EVENT
We are all Ukrainians
Violating all international legality and every principle of good neighborliness, Russia with the help of Belarus, have been bombing, killing, looting and erasing from the map for almost a year an entire nation, separating families, annihilating people's daily lives and spreading death, occupation, famine, exile and refugee.
For almost a year now, Ukraine, a large European country,a country of 45 million people, is suffering and being brutally destroyed by the military invasion of Russia, which with its entire war machine is still trying to occupy as much territory as it can.
Shocked, the international community is talking to the martyred leadership of the country, while in an effort to maintain international balance, it is trying to support the victims of the attack, without at the same time causing a general conflagration in the region, the continent and the world.
Volt Greece, the Free Thinking Zone bookstore and the NEON Project co-organised, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the office of Greece and Cyprus, a discussion about what happened in the last year in Ukraine, about the citizens there, for what this war means for Greece, for what it means for every democratic country, for every human being, for liberal democracy and for freedom.
Alona Tatarova, Project Coordinator of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Greece and Cyprus, Anna Maniati, representative of the Ukrainian Women in Greece community and Eleni Siapikoudi, Project Assistant of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Greece and Cyprus participated in the discussion. The discussion was moderated by Gregory Vallianatos, while an intervention was made by Olga Dourou from Volt Greece.
The Project Coordinator of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom - Greece and Cyprus, noted in her speech the importance of fighting propaganda as citizens at every opportunity, going through examples of the main and most popular narratives being spread about the war in Ukraine. For democratic citizens to remain silent, even on the most absurd narratives, is the most effective way to leave the way open for the proliferation of these narratives, she stressed. In her statement she said that the most effective and inexpensive way to support an independent Ukraine and preserve our own freedom is to remain democrats, resoundingly committed to the fundamental principles of truth, freedom, independence and adherence to international conventions.
The representative of the Ukrainian Women in Greece community, said that compromises are no longer possible. On the one hand, because authoritarian regimes are unable to respect agreements, on the other hand, because whatever compromises the Ukrainians make, there are red lines and fundamental principles that we must preserve. During the discussion that followed, Anna Maniati presented in detail the democratic and political development of Ukraine since 1991, as well as the blossoming of Ukrainian civil society.
The Project Assistant of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom presented the work of the Foundation as a whole, its actions in Greece and its full support for free Ukraine. In her keynote presentation, Eleni Siapikoudi highlighted the gendered dimension of war and referred to the often marginalized issue of women's experience in war. Experiences concerning both immigrant women and women war refugees, inside and outside the country today, but also the violence and sexual abuse they suffer in war zones. Finally, the speaker closed her intervention with the urge to focus on these difficult and uncomfortable issues, and act today in order to limit and deal with them.
The event took place at the welcoming Free Thinking Zone bookstore in Athens and was broadcasted on social media with the technical support of Streamia.gr.