UKRAINIAN WRITER AND JOURNALIST DMITRIY GORDON CALLS ON ALL MEMBERS OF PARTY OF REGIONS TO LEAVE “THEIR DEVIL PARTY”
Ukrainian writer and journalist Dmitriy Gordon has published an open letter to the members of the Party of Regions and the opposition leader Vitali Klitschko.“I was born in Kyiv, I live here, this city is my homeland, and I do not want it to be under occupation for the second time after the World War II. Fascists, murderers, leave my city!
I urge all journalists who care about their profession and are concerned for the future of their children to report information honestly and without any bias no matter what: everything if not all depends on journalists today.
I appeal to all members of the Party of Regions: drop yout fear, show your determination, remember that you were born by mothers who wished you happiness, and that you also are the victims of circumstances and responsibilities. Embrace your independence and leave your devil party!”
A separate message for Vitali Klitschko, “Vitali, this is your last fight”, said Gordon.
Voices of Ukraine 
Dear European and American Friends,
Leaders of International Organizations and Representatives of Democratic Countries!
I am writing this appeal in the moment of extremely difficult time for my country, maybe the turning point in its history.
Ukrainians have always been an extremely peaceful people. We proved it during the years of slow democratic changes and by solving our crises without blood. But today there are the first death victims and a lot of injured people. There is blood on the streets of Kiev. And there is more and more every minute. This is not a civil war between the citizens. The people of Ukraine unites as they have to fight with gangster regime of Yanukovych. He concentrated the entire power in the country in his own hands and controls the courts, police and media. Yanukovych feels now totally unpunished and is going to establish a total dictatorship. He almost did it passing new “laws” 16 of January.
The current situation in Ukraine once again proves that Yanukovych does not represent neither Ukraine nor Ukrainian people any more. By breaking all the existing laws, disrespecting the Constitution, betraying the interests of the country and committing numerous crimes against his own citizens, Yanukovych, his Party of Regions and loyal to them corrupted business, have placed themselves outside the Law. Yanukovych does not represent Ukraine in the world – he is discrediting our country in the eyes of the world community. His foreign policy is totally guided by the personal interests and has nothing to do with the interests of the country. Unfortunately, the European diplomats have already had numerous and unpleasant opportunities to find it out.
Ukrainian people are going out to the streets to protect their rights and their European future. How are we supposed to comply with the laws which are not kept by the authorities? It is nonsense. We need laws and we will respect them. Ukrainians have already shown an amazing self-organization of ordinary citizens during the peaceful protests in the last months. We want to build a legal state with European norms and values. But now in Ukraine there is no police or independent courts to protect people. And we are deprived of the legal ways to change the situation. Because that change would mean the loss of everything for Yanukovych and, for sure, the third term for him in prison. That’s why he and his close supporters will never allow fair and transparent elections. That’s why they will not agree for the negotiation with opposition and compromise. They use special forces and military against unarmed people. Yanukovych decided to fight to the end. The last days made this absolutely clear. There is no time to wait. With an every hour it is getting worse, there is more and more victims.
I am not a journalist and, therefore, I may not be neutral and objective. And I could not be in the light of the last hours events! As an every citizen, I am engaged, strongly engaged in what is happening now in my country. Yes, I speak in the name of one side of the conflict – the side of Ukrainian people, to whom I am proud to belong. I am strongly convinced, that it is the only side that should be supported and defended.
I ask the world community and specifically EU countries do not stand aside, do not be indifferent, do not stay silent! By doing nothing you support the violence!
Please, stand together with us, speak out clearly, make immediate actions, implement personal sanctions, freeze their accounts – you will save lives! You will let my country to have an European, free and democratic future.
I strongly believe in your support, determination and indifference!
