Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

• Head of the Saeima’s National Security Committee Solvita Aboltina: Islam should not be equated to terrorism
• Ex-head of the Centre of People’s Front in Liepaja: state has forgotten that Latvia’s independence was supported also by many representatives of ethnic minorities in 1991
• Vesti Segodnya reports that Latvia has blocked the holding of an exhibition on Holocaust organised by a Russian Foundation “Historical Memory”

Neatkariga interviews the head of the Saeima’s National Security Committee Solvita Aboltina. Commenting the terrorist attack in Paris, Mrs Aboltina said that terrorism and Islam should not be equated, because terrorists do not always belong to a religious community. She stressed that Latvian Muslim community is not aggressive. At the same time, she also stressed that the state should maintain a dialogue with every resident, in order to be confident that nothing bad is planned against the state or majority of the society.

Ex-head of the Centre of People’s Front (organisation which won parliamentary elections in 1990 and restored Latvia’s independence) in Liepaja Sandra Senina, in an interview with Latvian Radio 4 remembering barricades of 1991, said that at those times support came not only from ethnic Latvians but also from people of different ethnic background who also believed that Latvia will become independent state. According to Mrs Senina, among those Liepaja residents who voted for Latvia’s independence 38% were ethnic Latvians and the rest were people of other ethnicities. She also stated that the politicians should apologize before non-citizens for forgetting their contribution to the restoration of Latvia’s independence. Vesti Segodnya   

Vesti Segodnya reports that Latvia has blocked the holding of an exhibition “Childhood in Captivity. Victims of the Holocaust through the eyes of juvenile prisoners of Nazi concentration camp Salaspils” planned to be opened on 26 January in the UNESCO building in Paris. The organiser of the exhibition is a Russian Foundation “Historical Memory”. The same exhibition was displayed in 2012-2013 in Minsk and Moscow and planned to be displayed in Riga. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned it considering that it falsifies the history and harms Latvia’s image. The Minister of Foreign Affairs included the organisers of the exhibition, members of the “Historical Memory”, in the list of persons whose entrance to Latvia is denied.