KYIV – On November 21, the outgoing president of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), Eugene Czolij, spoke at an event dedicated to the opening of the Chair of History of the Ukrainian World Community at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
He congratulated Dean Volodymyr Serhiychuk on implementing this important initiative and expressed readiness on behalf of the UWC to contribute to the development of this newly established chair.
Speaking of his expectations regarding research priorities, Mr. Czolij expressed hope that the Chair of History of the Ukrainian World Community will focus on how the global Ukrainian community contributes to the representation of the interests of the Ukrainian people; how it preserves Ukrainian religious, linguistic, spiritual, historical, cultural and social heritage; how it engages in the protection of the independence, territorial integrity, national identity and economic development of Ukraine; how ties are forged between the Ukrainian diaspora and Ukraine; and the mechanisms for protecting the rights of Ukrainians abroad.
The UWC president also presented the work of the UWC in recent years in defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine; promoting its European and Euro-Atlantic integration; securing the granting of a Tomos of Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; seeking Patriarchal Status for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church; and furthering recognition of the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Mr. Czolij said he hoped these issues would be properly elaborated and conceptualized in the work of this newly established chair.