Learning to be tolerant

While they are bringing to light the painful problems of the Armed Forces, the countryside, and health care system, Ukraine’s political forces shyly avoid an equally painful issue of xenophobia, which has spread all over this society. They keep silent on this subject except during election campaigns when they warn the electorate against “Jewish banking capital that has merged with the political system” or challenge the status of Ukrainian as the only official language. Other examples could be cited. The big question is, Do they reflect a nationwide trend?

Ethnic minorities make up 22 percent of Ukraine’s population. According to a poll carried out by the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies and entitled “Tolerance Level in Ukraine,” 76 percent of the respondents believe the domestic interethnic situation is fraught with tension and conflict. Olena Kryvytska, senior research fellow with the institute’s politics department, says most Ukrainians appear to support Russians, Belarusians, and Jews, in contrast to the ethnic groups originating from the Caucasus, Gypsies, and Afghani. Close to 50 percent stated their negative attitude to all migrants.

Kryvytska says the first xenophobic act was officially registered in Ukraine in 2001. The trend has since kept on an upward curve. Such cases are still being monitored today, but Talyat Aliyev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Ukraine, insists these facts do not reflect the true state of affairs: “When you file a complaint to a law enforcement agency, you receive a response to the effect that ‘the facts have not been confirmed.’”

In addition, Article 161 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code that deals with xenophobia is seldom used by the courts of law because it is hard to provide xenophobic evidence under the existing laws.

According to Myroslav Popovych, director, Institute of Philosophy, the Ukrainian state has an international reputation of being tolerant: “There have been periods in our history when an expressly tolerant attitude toward other ethnic groups served as the only guarantee of a stable domestic situation — for example, in 1917 when the Central Rada was able implement the motto ‘Ukraine is a common home for peoples living on its lands.’ What is there to prevent this principle from being implemented today?

“First, it is the inadequate methods of combating xenophobia. Article 161 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code concerns only Ukrainian nationals, which means that it offers no protection to any foreigner, even if he or she is legally residing in Ukraine. Another big problem for the Ukrainian state is the increasing illegal migrant influx and the absence of a program for their integration into our society. As it is, such illegal migrants in most cases are faced with civil and criminal law proceedings. This adds fuel to the xenophobic fire. Coupled with the ongoing economic crisis, this provides fertile ground for ultra-rightist organizations.”

Experts believe that xenophobia in Ukraine is boosted by intergovernmental relations. Pavlo Movchan, member of the Verkhovna Rada’s Cultural Affairs Committee and chairman of the Prosvita Society, wonders how a true Ukrainian can feel when 80 percent of Ukraine’s media use Russian and three out of 20 newspapers on a newsstand are in Ukrainian. Naturally, this Ukrainian will become radical. Russia’s channels that are constantly on Ukrainian television daily broadcast the Ukrainian image as that of an enemy of Russia, with all kinds of supporting quotes and historical evidence. This threatens an increase in anti-Russian moods among the Ukrainians.

Says political analyst Mykola Pohrebynsky: “Russians and Ukrainians alike are aware of being humiliated in their own country. We have media publications and statements by certain members of parliament to the effect that, for example, Galicians are ‘something’ [to be shrugged off or mocked]. Xenophobic statements made by noted figures are as harmful to our society as is our inadequate governance.”

Oleg Gabriyelian, head of the Crimean Armenian Society, scolds certain representatives of ethnic minorities: “We have become separated so much that anyone is now grabbing his plot of land only. Where is our dialog? Where is a city square for us to gather and hear each other? We aren’t building each other’s positive image.”

People representing various ethnic groups are further concerned about the language issue. The Romanian Arkadii Papaiets is outraged by the fact that Romanian school students are being forced to take independent external tests in Ukrainian. However, Yurii Reshetnikov, chairman of the State Committee for Ethnic Groups and Religions, says that there are over 3,500 schools with instruction in ethnic languages, including 1,800 schools with instruction in Russian, 69 with instruction in Romanian, and so on. All these schools are financed from the central budget. Reshetnikov believes that school instruction in Ukrainian, as the official language, is necessary if we want the children of various ethnic families to integrate into Ukrainian society and enroll in Ukrainian universities.

All of the roundtable participants who analyzed the interethnic policy agreed that it is inadequate and calls for changes on a legislative level. Oleksandr Feldman described it as egocentric, while Myroslav Popovych stressed that it is necessary to distinguish between nationalism and patriotism, considering that the former begets xenophobia and chauvinism, while absence of the latter results in a defective condition of the ethnos. Verkhovna Rada MP Andrii Shkil believes the main problem to be decided is learning to love, even without being loved in return. The laws must be written so as not to prevent one from loving one’s neighbor, but to prevent the proliferation of xenophobia.

Ukraine has taken the first tentative measures against xenophobia. In April 2008, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ordered the setting up of the Interdepartmental Task Force Against Xenophobia and Interethnic and Racial Intolerance. This unit has been working out recommendations for authorities aimed at combating racism, xenophobia, and discrimination in Ukraine. Changes have to be made on a legislative level, but making and enforcing laws, however good, will produce no effect as long as the general public and the media continue to tolerate such negative phenomena as xenophobia.