May 5, 2017

UCC statement on Akcja Wisla

More

The following statement was released by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress on April 28.

April 28, 2017, marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Vistula (Akcja Wisla), the forcible deportation by the Soviet-backed Polish government of Ukrainians from their ancestral lands in what is today eastern Poland. Ukrainians living in the Lemko, Boyko, Nadsiannia, Kholm and Pidliashia regions were deported to territories in the north and west of post-World War II Poland.

The forced deportation of the ethnic Ukrainian population from the region known as Zakerzonnia was followed by the expropriation of Ukrainian property by the Polish state and the intentional assimilation of the Ukrainian ethnic population. Some 150,000 Ukrainians were forcibly deported. The development of the Ukrainian language, culture and faith were prohibited in Communist Poland. Today we remember and honor the victims of this dreadful period of history.

The UCC is encouraged by the recent meeting (April 11) of the Consultative Committee of the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland, where representatives of Presidents Petro Poroshenko and Andrzej Duda agreed to develop a roadmap of reconciliation between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples. The goal of this document is to “ensure the constructive character of bilateral dialogue and promoting mutual understanding between the two peoples to further strengthen the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Poland.”

Comments are closed.