Stefan Romaniw: some governments avoid word “genocide”

A number of world governments are trying to avoid the word “genocide”, which is why they currently do not recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainians, Stefan Romaniw, First Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress and Co-Chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO), explained on the air of the national 24/7 newscast.

“Although they [governments] believe in this, they believe that it complicates their relations with other nationalities,” Romaniw said.

The Ukrainian community is working on this issue, the First Vice President of the UWC added. “Genocide is genocide. We use the terminology that Raphael Lemkin [Polish and American legal scholar, funder of genocide research – ed.] uses, which is the extermination of the people – what Putin is doing now and what Stalin did then,” Romaniv said.

The Diaspora also interacts with the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture in this aspect. Ukrainian communities in 65 countries work with ambassadors to deliver a unified message.

“This is not an easy task. But we remember that 15 years ago, almost no one recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainians. And now even Germany, which has been telling us for several years that this decision is impossible, has recognized it,” the First Vice President of the UWC said.

Currently, 28 countries in the world have recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainians. On October 12, the decision was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The Ukrainian World Congress expresses its gratitude to Ukrainian communities abroad for their consistent public activity and efforts towards the process of recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainians.

The memory of the Holodomor victims will be commemorated in Ukraine and the world on the fourth Saturday of November, this year, on November 25.