MEMORANDUM First European Congress of Subcarpathian Ruthenians, (June 7, 2008)
rusinadopted as a result of the discussion of the "Rusyn question" at the First European Congress of Subcarpathian Rusyns, in Mukachevo, Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus, June 7, 2008
Preamble
After the adoption on December 15, 2007 of the “Declaration of the Soym PR” in Svalyava and on April 5, 2008 of the “Declaration of the Forum of the Rusyn Public” in Mukachevo, a number of Ukrainian politicians, including senior positions in the government of Ukraine, insulting statements were made against the Sub-Carpathian-Russian people and their representatives. An anti-Rusyn hysteria is unleashed in the media, the repressive authorities allow themselves to issue open warnings to the Carpathian Rusyns from the SBU “for doubts”.
The delegates and guests who gathered at the 1st European Congress of Subcarpathian Rusyns, representatives of the Rusyn people, are convinced that such behavior is unacceptable for the politicians of a country striving to bear the title of civilized democracy. We consider it necessary to respond in the harshest way to such rhetoric and practical actions with the authoritative voice of the European Congress of Subcarpathian Ruthenians.
And so, at the referendum on December 1, 1991, the inhabitants of Transcarpathia, for the most part, the Carpathian Rusyns, along with the right to self-determination, were given the opportunity to legitimately determine their political status.
However, for the past 17 years (in 2008), the political circles of Kyiv have questioned the will of the people expressed in the referendum, especially since there are no other legally significant documents for the inclusion of Subcarpathian Rus in the state territory of Ukraine (See legal grounds to the Declaration of 12/15/2007).
In this situation, on June 7, 2008, the delegates from the SOIM of Podkarpackie Ruthenians and from the NRRZ, as well as delegates of foreign Rusyn delegations, gathered at the First European Congress of Podkarpackie Rusyns, adopted this Memorandum and decided to appeal to the governments and parliaments of the EU and the Russian Federation, to convey the will of the Rusyn people.
At the moment it can be stated that:
1. The Ruthenian people living in their original “Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians”, being the indigenous people of the region, have, according to the Saint-Germain Treaty of 1919, an inalienable status of a subject of international law (the right to self-determination);
2. For more than 17 years (as of 2008), the State of Ukraine has been ignoring the will of our sub-Carpatho-Rusyn people and their will at the referendum on December 1, 1991, does not comply with the provisions of international law and valid laws, in particular the “Declaration on the principles of international rights relating to friendly relations and cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations of October 24, 1970”.
And this is despite the fact that the bodies of regional self-government in Transcarpathia, by decision of the 9th session of the Transcarpathian Regional Council of January 24, 1992, confirmed the results of the referendum of 1991, and on March 7, 2007 officially recognized the existence of the Rusyn nationality and appealed three times to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine demanding a positive solution to the Rusyn issue in Ukraine. These rights of the Carpathian Ruthenians are violated contrary to their own Constitution, laws and decisions of regional and local authorities.
3. Possessing the status of a subject of international law (the right to self-determination) and guided by the instinct of self-preservation, Subcarpathian Rusyns reserve the right to directly apply to the parliaments and governments of the EU, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation;
4. Both international treaties on the status of Subcarpathian Rus as a subject of international law (1919 and 1920) have not been canceled and still have legal force;
5. It is not the fault of the Carpathian Rusyns that the Rusyn state-forming process was suspended by the Second World War, and after the war the victors made a forceful redistribution of Europe, with the annexation of the territory of the Rusyns to the USSR and the lowering of its status as a subject of international law and without the participation and consent to this of the legitimate representatives of the sovereign the Rusyn people;
6. Since 1996, the secret anti-Rusyn government “Plan of Actions to Solve the Problems of Ukrainian-Rusyns” has given the Subcarpathian Rusyns the status of “enemies of Ukraine”, which is why they can be subject to repression and ethnic cleansing at any time as “separatists and enemies of Ukraine” »;
7. Subcarpathian Rusyns bear historical responsibility for the future of other peoples of Subcarpathian Rus;
8. The behavior of the Carpathian Rusyns is a response to the Ukrainian "budgetary" nationalists who have gone mad in Transcarpathia-Carpathian Rus, whose arrival from Galicia is financed by the money of oligarchs and other anti-Rusyn "donors";
9. Subcarpathian Rusyns feel a real danger of further forced assimilation and discrimination;
10. The results of the referendum on December 1, 1991, 78% of the votes confirmed the demand of the people to recreate the pre-war (pre-Ukrainian, pre-Soviet) status of Transcarpathia-Podkarpattia Rus, a subject of international law, as a “special self-governing territory within Ukraine”;
11. Subcarpathian Rusyns took into account the harsh negative response, signed by the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Mr. Onischuk (letter No. 17-9-1151 dated March 6, 2008) to the demand of N. President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko "recognize the Ruthenian nationality in Ukraine in accordance with the recommendations of the UN";
12. With this letter, the official Kyiv actually passed a “death sentence” on the identity of the Rusyns of Transcarpathia-Podkarpatskaya Rus: “...Rusyns are an integral part of the Ukrainian nation, i.e. its sub-ethnos, ethnographic group, such as the Hutsuls, Lemkos, Boikos" with the recognition of the "status of the Rusyns, only as an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation", which becomes a "scientific basis" for further forced assimilation and ethnocide of the Subcarpathian Rusyns;
13. There is a basis for paragraph 4.2 of article 8 of the 1966 International Covenant on Borders and Political Rights, according to which “no one can be kept in a state of servitude”;
