Subcarpathian Rus
Podkarpatska Rus

10.09.2009: Resolution of the international scientific-practical conference dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Saint-Germain Peace Treaty of 10.09.1919, and its importance for the formation of the Ruthenian nation and statehood
Uzhgorod, 10 September 2009

Preamble
** In the 20th century the democratic society was focused on human rights, but at this point in the 2st century, at the UN level it had shifted from the protection of human rights to protection of the rights of peoples.

** Talks in Ukraine on Human Rights and European choice are insufficient, or have a speculative nature, provided there is being ignored the right of the Subcarpathian-Ruthenian people to implement their ethnic and civil identity in the socio-political and cultural sense.

** Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE have put Stalinism on a par with fascism.
Ukraine has also condemned Stalinism and «Soviet occupation», and restored the violated rights and freedoms of Ukrainians. Ruthenians used the same right to re-establish their pre-Soviet status. This status came into force “de jure” with the collapse of the USSR, and was confirmed by the convincing results of the referendum in 1991.

** According to the UN Declaration of 2007, "On the rights of indigenous peoples", human rights and the rights of the people do not contradict, but complement each other.

That is why Subcarpathian Ruthenians in order to achieve their national goals are going to use their right to restore their statehood, which was destroyed on March 15, 1939 because of Voloshin’s collusion with the Nazis in Berlin, and by Joseph Stalin in 1944-45.

Conference participants stated:

1. International Saint-Germain Peace Treaty of Sept. 10, 1919, was decisive in the fate of small European nations (the Austrians, Slovaks, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, etc.), as well as the Subcarpathian Ruthenians, living in their “territory to the south of the Carpathians” since olden times. Saint-Germain treaty recognized the right of the Subcarpathian Ruthenian people that had seceded from Hungary with the status of autonomy, to form their independent state, while remaining part of Czechoslovakia as a subject of international law.

2. Resolution of Saint-Germain Peace Conference of 10 September 1919 has become for the Ruthenians the momentum that allowed them to develop in the future parliamentary movement in the democratic Europe by forming their own state.
The above agreement stipulated the territorial borders of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia (albeit with a significant reduction of ethnic Ruthenian territory from 13 counties to 4: Maramorosh, Bereg, Ugocha, Ung). This was confirmed a year later in the International Treaty of Trianon.

3. The difficult situation in Czechoslovakia with the artificially created "Czechoslovak" nation did not allow for an immediate implementation of the decision of the Saint-Germain Peace Conference of 1919 in respect of the Subcarpathian Ruthenians. However, the status of Subcarpathian Ruthenia has been clearly enshrined in the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1920, when there acted Ruthenian national government, Ruthenian national schools, Ruthenian political parties and representatives of the Ruthenians in the Parliament of Czechoslovakia.

4. Resolution of Saint-Germain Peace Treaty of 10/09/1919 also gave the Ruthenians inalienable right to shape the future of the State Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the Czechoslovak Republic. It was recorded on November 22, 1938, as the Constitutional Law number 328.

5. According to the right to form the national parliament [Soym] of the Subcarpathian Ruthenians, and the right to autonomy, the Ruthenians had a unique opportunity to create a sovereign state.

6. Name of the State “Subcarpathian Ruthenia” was mentioned even in Stalin's treaty “On the Carpathian Ukraine", dated 29 June 1945. It has compelled the Soviet government to eliminate the State Subcarpathian Ruthenia, and the right of its people call themselves "Subcarpathian Ruthenians“.

7. This may explain the categorical refusal of the authorities of Ukraine to recognize the nationality "Subcarpathian Ruthenian" within 18 years, because this recognition would automatically lead to the return of their territorial status, approved by the Saint-Germain peace treaty 90 years ago. Under international law, the re-established status of the Republic Subcarpathian Ruthenia cannot be lower than the one achieved in the pre-Soviet time.

8. Resolution of the Saint-Germain Peace Conference gave an option to the Subcarpathian Ruthenia on December 1, 1991, immediately after the collapse of the USSR (and later, Czechoslovakia), join the newly formed state of Ukraine, retaining its pre-Soviet status of autonomy. This was clearly stated in the referendum of Dec. 1, 1991, when 78% of the local population voted for the appropriation of the State Subcarpathian Ruthenia the status of "special self-governing territory of Ukraine, not included in other administrative-territorial entities“, which was, in fact, the restoration of their pre-Soviet status of autonomy.

9. The international community's attention should be drawn to the fact that Ukraine does not have the act of ratification of the treaty of June 29, 1945 "On the Carpathian Ukraine“, which gives grounds for doubting the legitimacy of the administration of Ukraine on the territory of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia for the entire 18 years.

10. Exercised by the Subcarpathian Ruthenians right to self-determination, according to the results of the referendum of Dec. 1, 1991, after their publication in the official press should have come into force of the Act. However, this has not been legally enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine until now.

