Erzyan activists bemoan "Finno-Ugric show"
28.06.08
 Organisations
representing the indigenous Erzya population of Russia’s Republic of
Mordovia criticise harshly the preparations to the 5th World Congress of
Finno-Ugric Peoples, now being held in Khanty-Mansiysk, capital of Ugra
(Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug).
In an open letter to the delegates of
the World Congress, Grigory Musalyov, Chairman of the Foundation for the
Salvation of the Erzyan Language, Boris Yeryushov, Chairman of the ethnographic
Rutsya Foundation, and Nikolay Anoshkin, Director of the Museum of Erzyan
Culture, say that the World Congress is a show that serves Kremlin’s
“power vertical”. The time is ripe for a truly democratic gathering
of Finno-Ugric NGOs.
In Mordovia, the authorities made sure that those activists, who initiated
the national movement of the republic’s indigenous peoples, — the founders
of the Mastorava Society, the organisers of the first congress of the Erzya
and Moksha peoples, and representatives of the Foundation for the Salvation
of the Erzyan Language, — were not given a chance to attend the World
Congress. Instead of Erzyans and Mokshas, the republican leadership nominated
delegates representing “Mordvins”, which is not an ethnic group at
all.
In his address to the World Congress
and the Consultative Committee of Finno-Ugric Peoples, Boris Yeryushov
states that the election of delegates and observers representing the Erzya
at the World Congress was undemocratic. The Chairman of the Council of
the Peoples of Mordovia, Mikhail Mosin, cited “technical reasons” for
refusing to accept Grigory Musalyov, his deputy Yevgeni Chetvergov, and
Boris Yeryushov as delegates to the World Congress.
The leaders of the national movement of the Erzya people regard the
participation of the Mordovian delegation to the World Congress as illegitimate,
and therefore call on the Mandatory Committee to refuse mandates to the
members of the Mordovian delegation. The Erzyan activists also call on
the Consultative Committee to take measures to ensure that the rights of
the Erzyan people will henceforth be respected.
There is no doubt in the minds of the signatories of the open letter
to the delegates of the World Congress that the summit has not been called
to resolve the problems of preserving and developing the languages and
cultures of Finno-Ugric peoples, but to continue the process of excluding
all genuine defenders of the future of the Finno-Ugric peoples from access
to media and open public discourse.
The World Congress will also serve to deceive foreign delegates, heads
of Finno-Ugric states, and the international community as a whole that
there are no problems with ethnic human rights in Russia, the letter concludes.
Read more:
Open letter to Dmitry Medvedev
Paul Goble, 22.05.2008
http://www.finrosforum.fi/?p=1100
Source: Finrosforum
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