The peoples pay the cost of wars – Article by Eleni Mavrou, AKEL Political Bureau member

 

Sunday, 27 February 2022, “Haravgi” newspaper

Not since the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 have we seen so much savagery in Europe – the continent that has paid dearly and bloodily for centuries of conflict and antagonisms, culminating in the carnage of World War II.

Terrified people with a suitcase in hand seek to escape from the horrors of a foreshadowed war. The fear and despair of adults is reflected in the eyes of children.

It is unthinkable that the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t denounced. War is a tragic event and it is not possible for a human being not to consider it as such.

But condemning the invasion is not enough. Humanity managed to put the bloodshed behind it – for a short time, unfortunately – when it realised that the double standards applied with regards the respect for international law are ultimately paid by the peoples dearly.

It is for that reason good to remember that in Ukraine history did not begin on 24 February 2022.

The problem starts with the insatiable expansion of the mighty and their respective economic and geopolitical interests… This is what brought the Russian tanks to Kiev, just as it brought the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

It started when the US was sending tons of military hardware and weapons to Kiev and when Britain was training the far-right militias in Ukraine.

It started when the Ukrainian army was bombing the semi-autonomous regions of Donbass. Ever since the Ukrainian elite, in collusion with the USA, set itself the goal of integrating the country into NATO. Since all sides ensured that the Minsk Agreement, which provided for the respect for Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and the granting of extended autonomy to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collapsed.

And even long before that…

Unfortunately, the current Ukrainian government played the NATO game – both by insisting on membership of an organisation that French President Emmanuel Macron himself had diagnosed as “clinically dead” – and indeed when it declared that Ukraine intends to develop nuclear weapons!!

The Russian bloody intervention puts an end to the fragile calm that prevailed after the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, which laid the foundations for a concept of the ‘indivisibility’ of European security. Russia is now challenging the United States, until recently the world’s “police officer” whose brutal face we have witnessed successively since the 1990’s in many regions all over the world. But none of this bodes well for the peoples of the world.

A return to the Cold War cannot be the future of Europe. A scenario where international treaties and international law have no value is a nightmare scenario and constantly breeds wars.

It is always the innocent who pay the price of war. For peace to prevail, those who bring war must be defeated. The peoples must defend peace.