9 September 2013
MEDIA RELEASE
X Ukrainian World Congress commemorates 80th anniversary of the Holodomor
On 20 August 2013, participants of the X Ukrainian World Congress in Lviv, Ukraine, were joined by local residents in the city’s main square to remember the victims of the Holodomor with a memorial service.
Delegates and guests of the X Ukrainian World Congress, which was dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holodomor on the 80th anniversary of this genocide, walked in a somber procession through the streets of Lviv from the National University Lviv Polytechnic to the Taras Shevchenko monument in the city centre. The procession was led by youth in national costumes bearing 33 flags representing the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) member countries.
The main celebrants of the memorial service were Most Rev. Ihor (Wozniak), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Lviv, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and Most Rev. Dymytrii (Rudiuk), Metropolitan of Lviv and Sokal, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate. They were joined by hierarchs and clergy of both the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.
Addressing the participants, UWC President Eugene Czolij emphasized the importance of ensuring that the Holodomor is recognized internationally as a genocide that took the lives of millions of innocent Ukrainian children, women and men.
UWC Secretary General and Chair of the International Holodomor Commemoration Committee Stefan Romaniw called upon all Ukrainians, regardless of their country of residence, to unite in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Holodomor on 23 November 2013 – International Holodomor Memorial Day.
Co-chair of the Ukrainian Civic Committee to Commemorate the Holodomor, Ihor Yukhnovsky, highlighted the work that has been done in Ukraine to preserve the historical memory of the Holodomor.
The ceremony concluded with the laying of five stalks of wheat bound delicately with a black ribbon in a gesture vowing never to forget the 1932 law of “Five ears of grain”, which led to mass arrests and executions.
Immediately following the memorial service, during the Official Opening Ceremony of the X Ukrainian World Congress at the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, a sheaf of wheat was presented from Ukraine to the diaspora. The sheaf, presented by the head of the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners, Lviv Oblast, Yaroslav Kardash, to UWC President Eugene Czolij, symbolically unites Ukrainians worldwide in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Holodomor.
Photos with captions from the Holodomor commemoration are posted on the UWC web site.
Media Contact: Irene Mycak
UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS
145 Evans Ave., Suite 207
Toronto, ON
M8Z 5X8 Canada
Tel. (416) 323-3020
Fax (416) 323-3250
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.ukrainianworldcongress.org
The UWC is the international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians. The UWC has member organizations in 33 countries and ties with Ukrainians in 14 additional countries. Founded in 1967 as a non-profit corporation, the UWC was recognized in 2003 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a non-governmental organization (NGO) with special consultative status.
