Today the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted the resolution commemorating the victims of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in the former USSR, submitted by the President of the Assembly Mevlüt Cavusoglu.

Chairman of the Estonian delegation Andres Herkel, who made a speech on behalf of the European People’s Party, stressed the importance of the Holodomor report in connection with the statement condemning the crimes of totalitarian communism, adopted four years ago. Herkel said that on the basis of historical facts the Parliament of Ukraine has the full right to call the events an act of genocide. The decisions on confiscation of crops and total isolating of starving villages were made by the Bolshevik leadership. Herkel also drew attention to the terms like “terror famine” and “famine genocide”, used by several historians. In the conclusion of his speech he said that it would be incredible hypocrisy for anyone to say that it had been just the consequence of bad weather.
 
Member of the Estonian delegation Silver Meikar who took the floor on behalf of the European Liberals called for opening to the historians the archives where the documents dealing with the famine are hidden. “In the archives of Russia there could be documents that definitely prove genocide was committed against the Ukrainian people,” Meikar added.
 
The Assembly rejected the proposals submitted mainly by the legal affairs committee and Mr Meikar on including the term “genocide” in the main text of the resolution.
 
 
The Riigikogu Press Service
 
 
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