11. The decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine № 6-rp/208 of April 16, 2008 states, "The decision of all-Ukrainian referendum ... is final and does not require any ratification, including by the Supreme Council". That means that the will of the people, expressed in the referendum-plebiscite, does not require approval by the Supreme Council, or any other branches of government, and becomes a law for the execution for all branches of the state.

Recommendations of the international scientific-practical conference

1. All Subcarpathian Ruthenians should recognise that they are entitled to not only recover their nationality "Subcarpathian Ruthenian", but also restore the pre-Soviet status of their state, and join the process of further national revival and the lawmaking.

2. Subcarpathian Ruthenians should continue establishing relations with the leaders of peoples struggling for their national recognition and legitimization of their own statehood, in particular, membership in the UN, and contacts with the Parliamentary Assembly “for Democracy and Human Rights“, and other European and global legal institutions.

3. Subcarpathian Ruthenians should immediately prepare the materials for filing a lawsuit in the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and The Hague, on the facts of the crimes committed by the Ukrainian authorities:

a) 18 years of government inaction and non-recognition of the results of the referendum of Dec. 1, 1991, which entered into force upon its publication in 1992, and their criminal resistance to the implementation of the will of the people.

b) The adoption and implementation at the state level of the criminal “Plan of actions to address the issue of the Ukrainians-Ruthenians” from 1996,
In fact, this document is a proof of not only the criminal intent, but the criminal actions of Ukrainian authorities at all levels on ethnic elimination of the Ruthenian nation.

c) The refusal to allow studying of the Ruthenian language, geography and history in public schools, massive discrimination, also recorded by the UN Committee, hours of interrogations of Ruthenians by the secret services on fabricated case number 499, and judicial repressions against members of the Ruthenian organizations.

4.Subcarpathian Ruthenians should actively expand cooperation with Ruthenian Diaspora in the United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and Russia, Ruthenian and other international organizations in order to consolidate the international Ruthenian movement, and obtain international support for the recognition of the pre-Soviet status of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia and the recognition of the status of the Subcarpathian Ruthenian people.

Delegates are appealing to the Transcarpathian Regional Council, the central government of Ukraine and the world community with the following requirements:

** To condemn the fact of non-recognition by the Ukrainian authorities the results of the referendum of Dec. 1, 1991, and their categorical refusal to recognize the nationality “Subcarpathian Ruthenian”, which by its nature is a neo-colonial discrimination of the Ruthenian people. Therefore there is a real threat of escalation of such a policy of Ukraine into ethnic cleansing, such as the recent Balkan, or "Volyn massacre", when Ukrainians solved the national issues by killing tens of thousands of Poles - women, elderly and children.

** To condemn the disastrous state of affairs with human rights in Ukraine, that creates a threat to stability in Europe and the world.

** To condemn the repressions and persecution of leaders of the Ruthenian public organizations in Ukraine, and the fact that the indigenous Ruthenian people are deliberately constrained from unification in a peaceful struggle for their rights and freedoms against the Ukrainian authorities, as well as destructive nationalistic forces, whose criminal actions are being openly supported by the Ukrainian secret services.

** To condemn the flagrant falsification by Ukrainian scientists of the history of the Subcarpathian Ruthenians, whose autonomous status was recognized in the world 90 years ago.

** To condemn the policy of the Ukrainian authorities in the Transcarpathia-Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the deliberate violation of the legal relationship with the indigenous people, to which there can be no justification, and that can be regarded only as a deliberate destruction of their own statehood.

** To recognize the fact that the Subcarpathian-Ruthenian people today, 90 years after Saint-Germain, have survived the blows of fascism in 1939, and Stalinism in 1944-91. The Ruthenians, compared with aggressive Ukrainian authorities are peaceful , God loving, law-abiding people! Besides, most importantly, Ruthenians are efficient in their own organizations and their representative governing bodies.

Conference participants suggested:

** To send this resolution to the UN, the governments of Ukraine, EU, Russia, United States, the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, to profile institutions, NAS of Ukraine, Transcarpathian Regional Council and the state administration.

** To send a thank you letter to the Government of France on behalf of the Ruthenian people with regard to the fact that 90 years ago in Saint-Germain, a suburb of Paris, with the participation of the then French Prime Minister Jean Clemenceau, was positively and democratically decided the fate of the Subcarpathian Ruthenian people, and their territorial status.
** To support the decision of Subcarpathian Ruthenian organizations and official institutions, and ask the lawyer Godmash Peter Vasilievich to acquire the status of an official expert on human rights and freedoms of our people.

Conference Chairman: The head of the [Soym] of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia, head of the International Carpathian Institute , Corresponding member of the International Slavic Academy (Ruthenian Branch) Archpriest Dimitry Sidor

Conference Co-Chairman: President of the UPE Burak M.I.

Members of the organizing committee and participants: President of the Ruthenian Centre
Prof. Krivsky I.Y.

Chairman of the Transcarpathian scientific society Prof. Makara M.P.

President of the National Council of the SR Mikulin V.I.

Conference Secretary: Lakatos B.Y.

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