Platform will seek establishment of a supranational court for international crimes committed by Communists

Source: The Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Prague/Brussels, 7 June 2012.

The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is calling for the creation of a supranational judicial body for the gravest crimes committed by the Communist dictatorships. The call was announced at the conclusion of the international conference “Legal Settlement of Communist Crimes“ held on 5 June, 2012 in the European Parliament in Brussels under the auspices of a number of Members of the European Parliament, including its two former Presidents, Mr Jerzy Buzek and Mr HansGert Pöttering.

Bulgarian documentary “Goryani” (2011) reveals Bulgarians’ resistance against communism

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

At the end of 2011 Andrey Kovatchev, Vice-chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament and Member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group, supported the distribution of the Bulgarian documentary “Goryani” (“mountain dwellers” in Eng.) directed by Mr Atanas Kirjakov. 

“Goryani” is devoted to one of the most traumatic, but also most remarkable moments of the new Bulgarian history – the resistance movement of the Goryani against the communist rule in the period between 1944 and 1956. The film is based on authentic archival and documental evidence, as well as the memories of living members of the movement and their successors. The film was first presented on 27 September 2011 and it was greeted with huge interest by the Bulgarian civil society.

Spain’s Franco-era probe judge Baltasar Garzon on trial

BBC News, 24 January 2012

A high-profile Spanish judge has gone on trial accused of violating a 1977 amnesty law by investigating civil war and Franco-era crimes.

Baltasar Garzon is accused by two right-wing groups of overstepping his powers by trying to prosecute crimes committed between 1936 and 1975.

The case has reignited the debate about the way Spain has dealt with its past.

Bulgaria condemns communist Turkish assimilation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News, January 11 2012

Bulgaria’s parliament adopted on Wednesday a special declaration condemning the forcible assimilation of the country’s sizeable Turkish minority under communism.
 
The declaration specifically centred on the so-called “revival process” in the mid-1980s when Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks were forced to change their Muslim names to Bulgarian ones.
 

Germans visit HQ of ex-Stasi boss Mielke

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BBC World News, 16 January 2012

The heart of the former East German police state – the office of Stasi chief Erich Mielke – has been opened to the public in Berlin.

The original plush furnishings have been restored at “Haus 1″ – the former communist secret police headquarters, which is now a museum.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 about 8,000 Stasi agents worked there, isolated from ordinary citizens.

Twenty-two years ago protesters stormed the HQ and saved many secret files.

Spain commission seeks removal of Gen Franco’s remains

BBC World News, 29 November 2011

A commission set up by the Spanish government has recommended that the remains of General Francisco Franco should be exhumed.

The dictator’s tomb is inside a Catholic basilica, at a politically divisive civil war memorial.

The site, near Madrid, has been a rallying point for the far right.

The commission said the remains of Gen Franco – who ruled between 1936 and his death in 1975 – should be handed over to his family for reburial.

Platform of European Memory and Conscience to be established in Prague on 13-14 October, 2011 as a parallel event of the summit of the Prime ministers

Heads of 19 partner institutions and organisations specialised in the subject of totalitarian history from 13 EU member states will sign the founding document of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience in Prague on 14 October, 2011. The ceremony, which will take place in the presence of Prime minister Petr Nečas and Vice-President of the European Parliament László Tökés, is an accompanying event of the summitof the Prime ministers of the Visegrad group.  

General Court of the EU: The Soviet coat of arms may not be registered as a Community trade mark

On 20 September 2011, the General Court of the European Union has ruled in case Case T‑232/10, Couture Tech Ltd vs. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM), that the Soviet coat of arms may not be registered as a Community trade mark. In this precident it was decided that “its registration as a Community trade mark must be refused even if it is contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality in only one Member State.”

Press Release: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-09/cp110095en.pdf

Judgment: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62010TJ0232:EN:HTML

Members of the European Parliament ask that a Statue of Lenin be Removed

January 27th 2011, Members of the European Parliament (EP) have sent a letter to the Regional Council responsible for the French city of Montpellier, in which they request that a statue of Lenin is taken down and that a statue of the founder of China’s communist party, Mao Zedong, is not built. Sixty-eight MEPs, from 18 Member States, signed the letter drafted by Sandra Kalniete, Member of European Parliament (MEP) and chair of the Reconciliation of European Histories group in the EP. The letter was also signed by the Vice President of the EP, László Tőkés, and the former President of the EP, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Commemoration of the 70 year anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic’s takes place in the European Parliament

Strasbourg, 15th of June 2010 – Members of the European Parliament gathered by the memorial plaque, honoring those deported from the Baltic nations, to commemorate the 70 year anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic nations. In order to prevent such historical mistakes from reoccurring, many MEPs continue to remind the world of the horrors committed by the Stalinist regime.

A pivotal judgment of the ECHR: “No impunity for perpetrators of war crimes,” Sandra Kalniete MEP

Press release
Strasbourg, 18 May 2010 

Yesterday, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg upheld the war crimes conviction of a “Red Partisan” who was found guilty of ordering the killing of civilians while fighting for Soviet forces in Nazi-occupied Latvia in 1944.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has said the Soviet Union was “totalitarian”

Baltics welcome Medvedev concession
The Baltic Times, Oskars Magone, May 07, 2010

MOSCOW — Leaders from the Baltic States have welcomed statements from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev concerning the alleged crimes of the Soviet Union.

A major bone of contention in diplomatic relations between the Baltic States and Russia lies in crimes committed by the Soviet Union.

Russia posts Katyn massacre documents on the Internet

The Russian Archives have posted documents which shed light on the Soviet Union’s World War II massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens. The Soviet Union had blamed the massacres on Nazi forces who invaded in 1941. This explanation had remained the official state position until Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged Soviet responsibility in 1990. The current Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has promised that more similar documents would also be released. The documents are available on the following site:

http://rusarchives.ru/publication/katyn/spisok.shtml (In Russian)

Also see:  Excerpts: Beria letter to Stalin on Katyn (From BBC news in English)