• MP Vladimirs Reskajs: politicians are dividing the society; non-citizenship problem should be solved through compromise

 

Latvijas Avize interviews MP Vladimirs Reskajs (Concord Centre, CC), member of the parliamentary Society Consolidation Committee. Mr. Reskajs maintains that on the everyday level, the society is consolidated, yet the divisions in the society are created by politicians, who are exploiting sensitive issues for their own personal profit. Mr. Reskajs believes that the key to further consolidation of society is development: attitude towards the state, the sense of patriotism and pride would rise if Latvia develops, if the GDP and incomes increase. He agrees it is strange the ruling politicians did not bother to enquire why 274 000 Latvian citizens supported the proposal to grant Russian language the status of the second state language. People have different views, yet it is totally wrong to take the quotes of the few extremists and extrapolate it to the whole community. Mr. Reskajs is disappointed in the Saeima, because it pays too little attention to the development of the country and the welfare of its people. Ethnic issues are an easy ride for many politicians and unfortunately, many voters choose on the basis of ethnic attitudes, not social-economic proposals; after the elections the voters are disappointed, because these politicians are not solving social economic problems, all they can is to play the ethnic card. Non-citizenship is a topical problem and it should be solved not through ultimatums, but through compromise; it is important to legal arguments why part of the society did not get citizenship, while on personal level, it is difficult to explain why someone, who was born in the country and spent all the life here, became a non-citizen. 

• Russian parents cannot receive birth certificate with the name they chose for their child

 

Vesti Segodnya writes about ethnic Russian family who cannot receive the birth certificate with the name they chose for their child. The parents gave their child a traditional Russian name Miron and want this name, together with their surname Antonov to be undistorted and officially registered. The authorities offer to register the child as "Mirons Antonovs" according to Latvian language grammar. The parents disagreed with the suggested distortion and openly published request letter to the Registry Office, whereby asking to issue the birth certificate with correct original spelling of the name and surname in Latin letters and expressing their view that distortion of name and surname by the authorities is a disproportionate interference in the private and family life and thus violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 11 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The parents emphasise their respect towards Latvian language. Without registration the child allowance and healthcare funded by the state are not available. The parents are also worried that the name offered by the authorities ("Mirons") closely resembles word "mironis" – a "corpse" or "dead man" in Latvian language.

 

• MEP from Latvia Aleksandrs Mirskis will have to pay the nationalists’ union’s MPs moral compensation for calling them “Nazis”
• Saeima’s Committee refused to recognise that the MPs Raivis Dzintars and Janis Dombrava violated the deputy’s code of ethics by their actions on 16 March
• MPs discussed differences in the attitude of Latvian residents towards the WWII events
• Interview with the head of the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Riga City Council Eizenija Aldermane

The Riga Regional Court partially satisfied a claim of the leaders of the Nationalists’ Union All for Latvia!/FF-LNIM, MPs Gaidis Berzins and Raivis Dzintars against the MEP from Latvia Aleksandrs Mirskis. The Court ruled the MEP Mirskis to pay both MPs LVL 1,000 as a moral compensation. The MPs complained on the MEP Mirskis for his statement made at the European Parliament calling them “Nazis” Diena

The Saeima’s Committee on Mandate, Ethics and Submissions refused to recognise that the leaders of the Nationalists’ Union All for Latvia!/FF-LNIM Raivis Dzintars and Janis Dombrava violated the deputy’s code of ethics by their actions on 16 March (unofficial commemoration day of Latvian Waffen SS legionnaires.) The complaint about the MPs’ actions was submitted by the MP Nikolajs Kabanovs (Concord Centre). As reported, during the procession of legionnaires, the two mentioned MPs got involved in a conflict with the protestors against the procession and police officers; the MPs tried to tear the protesters’ installations and turn off loudspeakers. The member of the Committee who did not support the opinion that the MPs violated the code of ethnics argued they did it because they are young and they have already apologised to police officers, while the protest action was a sacrilege towards the members of the processions. Latvijas Avize

 

The Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee discussed differences in the attitude of Latvian residents towards the WWII events and how to overcome the conflicting views in this area. According to researchers for the Riga Stradins University, analysis of the internet comments shows that the peak of aggressive comments every year occurs in the middle of March and is connected with controversial date – 16 March events when the differences in comprehension about the history is the most visible. According to the mass media expert Anda Rozukalne, the biggest responsibility lays on politicians who make statements increasing confrontation and on journalists who distribute these statements. Latvijas Avize, Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya interviews the head of the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Riga City Council Eizenija Aldermane (ex-head of the Naturalisation Board.) According to Mrs Aldermane, for many years the state had no clear integration policy but the integration program elaborated by the ex-Minister of Culture Sarmite Elerte is based on national and language issues. The Riga City Council, in its turn, has wider approach to integration viewing this process as sense of belonging of every resident to the city and the state, says Mr Aldermane. The task of the Riga Council is to ensure representatives of various ethnicities, social status, people with disabilities, and of different age to be able to use the city’s infrastructure, take part in the work of NGOs and city’s activities. Mr Aldermane also notes that Riga was the first municipality who granted funding for free-of-charge Latvian language learning courses which are highly demanded among the residents.

• Co-chairman of the Latvian Anti-Fascists’ Committee: Latvia is typical failed state which reminds of a cancer

Vesti Segodnya prints an interview with the co-chairman of the Latvian Anti-Fascists’ Committee, activist of the Congress of Non-citizens Eduards Goncarovs. According to Mr Goncarovs he is a convinced non-citizen and sees the existing Latvian government as a “neo-Nazi nightmare.” He alleges the ideology of modern Latvia was shaped by those who departed from Latvia in 1945 together with departing Fascists and their descendants, who were raised in hatred towards ethnic Russians. Mr Goncarovs states that Latvia is typical failed state which reminds of a cancer which consumes the resources yet is not able to ensure development of the country. He believes it is in the best interests of Latvia that non-citizens accept Latvian citizenship, because this would rectify the historic mistake and restore the stolen rights. Mr Goncarovs sees nothing extreme or illegitimate in their demands and maintains that these demands are in line with European norms and do not violate the rights of other people in Latvia, such as grant Russian language status of a state language in Latvia, ensure Russian children the right to study in native language, and grant Latvian citizenship to Latvian non-citizens willing to accept it. He points out that Latvia ignore international recommendations to grant voting rights in municipal elections to Latvian non-citizens and claims that the authorities are only trying to fulfil recommendations when people in Latvia are making mass-scale protests.

• Neatkariga prints an interview with a host of a TV show “Un-censored” Andrejs Mamikins

Neatkariga prints an interview with a host of a TV show “Un-censored” Andrejs Mamikins (discussion TV show aired until 1 April 2013 on TV5 when the channel’s administration decided to break to an agreement with Mr Mamikins.) Looking at society integration after the referendum on status of Russian language conducted in February 2012, Mr Mamikins believes that in general nothing has changed during the past year. According to Mamikins, the changes occurred only at the governmental level as some responsible institutions received funding for promotion of integration. For instance, he mentioned the controversial National Integration Centre established by the Ministry of Culture as a specific project with an aim to integrate 300 third-country nationals for LVL 430,000 (EUR 600,000).