The case of Petropavlovskis
You may recall the case of Yuri Petropavloski, an ethnic Russian who was denied the Latvian citizenship because he was thought working against the government of Latvia.
Most recently, his case was considered by the European Parliament. The response was: the question of national minorities is the responsibility of each Member State.
Our esteemed Member of European Parliament Inese Vaidere didn’t hesitate to put a spin on things:
“Komisijas atbilde tikai pierÄdÄ«jusi acÄ«mredzamo - Å¡Ä« ir pret Latviju vÄ“rsta politiska akcija, kurai nav pat mazÄkÄ sakara ar Petropavlovska kunga tiesÄ«bu ierobežoÅ¡anu.”
Ms. Vaidere, of course, confuses the matters of a case with whose responsibility it is to decide. Granted, it was a stupid decision to take a local case to the levels of European Parliament, the body that is not responsible for minority legislation in Member States. Perhaps, Mr. Petropavlovski should have considered the Constitutional Court for his petition or the European Court of Human Rights.
December 6th, 2005 at 10.54
I sure hope that you will have wisdom and courage to accept all the people living in Latvia as full members of your society,doing anything less would come and bite you in the future. There must be a residue of bitterness amongst the population and one can fully understand that based on your recent history; but, look around the world and see if the divisions have been beneficial to anybody.