Over 4,800 miles away from a homeland mired in political crisis, Ukrainian students at Georgetown are awaiting the outcome of a struggle over their country’s leadership that may leave them without a unified nation to go home to.
Ukraine has been bitterly divided since the results of its Nov. 21 presidential election were alleged to have been tainted by widespread fraud. According to the Washington Post, supporters of the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko flooded the streets in protest throughout the week. Yesterday, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dismiss the government of current Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was also the declared winner of the election.
Georgetown government professor Charles King, a specialist in Eastern European politics, said that the disputed outcome of a vote that was clearly split between eastern and south-western Ukraine is threatening the unity of the nation.
“It raises again the specter of the potential breakup of the Ukraine,” he said.
The gravity of the current crisis has left Georgetown’s Ukrainian students such as Tetyana Gaponenko (SFS ‘07) glued to television screens and the latest reports from friends and relatives back home.
Gaponenko, who comes from Kajarlyk, a town 70 miles south of the nation’s capital in Kiev, said that she supported the public protest by Yushchenko supporters.
“I’m really proud of people going out in the streets and protesting,” she said. “You can see that the people really want to build a democracy.”
Gaponenko said she wished she could join her friends and family members who have been protesting this week. She said, however, that she feared for their safety as they stood up to a government that is well known for having used force against political opposition in the past.
“Who knows how far current President Kuchma will go,” she said.
Bogdan Tereshchenko (SFS ‘05), who came to the United States from Ukraine in 1998, saw the political struggle in Ukraine as a watershed moment for his country’s transition to democracy.
He said he feared that the disputed winner of the November election, current Prime-Minister Viktor F. Yanukovych, was intent on eroding Ukraine’s autonomy. Yanukovych was openly supported by the Russian government and ran on a platform of ushering in better relations with the Kremlin.
“Now Ukraine is the last stand, the Stalingrad of sorts, of Russian imperialism-these are the kinds of perceptions that are frequently found in Russia’s leadership circle,” he said.
The Ukrainian struggle was brought home to Georgetown last Wednesday when Yushchenko supporters protested outside the Ukrainian embassy on M street. Approximately fifty protesters clad in orange, the color of the Ukrainian opposition, called for Yushchenko’s instatement as the country’s third president since independence was granted in 1991.
Many of the Ukrainians interviewed said they were happy that the current election crisis has drawn attention in the Western media. Sasha Lyutse (SFS ‘03), whose family immigrated to the United States from Odessa, in southern Ukraine, said that she was optimistic that the world is paying attention to Ukraine as it emerges as a legitimate democracy.
Such positive perception of the current political struggle also was expressed by Heather Fernuik (GRD ‘05), a native of western Ukraine who spent much of the fall in her country.
“The country is waking up and it is true, there has never been this level of interest in politics,” she said. “People seem to be very optimistic that things will change now, that now is finally the time.”
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