Poland.

[TsarSamuil]

Vid,
rt.com/news/lithuania-polish-minority-language/

Tongue-tied: Lithuania’s Polish minority banned from using native language.

RT.com
26 November, 2010, 09:51

Poles in Lithuania say they are being persecuted for using their native language to spell Polish street names and even surnames. But authorities in Vilnius insist they are simply upholding the law.

Almost a quarter of a million ethnic Poles live in Lithuania. Warsaw ruled the land for centuries. So nowadays in some villages the Polish amount to over 80 per cent of the population.

Shop owner Galina Tomazsevska decided to make life easier for the Poles living in rural Lithuania.

She put signs in both Lithuanian and Polish languages in her store. But then authorities said she would be fined 200 euros for violating the state language law.

“I didn’t feel as if I was doing anything wrong,” Galina says. “This was something the local Polish community needed. Besides, I had the official state language on these signs as well. This is a violation of human rights. I was told I could have signs in English, German or French, but not in Polish.”

Another sticking point is the street names in villages where the Polish community lives. It is not the fact that Poles use both languages on street signs, but that they use word for word translation which enrages the authorities in Vilnius.

Secretary of the Association of Poles in Lithuania claims they even fail to spell their names correctly. All ID cards and passports of ethnic Poles must be written in the state language.

Edward Trusewicz says that the history of Polish-Lithuanian relations was difficult, but it must have been left behind when the two countries became members of the EU.

“Lithuania was so keen on becoming part of the EU, that they signed several documents on accession,” says Edward Trusewicz. “One of those was the European charter on national minorities. It says that we can easily use our native language. But now for some reason, the Lithuanian authorities are rolling back on their obligations to Brussels.”

RT turned to the body which overseas the use of language for answers. It says no obligation was violated and that in fact Vilnius had every right to persecute the use of Polish.

“Indeed, the charter on national minorities gives the Poles in Lithuania the right to use their language,” says Arunas Dambrauskas from the Language inspection of Lithuania. “But at the same time, the document says that a law of a country prevails over the charter’s clauses. And according to the law in Lithuania, we have every right to fine them for using their language on signs.”

Some Poles living in Lithuania suggest that this is Vilnius’ revenge for centuries of Polish occupation. Authorities on the other hand refute such claims and say that the use of Polish is being discussed within the country’s parliament.

But nobody can tell what will prevail – the attitude to the events of the past or the wish to be part of the united European legislation.

[CHORNYVOLK]

They can let Russians have their rights also.

[TsarSamuil]

Poland's Komorowski hails Russian recognition of Katyn massacre.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski on Saturday hailed the decision by the lower house of Russia's parliament approving a declaration recognizing the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers as a crime committed by Stalin's regime.

"I believe this is a positive signal that came from Moscow before the upcoming visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Warsaw. We must accept this document with great satisfaction keeping in mind that this is an official document by the [Russian] parliament," Komorowski was quoted by Polish media as saying.

Medvedev is scheduled to visit Poland by the end of the year.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the Russian State Duma's decision a "good step" and said he expects further steps from Russia in the same direction.

According to official data, over 20,000 Polish officers were killed in 1940 by the NKVD - the Soviet secret police. The executions took place in various parts of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The largest massacre occurred in the Katyn forest near the Russian city of Smolensk.

The Communists, who opposed the declaration after it was drafted, say the Polish officers were executed "by German occupation authorities in the fall of 1941, rather than by the NKVD in 1940." They also say they can provide documents to prove their viewpoint.

Communist lawmaker Vladimir Kashin said if the draft was adopted then the relatives of those shot in the massacre would attempt to gain financial compensation from Russia.

The issue has been a source of tension in Russian-Polish ties, but Russia's recent admission that Soviet forces were responsible did much to improve relations.

President Lech Kaczynski and other Polish dignitaries were killed in a plane crash earlier this year whilst on their way to a memorial ceremony for the Polish officers slain in Russia.

WARSAW, November 27 (RIA Novosti)

[TsarSamuil]

Christopher Columbus’s father was Polish king?

