Originally appeared at A-specto, translated by Valentina Tzoneva exclusively for SouthFront
The Bulgarian community in Ukraine has addressed President, Petro Poroshenko, with the request for permission to establish national autonomy in the regions of Odessa and Kherson. Most interesting is the fact that the step of the Bulgarians has been provoked by the very same President as on 28 June, Poroshenko announced that he recognizes the right of the Crimean Tatars to have national autonomy. He even promised to enter the relative changes in the Constitution of Ukraine. Of course, Poroshenko has never thought about the practical realization of his populist slogans and the talk is about the change in status of Crimea, which for two years now, does not belong to Ukraine and will never again belong to Ukraine. With the same dose of success, Poroshenko could have promised the Crimean Tatars autonomy in “land of sovereign Ukraine”, for example somewhere on the Moon.
Surprisingly, the Bulgarians, too, took part in the game called “our law is more important than reality”. If the Crimean Tatars have been promised autonomy, why should they not give autonomy to the Bulgarians, specifically in the regions of Odessa and Kherson where the Bulgarian population is dominant? ”The idea for granting autonomy to the Crimean Tatars considerably changes the frame of the Constitution of Ukraine and creates an important precedent. The Bulgarians in Ukraine occupying certain regions should also be granted the right to autonomy,” states the address made to Poroshenko.
Earlier, the Romanians from Bukovina turned to the Ukrainian President with the same idea. The Romanians also want autonomy in the Chernovtsy region. The fact is, Kiev does not manage to rein the centrifugal forces gaining momentum after the coup d’état in February 2014. The movements for changes of the state structure of Ukraine are already taking different shapes. Two years ago, the regions of Kharkov, Odessa, Zakarpatia and Galitzia wanted out of Ukraine. At that time, however, the people’s discontent was due to the political plane. Now we are talking about national movements. While it is impossible for Ukraine to resolve the problem of self-governance in the different regions, it is incapable of protecting the national rights of the people. The major obstacle, as a matter of fact, is not the state structure of Ukraine, but the ideology of the present-day power.
Hah-hah-ha … this makes my day.