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Category: Ukraine

  • Condoleeza Rice: EU Should be More Open Toward Ukraine and Turkey

    Condoleeza Rice: EU Should be More Open Toward Ukraine and Turkey

    Condoleeza Rice: EU Should be More Open Toward Ukraine and Turkey

    By Worldwide News Ukraine

    Published: Monday, Sep. 17, 2012 – 2:25 am

    KYIV, Ukraine, September 17, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ —

    The EU should not separate itself from the neighboring countries such as Ukraine and Turkey, said the 66th U.S. Secretary of State (2005-2009), Condoleezza Rice at the ninth annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) meeting (September 13-16, 2012). She stressed that if Europe focused on itself as a result of a crisis then one of the largest magnets of democratic development in Europe and the whole world would be lost.

    Both Turkey and Ukraine have been trying to become members of the EU for some time now. Presently, the EU is finalizing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Ukraine and cooperating with the country within its neighborhood policy. FTA is a part of Ukraine’s Association Agreement (AA) with the EU. In 2011, Ukrainian parliament reconfirmed signing AA a priority of the country’s foreign policy. AA has reached the final stage of initialing in July 2012, when the sides finished editing and coordinating approvals of the second – economic – part of the AA.

    Turkey’s negotiation on membership in the EU started back in 2005 but came to a halt because of domestic and external problems including the Cyprus issue. The EU froze talks in 8 of the 35 key areas under negotiation. Although Ankara is aiming to comply with the EU laws by 2013, Brussels refused to back this date as a deadline. Reportedly, Turkey’s accession process may postpone until 2021.

    This year’s summit “Ukraine and the World: Addressing Tomorrow’s Challenges Together”, opened by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focuses on Ukraine’s relations with other nations.

    Over 200 leaders from politics, business and society representing more than 20 countries came to discuss major global challenges and their impact on Europe, Ukraine and the world. Among the participants of the Summit are Aleksander Kwasniewski, Stefan Füle, Robert Zoellick, Carl Bildt, Gordon Brown, Javier Solana, Condoleeza Rice, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Shashi Tharoor, Richard Branson, Elmar Brok and others.

    The annual Yalta meeting which was organized by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation traditionally takes place in southern Ukrainian town of Livadia at the former summer retreat of Russian tsar Nicholas II – Livadia Palace.

    SOURCE Worldwide News Ukraine

    via Condoleeza Rice: EU Should be More Open Toward Ukraine and Turkey – PR Newswire – The Sacramento Bee.

  • Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: The Circassians Cry Genocide

    Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: The Circassians Cry Genocide

    Sochi, the site for the 2014 winter Olympics, just happens to be where the russians dispossessed an entire nation exactly 150 years earlier. the survivors’ descendants say it was genocide—and now they’re demanding justice.

    1940: Circassian guards at the home of collaborationist Gen. Maxime Weygand. (Margaret Bourke-White / Time & Life Pictures-Getty Images)
    1940: Circassian guards at the home of collaborationist Gen. Maxime Weygand. (Margaret Bourke-White / Time & Life Pictures-Getty Images)

    Vladimir Putin may think he has trouble enough on Moscow’s streets without worrying about demonstrators outside the country. If so, perhaps he should think again. This week in Istanbul, New York, Brussels, and other world cities, protesters are taking aim at his most cherished project: the 2014 Winter Olympics. Although the facilities at the Caucasus Mountains resort of Sochi are already winning enthusiastic praise from visiting skiers, thousands of angry activists are determined to spoil Putin’s party.

    The marchers are Circassians, the descendants of a people who once had their own country on the shores of the Black Sea, between Crimea and the modern-day Republic of Georgia. They lost it a century and a half ago to a brutal campaign by the imperial Russian army to seize the entire Caucasus region. The Circassians resisted for four decades until May 21, 1864, when they finally surrendered and were expelled from the land of their fathers. Until recently their descendants marked the date only with quiet remembrance ceremonies. But in 2007 the International Olympic Committee accepted Russia’s bid to hold the 2014 Games at Sochi—the very place where the Circassians surrendered in 1864. Since then, May 21 has become a day of rage.

