A changing world

The CIA spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Italy in the 1950's and '60's to thwart a Communist takeover and now, ironically, in comes a Communist president.
No protests came from Washington. Communists today are U.S. allies. Muslims have become the "Principal Adversary".
President Napolitano's presence will be a daily reminder that Stalin's monstrous crimes still go largely unrecognized and unpunished. Families of the six to eight million victims of Ukraine's holocaust should lead protests against Italy being led by an ideological offspring of Stalin's empire of murder.
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President of Ukraine remembers Bykivnya victims

President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko and his wife, Kateryna, have honored the victims of the totalitarian regime in Bykivnya. The President placed flowers on the Bykivnya Monument and then attended a service for the dead.
In his speech, the Head of State said the tragedy in Bykivnya was similar to the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau.
“It is impossible to imagine how one could slaughter one hundred thousand people in Bykivnya. What is really terrible is that nobody will tell us why these people were killed. What was their fault? They must have refused to betray their motherland, language, church and their national roots,” he said.
Yushchenko pledged to spare no effort to find out actual causes of the massacre and prevent genocide in the future. He said this tragedy affected the whole nation. “The Bykivnya tragedy is not the tragedy of the Kyiv region alone, for today we are speaking about the affiliates of the Bykivnya mass grave in Vinnytsya, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Lviv,” he metaphorically explained.
The President said the government of Ukraine would soon found a national memory institute: “We must stop being afraid of our history. We must re-write some of its pages.”
The institute is intent to preserve national memory by holding events to honor those who fell prey to genocide famines, exploring the tragic period of totalitarian repressions in Ukraine and making these facts known. The President appointed Ihor Yukhnovsky the head of this establishment.
Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, Humanitarian Premier Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, Culture Minister Ihor Likhovy, Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko and Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky took part in the memorial ceremony.

Ukraine to mark 80th anniversary of Petlyura's death

KYIV. May 15 (Interfax) - Ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the death of Symon Petlyura are to be held in Ukraine at the end of May, Ukrainian Culture and Tourism Minister Ihor Likhovyy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday. "Regrettably, Petlyura's personality is yet to find its properplace, which would match his contribution to the building of a Ukrainian nation and statehood. A political decision has been made atthe highest level in an attempt to reverse the widespread custom ofscaring little children with Symon Petlyura," the minister said "We mustbreak this stereotype," he added. An organizing committee, to be headed by Likhovyy, has been set upand an action plan has been worked out in cooperation with the Academyof Sciences to immortalize the memory of outstanding Ukrainian figures, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Olha Shokalo-Bench said. The anniversary ceremonies will include a film about Petlyura, a photo exhibition called "The Knight of the Ukrainian Revolution" at the National History Museum, a roundtable on the theme "Symon Petlyura - APublic, Political and Military Figure of Ukraine" and a memorial plaqueat a site where a monument to Petlyura is to be unveiled on December 1,2006. A number of books devoted to his life and work will also bereleased. The city of Poltava will host a series of events dedicated toPetlyura. Petlyura, a Ukrainian Central Rada deputy, chief military commanderof the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917-1918 and head of theUkrainian People's Republic Directorate in 1919-1920, led the Ukrainian government in exile after emigrating in November 1920. In 1923 he moved to Austria, and then to Hungary and Switzerland. In 1924, he settled in Paris where he was assassinated two years later by a Ukrainian-born Jewish anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard. Petlyura is buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

c/o http://www.interfax.com/3/156395/news.aspx

Yuschenko Urges To Continue Historical Research Of Ukrainians' Participation In First And Second World Wars

