In the program of the Ukrainian TV channel “1+1”, where the law “On Education” that came into force yesterday was discussed, the secretary of the Interregional Association “Romanian Community of Ukraine” Aurica Bozhescu criticized the document. After several attempts to interrupt the speaker, one of the presenters called a representative of the Romanian community a “separatist”: “I learned Ukrainian, but you can’t do it!” - he said.
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Bozhescu stated that she had repeatedly appealed to the authorities with a proposal to solve the problems of Ukrainian Romanians amicably, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Our previous proposals were never heard. We took part in meetings of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Minority Issues. We always suggested one thing: that it would be good to keep everything in Ukraine as it was - the educational process in the native language, but with the study of the Ukrainian language. This proposal is not unreasonable, because our graduates speak Ukrainian very well... There are more than a hundred such graduates, they enter Ukrainian universities, and upon graduation they work in foreign companies. And all this because they learn Ukrainian using their native language.
I really asked the Ministry of Education of Ukraine to help us with personnel who would teach the Ukrainian language in Romanian. We asked the ministries to help with the training of these personnel, since we do not have such an opportunity.
But, since this law has already been adopted, I would like to draw your attention to Article 8 of the Constitution of Ukraine. It states that the Constitution of Ukraine has the highest force, and laws are applied only on its basis. Article 22 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that when adopting new laws, narrowing the already existing rights and freedoms of citizens is not allowed...
These schools have existed for centuries, what should we do now? Removing education in the native language is a path to assimilation, but no one wants to lose their identity. It is a pity that we were not heard and understood. And it’s a pity that we are only guaranteed preschool education in our native language,” said Aurika Bozhescu.
The presenter interrupted her speech after several attempts.
“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I heard exactly the same thing in 2013, only a little to the east, and about language and identity. Why am I, a Russian speaker, from a Russian-speaking city, and you don’t want to learn Ukrainian there?” - said the presenter.
The presenter, Sergei Ivanov, is a fugitive Luhansk Maidan activist, a nationalist blogger, based on whose denunciations the SBU arrested hundreds of people, which he himself proudly admitted in an interview with the Ukrainian media.