    “How would you feel—how would the Russians feel, if athletes came from all over the world to ski or ice-skate on the graves of their ancestors—and [the athletes] did not even know they were doing it?” demands Danyal Merza. Last May 21, the 29-year-old telephone technician, along with two other ethnic Circassians, his friends Clara and Allan Kadkoy, traveled from their homes in New Jersey all the way to Turkey, where most members of the Circassian diaspora now live. The four of us ended up near the head of a chanting crowd of thousands of Circassians. The human wave, topped by a foam of anti-Sochi banners, poured down Istanbul’s Istiklal Street before breaking against a triple line of police who stood with truncheons and tear gas outside the Russian consulate.

    Speaking into a bullhorn, Merza squared his shoulders and shouted the group’s demands in English: no Sochi Olympics, recognition of the Circassian genocide, and the right to move back to the homeland the Russians seized a century and a half ago. His listeners roared their approval in Turkish, and their voices resounded from the steep houses on either side: “We don’t want Olympics in Sochi!” Allan pumped his fist and shouted along with them. “It’s the first time I’ve chanted without knowing what the words mean,” he told me afterward. His wife was similarly transported. “I could never imagine feeling like this,” she said. “We might not speak Turkish, but we’re all saying the same thing in different languages.”

    more: Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: The Circassians Cry Genocide – The Daily Beast.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/20/sochi-2014-winter-olympics-the-circassians-cry-genocide.html

  • Ukraine in talks with Germany, Romania and Turkey over gas imports

    Ukraine in talks with Germany, Romania and Turkey over gas imports

    Business, World | nineoclock | March 19th, 2012 at 9:00 PM

    Ukraine has started talks with Germany, Romania and Turkey to buy 2-3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from each country in a bid to reduce imports of more expensive Russian gas, Kommersant-Ukraine reported on Monday, citing sources in the Energy Ministry, Ria Novosti reports.Naftogaz, the Ukrainian national energy company intends to purchase about 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas in Europe or about one third of gas supplies to the ex-Soviet republic, its head Yevheniy Bakulin said on March 17. He mentioned the price of natural gas in Europe was about USD 30-40 per 1,000 cubic meters lower than the price fixed in the 2009 contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom.Russia and Ukraine have been embroiled in a drawn-out dispute over the price and volume of Russian gas purchased by Ukraine. Kiev insists the current price is too high, while Moscow is pushing for control of Ukraine’s gas transit system to Europe, as part of a deal to cut prices. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that Ukraine annually pays about USD 3.8 bln more for Russian natural gas supplies than the price paid by European countries or about 8 percent of Ukraine’s total budget spending in 2012. Yanukovych said USD 250 per 1,000 cu m was a fair price for Russian natural gas supplies compared with over USD 400 per 1,000 cu m paid by Ukraine in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    via Ukraine in talks with Germany, Romania and Turkey over gas imports.

  • Seven Ukrainian sailors imprisoned in Turkey go on hunger strike

    Seven Ukrainian sailors imprisoned in Turkey go on hunger strike

    Seven Ukrainian sailors imprisoned in Turkey go on hunger strike

    Yesterday at 10:31 | Interfax-Ukraine

    Seven Ukrainian sailors from the Nemo, an Estonian cargo ship that has been under arrest in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) for a year, are in a Turkish prison in the town of Derince and went on a hunger strike on Jan. 4.

    Valeriy Babakov, a relative of the captain of the Nemo cargo ship, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, told an Interfax-Ukraine reporter that “the crewmembers of the Nemo cargo ship – seven Ukrainians – are asking for assistance from the state, because they are in a Turkish prison, and they went on a hunger strike from Jan. 4.”

    He also noted that “the Estonian cargo ship Nemo, with seven Ukrainians on board, which was flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, has been in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) for a year, because the ship was arrested by local authorities on Jan. 11, 2011 due to the debt of the ship’s bankrupt owner. The dry cargo ship was transferred to Swedbank Estonia due to the debtor’s loans, but the crew then refused to leave the Nemo without getting salaries.”

