Turning the pages back... September 15, 2002 (09/17/06)

Turning the pages back...

September 15, 2002

Five years have gone by since the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001, and with all of the commemorations going on it is interesting to see how Ukraine marked the first anniversary, as reported by The Weekly.

Ukraine began a weeklong series of memorial events in Kyiv on September 9 with a special conference hosted by Arraid, a Ukrainian Islamic organization, at the Islamic Community Center in Kyiv. Political and religious leaders, along with state representatives, discussed Ukraine's reaction to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. and how the events affected Muslims in Ukraine. Participants made it clear that no one was going to excuse the action of the Al Qaeda terrorists who organized and carried out the attacks.-"We, the Muslims of Ukraine, condemn the terrorist acts and we also condemn extremism in the name of Islamic principles," said Mufti Suleiman Mukhamedzianov, the spiritual head of Kyiv's Muslims, in opening the conference.

Mufti Mukhamedzianov demanded that the Ukrainian and the world mass media make a better effort to separate the terrorists from the Islamic religion.

Yurii Kochubyi, head of the Ukrainian Organization of Foreign Affairs and editor-in-chief of the magazine Eastern World, explained that the terrorists' expected outcome of a "clash of civilizations" did not ensue. Instead, the result was more understanding and cooperation than evident earlier.

Mr. Kochubyi, a former Ukrainian diplomat to the Middle East, said that members of the Islamic faith must do more to allow non-Muslims to better understand Islamic traditions, laws and principles in order to overcome an ever-stronger negative stereotype that is developing regarding the average Muslim.

National Deputy Refat Chubarov, a leader of the Tatar community in Crimea, said he was pleased that the Ukrainian government has maintained its pro-Tatar policies and that the country's mass media have retained their objectivity. "We must give due respect to Ukrainian politicians and to the mass media who restrained themselves from primitive reflexes," said Mr. Chubarov.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine organized a photo exhibit by Joel Meyerowitz of the devastation in Lower Manhattan titled "Images From Ground Zero," which was organized by the City of New York and managed by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department.

In his opening remarks, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual said that the commemoration was actually a celebration "of peace, freedom and prosperity for the entire world." He added, "The tragic events of last September were our fate, but they will not be our destiny."

At a press conference that preceded the opening of the photo exhibit, Ambassador Pascual thanked Ukraine for the role it had played in supporting the war in Afghanistan and the effort against terrorism as a whole. Mr. Pascual announced that the U.S. would add $5 billion to its foreign aid budget to support the development of those countries that have supported the war against terrorism, such as Ukraine, if they continue to maintain their own reform efforts.

The Verkhovna Rada opened the morning session on September 11, 2002, with a moment of silence and the reading of a proclamation that expressed condolences to the American nation and called for global solidarity in fighting worldwide terrorism. The Parliament announced that it would fund a plaque to be placed at Ground Zero in Manhattan engraved with the names of the dozen Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans who perished in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as a result of the September 11 attacks.

The week's events concluded on Friday, September 13, with President Kuchma and Ambassador Pascual attending a requiem concert at the Taras Shevchenko National Opera House in Kyiv, where the Ukrainian National Opera Choir and the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Volodymyr Spivakov performed for diplomats, politicians and the public.

Source: "Ukraine joins U.S. and the world in remembering events of 9/11" by Roman Woronowycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 15, 2002, Vol. LXX, No.37.

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