The president Vladimir Zelensky asked parliament recognize the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks as the indigenous peoples of Ukraine. After the occupation of Crimea, Russia began to massively violate the rights of these ethnic groups, so official Kiev decided to legislative level to expand their legal status. Russia has already managed to react to the initiative of the head of our state and even complained to the Europeans that “the Russians have been forgotten.”
Read more in the material OBOZREVATEL.
What is the essence of the document?
The presidential bill provides that indigenous peoples are ethnic communities that have formed on the territory of Ukraine, recognize themselves as a minority in its population and do not have their own state education outside Ukraine… But they have their own language, culture, traditions, social, cultural or representative bodies.
Indigenous peoples that are formed on the Crimean peninsula are offered to recognize Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks.
They provide them a wide range of rights, in particular:
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protection from genocide, violence or discrimination;
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to strengthen their political, social, cultural institutions;
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define your own symbolism and revive language, history and traditions;
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create their own educational institutions, study the languages of indigenous peoples.
In practice, this bill is not designed for instant changes, but for future prospects. The main result that they want to get immediately after adoption is the consolidation of the right of these indigenous peoples to the lands of Crimea and the right to self-determination. About this in the comments OBOZREVATEL said a member of the profile committee, People’s Deputy from the “Servant of the People” Nelly Yakovleva.
“The bill should become a kind of instrument for de-occupation, since the text defines that these indigenous peoples actually claim the historical territory of Crimea,” she said.
–Other nations have not been forgotten
There are national minorities in Ukraine that may harbor a grudge that not a word is said about them in this document. It is extremely difficult to list all the peoples that are represented in our country, as well as to count their number. After all, the last population census in Ukraine was back in 2001. However, the Verkhovna Rada was assured that they are preparing another initiative to continue the topic.
“In order not to offend everyone else, the deputies will submit another bill on national minoritieswhich will regulate the status of all peoples and ethnic groupsliving on the territory of Ukraine. These are two parallel processes. Consultations have already been held with various ethnic communities, “Yakovleva said.
By the way, historians insist that on the territory of modern Ukraine, not a single nation or ethnos has any legal and historical basis to be considered indigenous peoples, except for the Ukrainians themselves.
The Russians were outraged and complained
Zelenskiy’s initiative provoked a violent reaction in Russia. Representatives of the aggressor country were outraged that the president of Ukraine “forgot about the Russians”. The State Duma of the Russian Federation hastened to complain to the EU, stating that they are considering the bill “as an insult to historical memory, a new attempt to drive a wedge between the Ukrainian, Russian and other indigenous peoples of Ukraine.”
Yakovleva noted that Ukraine cannot define Russians as an indigenous people, there should only be a question of the status of a national minority.
“Generally national minorities in Ukraine are united into communities, they have their own representatives and leaders… But when the committee members held consultations on various ethnic communities, they did not see powerful large-scale organizations that would defend the interests of the Russian minority in Ukraine. We do not even understand the number of people who define themselves as a Russian ethnic minority, “says the people’s deputy.
Ukrainian historian Pavel Gai-Nizhnik explained that Russians cannot claim the status of an indigenous people and Crimea… And their actions and indignations are habitual manipulations.
“First of all, when it comes to indigenous peoples, we mean nations or ethnic groups that have no other homeland and have lived in Crimea for a long time. The Russians have nothing to do with this territory because they came as imperial invaders. These are political manipulations on the part of Russia, they in no way can claim either legally or historically. There are no clues or grounds, even if one would like, to attribute them to the indigenous peoples, “he said.
In general, this bill is called a framework law, that is, it only defines general things, sets the direction of a certain policy. They want to accept this and other similar documents for holding summit “Crimean platform”, which will take place in August, so that there are as many legislative instruments as possible to strengthen Ukraine’s position in the process of de-occupation of the peninsula.
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