Sincerely,
Yuliya Tarnavska
PhD student at Jagiellonian Uniwersity
Cracow, Poland
24.1.2014
Brief von Juri Andruchowytsch zur Situation in der Ukraine / Letter from Yuri Andrukhovych about the situation in Ukraine
Juri Andruchowytsch ist ein preisgekrönter Schriftsteller aus der Ukraine
Liebe Freunde und vor allem internationale Journalisten und Redakteure,
an diesen Tagen bekomme ich von Ihnen sehr viele Briefe mit Bitten, die aktuelle Situation in Kiew und in der Ukraine generell zu beschreiben, das, was gerade passiert, zu bewerten und meine Vision wenigstens der nächsten Zukunft zu formulieren. Da ich einfach rein physisch nicht imstande bin, für jede Ihrer Zeitschriften einen ausführlichen analytischen Aufsatz zu verfassen, habe ich mich für diese kurze Ansprache entschieden, die jeder von Ihnen je nach Bedarf verwenden kann.
Die wichtigsten Dinge, die ich Ihnen sagen muss, sind folgende:
Während der knapp vier Jahren seiner Herrschaft brachte das Regime des Herrn Janukowytsch das Land und die Gesellschaft bis zu einem Zustand äußerster Spannung. Noch schlimmer – es trieb sich selbst in eine Sackgasse, wodurch er sich auf Dauer und mit allen Mitteln an der Macht halten muss, um nicht strafrechtlich hart zur Verantwortung gezogen zu werden. Die Dimensionen des gestohlenen und rechtswidrig angeeigneten übersteigen jegliche Vorstellungen von menschlicher Habsucht.
Die einzige Antwort, die dieses Regime schon seit über zwei Monaten gegenüber den friedlichen Protesten verwendet, ist die Gewalt, und zwar eine eskalierende, eine „kombinierte“ Gewalt: Angriffe der Polizeisondertruppen auf den Maidan werden ergänzt durch individuelle Verfolgung oppositioneller Aktivisten und einfacher Teilnehmer der Protestaktionen (Beobachtung, Prügel, Verbrennung von Autos und Wohnungen, Einbrüche, Verhaftungen, Gerichtsprozesse wie vom Fließband). Das Schlüsselwort ist dabei die Einschüchterung. Da es nicht funktioniert und die Menschen um so massenhafter protestieren, greift das Regime zu immer härteren Repressalien.
Eine entsprechende „Rechtsgrundlage“ schuf es am 16. Januar, als die vom Präsidenten völlig abhängigen Abgeordneten mit allen möglichen Prozedur-, Tagesordnungs- und sogar Verfassungsverletzungen durch Handheben (!) innerhalb von wenigen Minuten (!) über eine Reihe von Gesetzesänderungen abstimmten, die tatsächlich im Land eine Diktatur und einen Ausnahmezustand einführten, ohne den explizit ausrufen zu müssen. Indem ich zum Beispiel diesen Text schreibe und verbreite, falle ich unter einige strafrechtliche Paragraphen daraus, etwa für Dinge wie wie „Verleumdung“, „Aufhetzung“ etc.
Nun ja, wenn man diese Gesetze akzeptiert, muss man davon ausgehen, dass in der Ukraine alles verboten ist, was von den Machthabern nicht erlaubt wird. Und erlaubt ist nur eines – zu gehorchen.
Die ukrainische Gesellschaft akzeptierte diese „Gesetze“ nicht, und am 19. Januar trat sie wieder zahlreich auf – um ihre Zukunft zu verteidigen.
In den Fernsehnachrichten aus Kiew können Sie heute Protestierende in aller Art Helmen und Masken sehen, manche haben Holzstöcke in der Hand. Glauben Sie nicht, dass das irgendwelche „Extremisten“ „Provokateure“ oder „Rechtsradikale“ sind. Auch meine Freunde und ich gehen zu unseren Kundgebungen jetzt in solcher oder ähnlicher Ausstattung. In diesem Sinne wären heute auch ich, meine Frau, meine Tochter und unsere Freunde „Extremisten“. Es bleibt uns nichts übrig: wir schützen das Leben und die Gesundheit – von uns und von unseren Angehörigen. Auf uns schießen Soldaten der Sicherungsstreitkräfte, unsere Freunde werden von ihren Scharfschützen umgebracht. Die Zahl der getöteten Aktivisten betrug nur im Regierungsviertel und nur an den zwei letzten Tagen nach verschiedenen Angaben 5 oder 7 Personen. Dutzende Menschen in Kiew sind verschollen.