14. The reaction of the Ukrainian authorities to the published Declaration of the Soym of Subcarpathian Rusyns of December 15, 2007 (and the Declaration of the Coordinating Council of the NRRP and the Soym of the PR in Mukachevo on April 5, 2008, which confirmed it), resulted in political repressions against the Rusyns (press statement - the SBU service “On the warning of the Chairman of the Soym P. R. D. Sydor”) and the unfolding anti-Rusyn campaign in the media, especially on Ukrainian television;
15. The authorities of Ukraine are determined to continue the forcible assimilation of the Carpathian Rusyns, which for 16 years has taken all the signs of ethnocide and genocide;
16. There is no longer any hope that the legitimate demands of the Subcarpathian Rusyns on the issue of ethnic self-identification from official Kyiv can come up with a positive answer;
17. For every inhabitant of Transcarpathia-Podkarpattia Rus, who declared their belonging to Subcarpathian Rusyns, there is a real threat to become an enemy of the “territorial integrity of Ukraine”;
18. There is a real threat to national peace and stability in the region due to the problem of illegal migrants, the existence of an overcrowded camp for illegal gals in the village. Pavshino, which forced the Rusyns to create their own special project - the protective "Arpad migration line";
19. Subcarpathian Rusyns are not going to give up their “Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians” for settlement by illegal Arabs, thereby allowing an additional precedent of ethno-religious confrontation in the center of Europe, similar to how it was planned by the authorities in Crimea, or how some countries suffer from it EU;
20. The future of the Carpathian Rusyns is in Europe, both geographically and geopolitically, since Transcarpathia-Carpathian Rus, due to the prevailing circumstances, turned out to be at the epicenter of the transit of energy resources;
21. The local “Rusyn issue” with a simple solution faced this geopolitical energy issue on a continental scale;
22. One of the main assets of the "Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians" - transit pipes, about 200 km long, has become the reason for Ukraine's slowdown in resolving the "Rusyn issue";
23. Energy carriers and their transit are the main issues for the EU states and the Russian Federation. Subcarpathian Rusyns are ready to become guarantors of an unimpeded transit flow through the "territory of the Rusyns south of the Carpathians";
24. The Soym of Subcarpathian Rusyns, by its Declaration of December 15, 2007 (like the NRRZ), seeing the anti-Rusyn position of the Ukrainian leadership, on behalf of the Rusyn people of Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus, the bearer of the inalienable status of a subject of international law since 1919, is forced to enter into direct international relations with the parliaments and governments of the EU, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation, calling on them to become guarantors in resolving the national rights and freedoms of the Subcarpathian Rusyns in their land “south of the Carpathians”;
25. One of the strategic goals of the Carpathian Rusyns is the subsequent entry into the European community with the proclamation of the demilitarized status of Transcarpathia-Carpathian Rus;
26. The creation of the European Congress of Subcarpathian Ruthenians was initiated as a permanent Civic Forum of Subcarpathian Rusyns;
The ECPR appeals to the governments, presidents and parliaments of the EU, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation with an urgent request to act as guarantors of the state-legal status (and the development of proposals for the legislative status) of Transcarpathia-Podkarpattia Rus;
The ECPR calls on the governments, presidents and parliaments of the EU countries, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation, to accept this appeal on behalf of the Rusyn people of Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus and their urgent request officially:
1. Recognize the right to restore the status of the Rusyn people of Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus as self-determined1. Recognize the right to restore the status of the Rusyn people of Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus as a self-determined nation and a subject of international law, as well as their legitimate interests as the owner of the “Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians”, which today is nominally part of Ukraine, borders on four states European member states of the EU.
2. Recognize the right to restore the special status of Transcarpathia as a special self-governing "territory of the Rusyns south of the Carpathians" with the constitutional name "Subcarpathian Rus", as the broadest autonomy that Subcarpathian Rus had before 1945 as part of Czechoslovakia under the Saint-Germain international treaty of 1919 and the Trianon International Treaty of 1920
3. Recognize that the refusal to include in the Constitution of Ukraine the status of Transcarpathia as “the territory of the Rusyns south of the Carpathians” (with its legal international constitutional name “Subcarpathian Rus”, with the status of a subject of international law from 1919, and based on the results of the referendum December 1, 1991, which was not introduced into the legal field of Ukraine), forced the Subcarpathian Rusyns to resolve their own issue bypassing the official authorities of Ukraine, and to start in their midst the process of organizing independent Ruthenian public bodies of local self-government in Transcarpathia-Podcarpathian Rus.
Ukraine, without positively resolving the Rusyn issue, and not taking into account the will of the inhabitants of Transcarpathia, expressed in a referendum on December 1, 1991, trampling on the rights of Subcarpathian Rusyns on their land for 17 years (2008), cannot be recognized as a democratic state.
Subcarpathian Rusyns ask the EU, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation for a transitional period to act as guarantors of the restoration of the legal status of a sovereign people in their "territory of Rusyns south of the Carpathians", with the prospect of joining the European Union.
The Memorandum was adopted in the Russian language. Translations into Russian, Ukrainian and English have the same legal force.
Chairman of the NRRZ E.E. Zhupan
Chairman of the Soym of Subcarpathian Rusyns Dymytriy Sydor