Thenews.pl
29.11.2010 17:38

Explorer Christopher Columbus was the son of 15th century unmarried Polish king, Władysław III, claims a Portuguese historian.

The Polish king was conceived, argues historian Manuel Rosa, after Wladyslaw fled to the Portuguese island of Madeira after fighting against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Varna in 1444.

The young Polish king met a Portuguese noblewoman and they had a son, Christopher.

"The courts of Europe knew who [Christopher] was and kept his secret for their own reasons," Rosa told the Daily Telegraph.

"I have made a request to the Cathedral in Krakow to examine remains from the tomb of Wladyslaw II, who could turn out to be the grandfather of Columbus. It would prove the truth of my theory," Rosa added.

The theory, presented in the new biography, Columbus: The Untold Story sets to disprove convention wisdom - that Wladyslaw died in the Battle of Varna and that the father of the world’s most famous explorer was Italian wool weaver Domenico Columbo.

The new claim will also be used by some to disprove theories by some historians that Wladyslaw was a homosexual. (pg)

[TsarSamuil]

Victory in 'anti-Polish camps’ campaign in US.

Thenews.pl
30.11.2010 11:44

After pressure from Polish-Americans, the Wall Street Journal has finally relented and ordered journalists to refer to Auschwitz and Treblinka as ‘Nazi death camps’ and not ‘Polish camps’.

The Wall Street Journal’s Style and Substance editor, Paul R. Martin yesterday made an official entry into the The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage - "Concentrate on this: There were no Polish concentration camps in World War II. Auschwitz and other such camps in Polish territory were operated by German Nazis."

The move is a victory for the campaign launched by Kosciuszko Foundation’s president and award winning journalist Alex Storozynski, who claimed that the continued use of “Polish concentration camps” in various media outlets in the US was either lazy journalism or a deliberate re-writing of history.

The Wall Street Journal made two references to “Polish camps” in stories published last May, angering American-Poles who launched a petition which so far has gathered around 100,000 signatures in support.

The new addition to the WSJ’s style sheet warns journalists: “"The slip is easy to make, but it understandably raises hackles […] and shouldn't happen."

Alex Storozynski writes that the constant use of “Polish camps” can have negative effects on the young.

“A documentary called "Upside Down" by Canadian filmmaker Violetta Cardinal interviews Canadian and American school children who think Poland built the concentration camps because they are referred to as "Polish." That is the result of the media's shameful Holocaust revisionism,” he writes in the Huffington Post.

Now the campaigners hope that other media in the US follow the WSJ’s lead and amend their style sheets too. (pg)

[TsarSamuil]

Russia hands over Katyn files ahead of Medvedev visit.

Thenews.pl
03.12.2010 13:39

Ahead of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Poland next week, Moscow has delivered around 50 volumes of documents from the investigation into the 1940 Katyn massacre, many of which contain information new to Polish historians.

According to Poland’s Foreign Ministry, the majority of documents have been available to Polish researchers for the very first time.

“The Foreign Ministry considers it as a very significant move by Russian. These are materials embracing various periods of the investigation, and we think it as an important and positive gesture,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told Polish Radio.

The move comes just days after the Russian parliament voted to recognize Katyn as a crime ordered by Stalin.

The documents from the years 1939 - 1940 include lists of Poles arrested by the NKVD , Stalin’s secret police , in the east of Poland as Soviet forces invaded Poland as well as documents from the 1990s, which cover the Russian prosecution’s investigation into the murders of over 20,000 Polish POWs.

This is the third batch of documents presented by Russia concerning the Katyn massacre. The first 67 volumes were handed over to President Bronislaw Komorowski in May this year and another 20 volumes were passed to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in September.

The assignment of the documents is seen as another gesture of friendship ahead of Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Poland on 6 December. During a press conference at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday it was suggested that the visit will abound in more surprises and gestures of friendship towards the Polish nation. (ab/pg)

[TsarSamuil]

Someone is trying to Americanize the whole world?...

-------------

Poland welcomes first black member of parliament.

PAP/tvn24
06.12.2010 11:57

John Godson has become the first black member of Poland's lower house of parliament (Sejm) in what is being seen as a large step forward in the nation's race relations.