    Babakov said that he was in constant phone and Skype contact with the captain of the cargo ship, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, and that he tried to attract the attention of the media to this problem, and “earlier, through a trade union of seafarers, the captain individually tried to solve the problem with the payment of salaries to the crew.”

    Then, in August 2011, Ukraine learned through a number of Ukrainian media outlets that the sailors of the Nemo cargo ship needed assistance [a press conference was held on Skype with the ship’s captain], “however, attempts by the Ukrainian consulate to help the Ukrainian sailors return home failed.”

    Babakov also told he was continuing to try to help his relative, Tymoshenko, and his crew, by sending an appeal to Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Andriy Olefirov.

    The appeal notes that “according to the captain, the ship ran out of fuel and food long ago. On Dec. 28, 2011, consuls, after repeated requests from the crew, still took the sailors from the ship and placed them in a Turkish police department, waiting for the permission to leave the country.”

    “Despite the fact that permission from Ankara was received on Jan. 2, I understood from the words of the captain that the chief of the port, in which the ship is now located, prevents the Ukrainian crew from leaving home. The vice-consul cannot convince the port authorities (they are writing letters to the port to which no one responds). On Jan. 4, 2012, the crew (the guys lost 15-20 kg in weight over this year) went on a hunger strike,” Babakov said in the appeal.

    Babakov asked the leadership of the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to provide assistance to the Ukrainian sailors.

    He also said that the Ukrainian crewmembers of the cargo ship had finally lost hope to get their salaries, “because there was a long-awaited auction on the sale of the ship, at which the money was to be used to repay debts to creditors and salaries to the crew. However, nobody decided to buy the vessel.”

    via Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust – Ukraine – Seven Ukrainian sailors imprisoned in Turkey go on hunger strike.

  • Ukraine, Turkey sign agreement on visa-free regime

    Ukraine, Turkey sign agreement on visa-free regime

    23-12-2011 15:09 Ukraine, Turkey sign agreement on visa-free regime

    Ukraine and Turkey signed an agreement on the visa-free regime of citizens’ trips. The signature of the document took place in Ankara in the presence of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    “The agreement should introduce a visa-free regime for entrance, leaving, transit and stay of citizens of one party on the territory of other party state, based on valid travel documents, pointed out in the addendum to the present agreement, under condition that the term of their continuous stay does not exceed 30 days since the entrance date. At the same time, total term of their stay on the territory of other party should not exceed 90 days over each period of 180 days,” the statement of the Presidential press service informs. Yanukovych and Erdogan also signed a Joint Statement by results of holding the first meeting of the high level Strategic Council between Ukraine and Turkey. The document proves the countries’ striving to build relations of strategic partnership. A special attention was paid to strengthening of such priority trends of cooperation as power engineering, transport and modernization of the infrastructure. In addition, agreements were signed between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the government of the Turkish Republic on air communication, on cooperation in the sphere of quarantine and plant protection, on cooperation in the sphere of fishery, economic and financial cooperation, as well as an Action Plan for development of bilateral relations between the countries for 2012-2013, as well as the Program of Cooperation in the sphere of culture for 2012-2014.

    via Ukraine, Turkey sign agreement on visa-free regime / News / NRCU.

  • Turkey To Help Ukraine In Liberating Ukrainians Detained In Libya

    Turkey To Help Ukraine In Liberating Ukrainians Detained In Libya

    Turkey will help Ukraine in liberating Ukrainian citizens detained in Libya, reads a statement made by the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

    Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, has announced this at a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko.

    Davutoglu also remarks, Turkish diplomatic institutions in regions of Turkey’s established political-diplomatic influence will be consistently assisting the Ukrainian foreign-policy agency in defending Ukrainians’ legitimate interests.

    As Ukrainian News earlier reported, 22 Ukrainian citizens are still under arrest to the room in Tripoli, Libya.

    The new Libyan authorities suspect them of collaboration with Muammar Gaddafi, former Libyan leader deposed in the 2011 civil war.

    via Ukranian News – Turkey To Help Ukraine In Liberating Ukrainians Detained In Libya.