Wir können die Proteste nicht stoppen, denn das würde bedeuten, dass wir mit einem Land in der Form eines lebenslangen Gefängnisses einverstanden sind. Die junge Generation der Ukrainer, die in der postsowjetischen Zeit aufgewachsen sind, akzeptiert grundsätzlich keine Diktatur. Wenn die Diktatur siegt, wird Europa mit der Aussicht eines Nordkoreas an seiner Ostgrenze rechnen müssen und – nach unterschiedlichen Einschätzungen – mit zwischen 5 und 10 Millionen Flüchtlingen. Ich will Ihnen keine Angst machen.
Wir haben hier die Revolution der Jungen. Der unerklärte Krieg der Macht ist vor allem gegen sie gerichtet. Abends, wenn es dunkel wird, bewegen sich unbekannte Gruppen von „Menschen in Zivilkleidung“ durch Kiew, die hauptsächlich junge Menschen angreifen, vor allem diejenigen, die die Maidan-Symbole – sprich EU-Symbole – tragen. Diese Menschen werden entführt, in den Wald gebracht, dort entkleidet und in der bitteren Kälte gefoltert. Seltsamerweise sind Opfer von solchen Festnahmen am häufigsten junge Künstler – Schauspieler, Maler, Dichter. Man hat den Eindruck, als ob irgendwelche „Todesschwadrone“ ins Land eingelassen worden wären, deren Aufgabe es ist, das Beste, das es hat, zu vernichten.
Noch ein markantes Detail: Die Polizisten nutzen Kiewer Kliniken als Fallen für verletzte Protestierende, nehmen sie dort fest und (ich wiederhole – Verletze!) verschleppen sie zum Verhör in unbekannte Richtung. Es ist extrem gefährlich geworden, auch für einfache Passanten, die zufällig mit einem Splitter einer Polizei-Kunststoffgranate verwundet worden sind, sich ins Krankenhaus zu wenden. Ärzte sind ratlos und überlassen ihre Patienten den sogenannten „Rechtsschützern“.
Zusammenfassend: In der Ukraine sind Verbrechen gegen Menschlichkeit im vollen Gange, für die die heutige Macht verantwortlich ist. Wenn es in dieser Situation auch wirklich Extremisten gibt, so ist das die Spitze des Staates.
Und nun zu den beiden Ihren Fragen, die für mich traditionell am schwierigsten sind: Ich weiß nicht, was weiter kommt, und ich weiß nicht, was Sie für uns tun können. Sie können jedoch diese meine Ansprache je nach Ihren Möglichkeiten und Kontakten verbreiten. Und noch – leiden Sie mit uns mit. Denken Sie an uns. Wir werden trotzdem gewinnen, trotz aller Ausschreitungen. Das ukrainische Volk erkämpft die europäischen Werte einer freien und gerechten Gesellschaft schon jetzt ohne Übertreibung mit eigenem Blut. Ich hoffe sehr, dass Sie das schätzen werden.
Juri Andruchowytsch.
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Letter from Yuri Andrukhovych about the situation in Ukraine
Yuri Andrukhovych is an award-winning author from the Ukraine
Dear friends,
especially foreign journalists and editors,
These days I receive from you lots of inquiries requesting to describe the current situation in Kyiv and overall in Ukraine, express my opinion on what is happening, and formulate my vision of at least the nearest future. Since I am simply physically unable to respond separately to each of your publications with an extended analytical essay, I have decided to prepare this brief statement which each of you can use in accordance with your needs.
The most important things I must tell you are as follows.
