Chernivtsi celebrated the 95th anniversary of the Bukovyna People’s Assembly in a big way. Ambassadors of Austria, Germany, and France greeted the Bukovynians on the occasion, while a people’s assembly was held again at festively decorated central square of Chernivtsi to mark the date. According to the organizers, 8,000 to 10,000 people gathered there, including representatives of NGOs, ethnic cultural associations, and labor groups from all over the region (all raion representations came by bus as organized groups).
The People’s Assembly of 2013 backed Ukraine’s European integration strategy and appealed for support for it to the people of Ukraine, the country’s president, the European Union’s leadership, and its member states.
“Similarly to the decision of the Bukovyna People’s Assembly in 1918 signalizing the collapse of the Austrian monarchy, Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the EU will put a stake through the body of the Russian Empire, which is still alive in the minds of some Russian politicians,” chairman of the Ukrainian National Home in Chernivtsi Society Volodymyr Staryk said, pointing out the historical parallels.
Despite high turnout at the assembly, opposition forces were absent from the event, having stated that it was a government initiative, and not an NGOs’ project. Before the assembly started, the opposition honored the first Bukovyna People’s Assembly’s anniversary by laying wreaths at the Taras Shevchenko monument, and held a meeting of their own, which also approved a declaration of support for the European integration of Ukraine.
