Question: Could you comment on the hearing entitled “Small nations under the totalitarian rule” held in the European Parliament on the initiative of representatives of the European People’s Party (EPP) on 19 March? In the course of the event Nazi and Soviet regimes were called equivalent, whereas Chechnya was characterised as an “occupied country”.
Answer: It is true that in the course of the hearing held in the European Parliament on the initiative of representatives of the European People’s Party (EPP) a number of MEPs, mainly from the Baltic states, reiterated once again the thesis of ”identical nature of Nazism and Communism”.
We regard such approach as an effort to falsify history, as blatant cynicism and blasphemy towards those who freed the world from horrors of the “brown plague”. Such affronts insult the memory of millions of victims of crimes against humanity condemned by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
It seemed that from time to time statements by the organisers of the hearing went beyond an adequate perception of reality and represented direct interference in the internal affairs of our country. I have in mind in particular the statement by MEP I.Vaidere of Latvia who called the Chechen Republic an “enslaved European state”.
We would advise MEPs from the Baltic countries to pay attention to outrageous facts of glorification of Hitler’s criminals and their local collaborators. This is clearly witnessed by annual marches in Latvia and assemblies in Estonia organised by former members of Waffen-SS legions and their contemporary followers, as well as by the opening in September 2012 of a memorial for SS-members in the Latvian city of Bauska. What is more, all this is happening while fundamental rights and liberties of national minorities are being violated by official Riga and Tallinn.
We expect the leaders of the European Parliament and the EP European People’s Party (EPP) group to show common sense by dissociating themselves from such extreme and irresponsible statements.
28 March 2013
