Statement of Support from students of leading universities for pro-European protests in Kyiv, Ukraine

Wed Nov 27 05:06:01 UTC 2013

Dear SEELANGers,

Please consider signing - and please spread the word!

Thanks a lot,

Oleh Kotsyuba

Harvard Ukrainian Student Society, An Officially Recognized University-wide Student Organization, has issued a Statement of Support for the pro-European protest movement in Ukraine.

We invite students of international universities - individually or as student associations - to join this Statement. Please include your name in English and Ukrainian (if applicable), university, department, and program. 

We strongly encourage students-non-Ukrainians to join this Statement of Support!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE PRO-EUROPEAN PROTEST ACTIVITIES IN UKRAINE FROM STUDENTS OF LEADING INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITIES

We, students, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and young scholars at leading international universities, Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, express our support for Ukraine’s association with the European Union.

The massive protests that have unraveled in Ukraine following the government’s decision to “pause” preparatory actions for EU Association on November 21, 2013 have clearly demonstrated that the Ukrainian people have made a choice – and that choice is for a European future.

We also strongly believe that Ukraine has the sovereign right to maintain and develop pragmatic and mutually beneficial economic, political, and cultural relations with all its neighbors, including Russia. Ukraine’s European choice is not a choice against such relations with any of its neighbors.

Ukraine is Europe. The #EuroMaidan movement has confirmed that. The peaceful and apolitical protests, which have spread throughout Ukraine and all over the world, signal that the Ukrainian people demand European values of democracy and civil society in Ukraine. Only European humanist values of meritocracy, individual freedom, inclusiveness, and equality of opportunities can guarantee genuine reforms in the fields of education, scholarship, society, culture, and economy. Only such reforms can make Ukraine an equal member of the world democratic community of nations.

We can and shall no longer remain silent. The Ukrainian people must not be held hostage to political or economic interests of corrupt groups in and around the present Ukrainian government.

As future economists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats, academics, physicists, doctors, entrepreneurs, historians, and literary scholars, we want to see a thriving Ukraine: A Ukraine that fulfills its potential and provides opportunities to its people to succeed regardless of political ties or views.

We are delighted that leading Ukrainian universities have backed the apolitical, pro-European #EuroMaidan movement and have allowed their students to participate in the protest activities.

Today, we express our solidarity with our peers in Ukraine and worldwide. We join them wholeheartedly in their desire towards a European future.

We support the demand of the protest movement from the Ukrainian government to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 29, 2013.

You can sign this statement - individually or as a student association - by sending an Email directly to ipostolovska at mail.harvard.edu and kotsyuba at fas.harvard.edu, or the student representatives at your local university.

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