Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-458"
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"en.20081022.24.3-458"2
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"The greatest Hungarian poet of the 20
century said that ‘We must confess the past!’ Yes, we must confess the past, but not in order to foster tensions between peoples and countries. Every people must face its own sins; the way in which the Germans have faced their own role in the Second World War is exemplary. Mr Zaleski, as a Pole, alluded to the fact that many people have sins to confess, and that the Holodomor is not the only one. I speak as a representative of a people whose parliament in 2003 was the first to condemn the Holodomor. At the same time, I would very much like it if this debate was not an anti-Russian one, because those present in this House, those who take the floor, should be familiar with the ethnic map of Ukraine, and should know which counties were affected by this Stalinist horror, by means of which the Communist dictatorship strove to exterminate the peasantry – for the most part those who died were Ukrainians, but not exclusively Ukrainians. In those town and cities – Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa – there were also Romanians, Russians, Jews and other groups who died. In these places, it was the peasantry that they sought to exterminate.
We must recognise that this was genocide, but not on ethnic grounds. Based on the principles of an unacceptable, failed 20
century Stalinist, Communist dictatorship, they sought to wipe out an entire class, the peasantry, the peasant farmers. The victims of this campaign were mainly Ukrainians, but we must pay tribute to all the victims, regardless of nationality. What Mr Roszkowski said is not true, namely that the Social Democratic group is trying to whitewash something. No, we are simply honouring the facts, and insisting on the facts, because by taking sides on behalf of the Holodomor, we are not prepared to take part in a condemnation of Russia – although Russia has a lot of soul-searching to do on account of Stalinism, the massacre at Katyn – but neither should we forget that the Russian people suffered at least as much from the Stalinist dictatorship, and had as many victims as other peoples.
Therefore, I say that we should pay tribute, but let us also try in these debates to show some respect for historical facts. We bow our heads before the victims of the Holodomor, but we cannot serve Ukrainian nationalism; rather, we must work to ensure that Russia, Ukraine and every country face its past and make peace."@en1
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