President Viktor Yuscenko urged historians to continue research of the participation of Ukrainians in the First and the Second World Wars, military conflicts of the Soviet Union times and international peacemaking missions.
The president told this in his speech on the Victory Day celebration in the Memorial Complex of the National Museum of the Second World War.
«We have to generate the civilized culture of the attitude to our own history and memory. The time has come to speak about all-embracing academic research work concerning the participation of Ukrainian people in the First and the Second World Wars, the conflicts of the Soviet times and participation in the international peacemaking. We have to know by names all the heroes and all our losses,» Yuschenko said.
He urged to standardize the symbols of respect of the war victims throughout the country and to revive the historical commemorative symbols.
«We have to reduce to a common denominator the symbols of commemoration of the war victims throughout the country. We have to get rid of the totalitarian attributes and artificial pathos that are alien to Ukrainians. We have to revive historically significant commemorative tokens, the destruction of which means the destruction of ourselves,» emphasized the president.
Yushcenko believes that the social movement of national memory revival will be organized for this purpose.
He holds that the search of historical truth should be devoid of emotions and division into fronts, and should bring the unifying issues instead of the separating ones.
Yuschenko considers that the Ukrainian mutual understanding forum should be founded by the business, political and social circles.
«It is symbolic that the Europe day is celebrated these days, when we talk with all the European peoples about our common values, about common history and, of course, we talk about our common future. Ukraine accepts the symbol of this day as its own,» said Yuschenko.
He congratulated the veterans with the Victory Day.
«I congratulate you heartily, my dear compatriots with the Day of the Great Victory, the day of glory and the day of memory. Glory to you, dear veterans, glory to your feat and long live Ukraine,» said the president.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, May 9 Ukraine is marking the 61st anniversary of victory in WW-II.

Ukrainian President Calls For Reconciliation Of Veterans

President Viktor Yushchenko today called for a reconciliation between Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet Army and nationalist militias who at one point fought the Soviets during World War II.
The role of the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) -- who at various times fought Polish, Soviet, and Nazi forces -- remains a divisive issue in Ukraine.
In comments made as Ukraine marked the 61st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, Yushchenko said UPA veterans should enjoy the same social benefits as veterans from the Soviet Army.
He also expressed his certainty that "there will come a day when Ukrainian veterans will extend a hand to each other in the name of Ukraine's future. I am certain that we will witness a time when reconciliation will become reality for the Ukrainian nation."

Canadian Citizenship at risk

This month the Edmonton-based Ukrainian News ran an editorial urging the Harper government to pass the new citizenship act that collapsed when the January election was called.
The newspaper calls it a "no-brainer," since "virtually every ethnocultural group in Canada" supported the key change in the act to make the revocation of citizenship a judicial decision rather than a political act.
The Ukrainian News is right. As it stands now, a naturalized Canadian can have his citizenship revoked and be deported without appeal or due process if a federal judge rules it is "probable" that the person lied to enter Canada.
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Ukraine rock battles Russian pop

Almost 50 bands performed over two days at Kiev's Rock Sich festival, whose slogan was "Live sound! No to pop! Yes to the Ukrainian language".
The festival's name "Sich" harks back to a kind of training camp for Ukrainian Cossacks that was a feature of the late Middle Ages.
The idea is that Ukrainian rock musicians are defending the country's music and culture from Russian pop in the way that Cossacks once defended the Ukrainian steppe from the Ottoman Turks.
Along with some well-known and successful bands, Rock Sich provided a platform for groups trying to make their mark in the tough world of Ukrainian showbusiness. Their music can be described as "non-formal" - a term adopted by the music industry in former Soviet countries and better known in the West as Indie.

Welsh journalist who exposed horrors of Stalin

Commenting on the plaque unveiling, the UCCLA's director of research, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, said:"Today we have hallowed the memory of the many millions of victims of a Stalinist crime against humanity, arguably the greatest example of genocide to befoul 20th century Europe. We have also paid tribute to a brave and honest journalist, Gareth Jones, who tried to expose the truth, only to fall victim to Stalin's men.
'He was, in some ways, the last victim of the Holodomor, the famine-genocide of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine. It is fitting that we could gather today in Wales, at the uniiversity where he studied, to honour a remarkable young man who paid such a heavy price for his commitment to being an honest reporter of the facts." Click here to read the rest of this remarkable story.

May Day - The Victory Day: a holiday? Yes, the Holiday

In Ukraine, the Victory Day is the Day of Mourning at the same time. Nazi and this group does not include all Germans were annihilating all non-Aryans. Ukrainians were not included into the Aryan plans of Hitler, they included only Ukrainian chernozem.
That is why the 9th of May is not a victory of Stalin, Churchill or the communist regime. First of all it is a victory of all Ukrainian people in the struggle for their life. That is a memory of the blessed feats of arms and tragic sacrifices (including those who died from the bullets of their own government). And it shall not be yielded to someone else. Well, we will simply not yield it. To read full article, click here.