrainian regime respect the rights of minorities. Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov (a Baptist) subsequently vetoed the repeal, but the episode sent alarm bells rings through the ethnic minorities.” 

[About] 1.7 million Jews were shot in Ukraine during WWII under supervision of the Nazis. In 2010, Ukraine's then US-backed President Viktor Yushchenko pronounced World War II-era nationalist leader Stepan Bandera a national hero. (Bandera was an ally of Nazi Germany whose followers participated in massacres of Ukrainian Jews.)  And on 1 Jan 2014, some 1500 Euromaidan protesters marched in a Svoboda-run torchlight procession in honor of Bandera. [ It is so] disturbing because the Bandera-honoring, Svoboda flag-bearing marchers are not scary skinheads; they are families and priests. (NB: The red and black flag represents an ultra-nationalist paramilitary.)

    Now here is the question if European Union would like a new member whose leading party is represented by neo-Nazis and represses minorities. Not that far ago the US as well as some of the European countries was trying to pull out of the Olympic games in Sochi because of Russian unwillingness to provide equal rights for the LGBTQ community. However, now the US with European Union has no problems supporting and accepting neo-Nazi leaders that oppress all the minorities of Ukraine. Doesn’t it seem like double standards with very selfish reasons?

       The situation in Ukraine is very complicated and multifaceted. On one hand we see genuine people trying to make a good change for their brighter future. On the other hand, they are backed up and represented by nationalistic neo-Nazi politicians whose goals and values are terrifying. Its terrifying because it is our grandfathers and grandmothers just a hundred years ago were fighting Nazis and were willing to die just to save our lives and futures. Now it’s on our heroically dead grandparents’ land a new Nazi party promoting values and thoughts that they were fighting against for. What is our role now? And what should we do?

A great Op-ed about events in Ukraine and Putin's actions regarding Crimea is written by the director of the School of International Relations at USC, Robert English.