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31.08.2009: Subcarpathian Aktion
"Rusyns Letter"
Please send this letter to addresses
U.S.
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/contact.asp
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
(FRA)
information@fra.europa.eu
Tatjana Ždanoka
tatjana.zdanoka@europarl.europa.eu
Russia State Duma
http://www.duma.gov.ru/letter_pr.html
United Nations
Media Inquires/Interview Requests
Press-Info@ohchr.org
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR)
InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Civil Society Unit
civilsocietyunit@ohchr.org
and to all other addresses you think that
it would be useful.
I also ask you to inform all your friends and acquaintances about
the action and explain to them why it will be good if they do
the same.
Thank you very much.
Letter
My name is Ivan Rusyn. I
am from Subkarpathian Rus and I am sending you
this letter both in my name and in the name of many free people
with the
request
to help saving one of the oldest but small in numbers peoples
whose members call themselves Rusyns.
Who are the Rusyns?
Rusyns (Rusyn: Русины, also referred to as Carpatho-Rusyns, Ugrorusy,
Ruthenians, Ruthenes, Rusins, and Rusnaks) are an Eastern Slavic
people that uses the Rusyn language. Rusyns did not adopt the
ethnonym Ukrainian which was forced on them to describe their
ethnic identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The formation of the Rusyn people was expedited
by governmental decree banning the name Rusyn from official
usage, as seen after 1945 in Soviet Transcarpathia and Poland
and by the early 1950s in Czechoslovakia. Today, Slovakia,
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia and also Croatia
officially recognize Rusyns as an ethnic minority. Rusyns were
recognized as a separate ethnicity in Ukraine in 2007 by the
Zakarpatie / Transcarpathian Region Council, although ethnic
recognition is not within the competency of this regional authority.
Ruthenians within Ukraine have Ukrainian citizenship, and most
had to adopt Ukrainian ethnic identity. Most contemporary self-identified
ethnic Rusyns live
outside of Ukraine.
The Rusyns have always been subject to larger neighbouring powers,
such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Poland, the Soviet
Union, Ukraine, and Russia.
Carpatho-Ruthenia had been a part of the Hungarian Kingdom since
the late eleventh century, where it was known as Kárpátalja.
In May 1919, it was incorporated, according to the Sen Germene
treaty, with nominal autonomy into Czechoslovakia. In the end
of the Second World War the Soviet Army annexed Carpatho-Ruthenia
to the Ukrainian SSR. Officially, there were no Rusyns in the
USSR. In fact, Soviet and some modern Ukrainian реклама, as well
as Ukrainian government claim that Rusyns are part of the Ukrainian
nation. When Ukraine reached independence Carpatho-Ruthenia remained
within independent Ukraine although it had never belonged to
that state before 1946.
Acccording to the 1991 referendum on independence 90 % of the
population voted for independence but, at the same time, 78 %
of the population confirmed the desire that Carpatho-Ruthenia
should be an autonomous region. There is no autonomy for Carpatho-Ruthenia
/ Subcarpathian Rus` even after 18 years of the referendum and
Rusyns are still not recognized, either as a separate people
or as a national minority. Rusyns have tried all the democratic
ways to talk Ukrainian authorities into acknowledging them but
in vain. Just the opposite happens. All those who openly speak
for the recognition of their people on the basis of international
conventions on human rights, in which the right of self-identification
regarding national affiliation is emphasized, are under strong
pressures. Because of that it is not possible for the Rusyns
in the Zakarpatie Region to devolop education in their own language,
publish newspapers, have radio and TV broadcast etc. and eventually
to pretect and promote their national identity adequately.
A new census will take place in 2011 in Ukraine. It is very important
for all Rusyns in Ukraine because it is a chance for them to
have a special heading RUSYN on the cencus list finally since
there had been no such a heading at the previos censuses, and
all those who expressed themselves as Rusyns were registered
as Ukrainians.
Taking into consideration the specific conditions and historical
tradition in the region we ask you to use your indisputable authority
and turn the Ukrainian authorities` attention to their obligation
of implementing the signed international conventions concerning
human rights and implementation of the democratic referendum
from 1991 with regard to giving the status of autonomy to the
Zakarpatie Region, and, in that way, to help the people whose
language is one of the oldest Slavic languages and is classified
as endangered one to the point of disappearance by UNESCO.
Help us, please, in saving a proud people
from assimilation and complete disappearance.
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