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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Ethnic Policy is a Delicate Matter

13 October, 1998 - 00:00

Nearly one third of Ukrainian citizens are in fact not Ukrainians, but
representatives of about 130 other nationalities. The so-called "ethnic
minorities" are a significant factor in the country's internal political
stability and public order.

Mykola Rutko, Head of the State Committee on Issues of Nationality and
Migration, answers the questions of Vitaly Kuksa, The Day's
correspondent:

It is generally known that Ukraine is a multinational country. For instance,
representatives of 69 so-called "ethnic minorities" live in Chernivtsi
Oblast alone. By the way, there is nothing insulting about the term "ethnic
minority." It is a widespread term bearing a quantitative characteristic
about a group of people first and foremost. It means that representatives
of a nationality are less than those of the titular nation, i.e., the nation
after which a country is named. Such notions as "nation", "people", and
"nationality" were to some extent artificially introduced in our life during
the Soviet era, giving more numerous nationalities more privileges. According
to the law, an "ethnic minority" is a group of people who are aware of
their national identity and have common social and cultural interests.

Q.: What political trends are characteristic of national groups in Ukraine?

A.: One has to agree with the fact that 14 million Ukrainian citizens
are a significant political force. And it, of course, will be involved
in elections. It is expected that a considerable part of the Russians will
vote for a presidential candidate who promises to strengthen the integration
processes with Russia. The country's leadership has bo be aware of the
fact that we will have a powerful destabilizing factor in case we fail
to reconcile the ethnic minorities and win them over to the side of the
Ukrainian political nation, i.e., to ourpublic, historical, and social
communities.

Q.: Is the problem of interethnic conflicts pressing for Ukraine?

A.: There is no other more delicate sphere than that of interethnic
relations. Many politicos, journalists, and other state and public figures
consider themselves specialists in this area and often make thoughtless
statements. Due to this the interethnic and internal ethnic situation looks
like a snow ball. It sometimes happens in the Crimea where the Russian
"minority" is in fact a majority. We can also recall the recent incident
of shutting down Romanian schools in Odesa oblast. Sometimes the situation
within some ethnic groups happens to be quite tense, too. There are some
communities of the same nationality who are in conflict among themselves.
Sometimes those conflicts are just a reaction to some events in their historical
homeland. Such a situation can also lead to escalating interethnic tension.
Thus, the prevention of interethnic and internal ethnic conflicts is also
among the main tasks of the committee.

Incidentally, we use in our work the statistical data of 1989 population
census. Thus, we do not know the exact number of representatives of some
ethnic minorities. To some extent we can correct those figures analyzing
the migration processes as those of returning deported peoples. We are
looking forward to a results of a new census which is scheduled to be conducted
in three years.

The Day's Information

According to an Ethnic Directory published two years ago by the Committee
on Ethnic Minorities jointly with the Institute of Ethnic, Regional, and
Diaspora Studies and the Center for Ethno-sociology and Ethno-political
Studies of the Institute of Sociology, there were 128 nationalities inhabiting
Ukraine in 1989.

Apart from the titlular nation - Ukrainians - who made up then 37.419,000;
11.4 million Russians, and 440,000 Belarusians, the most numerous minorities
were Moldovans (342,500), and Bulgarians (234,400). Also significant are
the Jewish minority (486,000), Poles (219,000), Romanians (134,000), Greeks
(98,600), and Hungarians (163,000). The number of Crimean Tartars then
was 47,000 while now it has increased to about 250,000. Quite significant
is also the other Tartar minority - 86,900. The number of Germans has grown
almost twice in the past nine years - 75,000 instead of 37,800.

Cultural interests of the smallest national minorities, first of all
those of the North and Siberia, need no less attention. In 1989, 10 Nivkhs,
10 Negidals, 9 Izhors, 8 Kets whose language belongs to no one language
family, 3 Toftallars, 3 Yukagirs, 3 Eskimoes, 2 Itelmens, 2 Oroks (not
to be mixed up with Oroches - there are 19 of them in Ukraine), 1 Enet,
and 1 Nagasan enjoyed full rights of Ukrainian citizenship.

Some titlular nation representatives of the so-called "developed" countries
also consider Ukraine their homeland. Apart from the mentioned Germans,
there are 1086 Finns, 729 Spaniards (plus 520 Cubans), 679 Chinese, 316
Italians, 175 representatives of the peoples of India, 168 Frenchmen, 80
Swedes, 64 Austrians, 58 Englishmen, 44 Dutch, 23 Japanese, and 11 Americans.

The variety of "Ukrainian International" will not be complete if we
do not mention 54,200 Armenians, 47,900 Gypsies, 36,900 Azerbaijanians,
23,500 Georgians, 20,400 Chuvashs, 20,330 Uzbeks, 19,33 Mordvins, 11,300
Lithuanians, 10,500 Kazakhs, 9,100 Czechs, 8,600 Udmurts, and 7,900 Slovaks.

How different now is the "Ethnic picture" of the Ukrainian land we will
see after 2001. We do not wish it less colorful. The return of deported
peoples and returning to their historical homeland are still the main trends
in these changes.

 

 

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