During the less than four years of its rule, Mr. Yanukovych’s regime has brought the country and the society to the utter limit of tensions. Even worse, it has boxed itself into a no-exit situation where it must hold on to power forever—by any means necessary. Otherwise it would have to face criminal justice in its full severity. The scale of what has been stolen and usurped exceeds all imaginination of what human avarice is capable.
The only answer this regime has been proposing in the face of peaceful protests, now in their third month, is violence, violence that escalates and is “hybrid” in its nature: special forces’ attacks at the Maidan are combined with individual harassment and persecution of opposition activists and ordinary participants in protest actions (surveillance, beatings, torching of cars and houses, storming of residences, searches, arrests, rubber-stamp court proceedings). The keyword here is intimidation. And since it is ineffective, and people are protesting on an increasingly massive scale, the powers-that-be make these repressive actions even harsher.
The “legal base” for them was created on January 16, when the Members of Parliament fully dependent on the President, in a crude violation of all rules of procedure and voting, indeed of the Constitution itself, in the course of just a couple of minutes (!) with a simple show of hands (!) voted in a whole series of legal changes which effectively introduce dictatorial rule and a state of emergency in the country without formally declaring them. For instance, by writing and disseminating this, I am subject to several new criminal code articles for “defamation,” “inflaming tensions,” etc.
Briefly put, if these “laws” are recognized, one should conclude: in Ukraine, everything that is not expressly permitted by the powers-that-be is forbidden. And the only thing permitted by those in power is to yield to them.
Not agreeing to these “laws,” on January 19 the Ukrainian society rose up, yet again, to defend its future.
Today in television newsreels coming from Kyiv you can see protesters in various kinds of helmets and masks on their faces, sometimes with wooden sticks in their hands. Do not believe that these are “extremists,” “provocateurs,” or “right-wing radicals.” My friends and I also now go out protesting dressed this way. In this sense my wife, my daughter, our friends, and I are also “extremists.” We have no other option: we have to protect our life and health,as well as the life and health of those near and dear to us. Special forces units shoot at us, their snipers kill our friends. The number of protesters killed just on one block in the city’s government quarter is, according to different reports, either 5 or 7. Additionally, dozens of people in Kyiv are missing.
We cannot halt the protests, for this would mean that we agree to live in a country that has been turned into a lifelong prison. The younger generation of Ukrainians, which grew up and matured in the post-Soviet years, organically rejects all forms of dictatorship. If dictatorship wins, Europe must take into account the prospect of a North Korea at its eastern border and, according to various estimates, between 5 and 10 million refugees. I do not want to frighten you.
We now have a revolution of the young. Those in power wage their war first and foremost against them. When darkness falls on Kyiv, unidentified groups of “people in civilian clothes” roam the city, hunting for the young people, especially those who wear the symbols of the Maidan or the European Union. They kidnap them, take them out into forests, where they are stripped and tortured in fiercely cold weather. For some strange reason the victims of such actions are overwhelmingly young artists—actors, painters, poets. One feels that some strange “death squadrons” have been released in the country with an assignment to wipe out all that is best in it.
One more characteristic detail: in Kyiv hospitals the police force entraps the wounded protesters; they are kidnapped and (I repeat, we are talking about wounded persons) taken out for interrogation at undisclosed locations. It has become dangerous to turn to a hospital even for random passersby who were grazed by a shard of a police plastic grenade. The medics only gesture helplessly and release the patients to the so-called “law enforcement.”
To conclude: in Ukraine full-scale crimes against humanity are now being committed, and it is the present government that is responsible for them. If there are any extremists present in this situation, it is the country’s highest leadership that deserves to be labeled as such.
And now turning to your two questions which are traditionally the most difficult for me to answer: I don’t know what will happen next, just as I don’t know what you could now do for us. However, you can disseminate, to the extent your contacts and possibilities allow, this appeal. Also, empathize with us. Think about us. We shall overcome all the same, no matter how hard they rage. The Ukrainian people, without exaggeration, now defend the European values of a free and just society with their own blood. I very much hope that you will appreciate this.
Yuri Andrukhovych.