Born in Nigeria, Godson has held Polish citizenship for ten years. He will take the place of Civic Platform’s Hanna Zdanowska, who resigned from her parliamentary post after winning Sunday’s local government elections in Lodz.

Godson was previously serving as a local councillor in Poland’s central city.

In an interview with Polish Radio Lodz, Godson declared that he will still remain active in promoting his home city even though he will be spending much of his time in Warsaw on national affairs.

“I am from Lodz, I will live here, I want to die here and I want to be buried here,” the MP said, adding that he will commute to Warsaw to take part in parliamentary sessions.

Godson stated that his policy agenda will include the improvement of infrastructure, as well as increasing access to broadband internet.

Godson said he will also work on bettering diplomatic relations with African countries, adding that Poland only has four embassies on the continent and that he wants to see Polish oil companies investing there.

In the last local government and council elections on 21 November, Godson received Lodz’s second-choice vote from the Civic Platform list, gaining a place on the city’s municipal council. He was first elected to the Lodz city council in 2008.

John Godson came to Poland in the first half of the 1990s and received Polish citizenship in 2000. He is a graduate of the Department of Agronomy at Abia State University in Nigeria and also holds a doctorate in human resource management. Godson continues to lecture at a number of universities thoughout Poland.

Godson is also the president of the African Institute in Poland as well as a pastor of the Church of God in Christ, a Christian Pentecostal church active in Poland. (jb/pg)


John Godson’s official page can be found here.
www.godson.pl/index_en.html

[canadaslav]

And Slovenia just elected a black mayor in one of its towns. Do Slavic people not consider themselves to be "white" and not see this as steps of replacing their own race? This is slow genocide of the white race.

[pastir]

[TsarSamuil]

I don't want an American United Earth...make all lands free-for-all where culture n nations have all been eroded..

[TsarSamuil]

Radio,
www.thenews.pl/national/?id=145460

Godson sworn in as Poland's first black MP.

TheNews.pl
14.12.2010 15:53

John Godson (Civic Platform) was sworn in, Tuesday, as Poland's first black MP.

Listen to an interview with the politician about his background in Nigeria and how he now thinks of Poland as “his homeland”.

John Godson was talking to reporter Michal Kubicki. (pg)

[Dushko]

A Nigga Polak?! ;D
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
It figures, they elect a Crni Vrag to Polish parliament, yet still fuck the Serbians over Kosovo.
May all of your daughters be fucked by gorilla niggas to make little nigga babies, you traitors to Slavdom.
I hope you are reading this, tom78.

[TsarSamuil]

Komorowski urges Lithuania to respect Polish minority rights.

Thenews.pl
15.12.2010 15:31

President Komorowski has admonished the Lithuanian government to reconsider its policies towards its Polish ethnic minority.

Speaking with Polsat TV News yesterday evening, Poland’s head of state said that “the long-standing promises of different governments and Lithuanian presidents have not been realised regarding essential matters for the Polish minority in Lithuania.”

For many years, Lithuania’s Polish community – which numbers in the region of 250,000 – has been petitioning for the right to use non-Lithuanianised names in official documents. Likewise, there have been protests against a recent law that specified that Polish schools must adopt Lithuanian as the language of instruction in at least three subjects.

Komorowski added that the question also related to an alleged prejudice against Poles in matters of compensation over reprivatised property, namely in the Vilnius region where land is most expensive.

The Polish leader also recalled the regrettable situation this Spring, when his predecessor Lech Kaczynski flew to Vilnius for a “friendly visit”, only to discover that on that very day, the Lithuanian parliament passed a bill throwing out the Polish bid to for the use of non-Lithuanised names.

Lithuanians have countered that certain Polish diacritic signs do not exist in the Lithuanian language, and that it is not a question of blatant discrimination.

Shared History

Poland’s relations with Lithuania are long and complex. The so-called Commonwealth of the Two Nations was a major force on the European stage for many centuries. That entity was wiped from the map in the late 18th century.

With new forms of nationalism emerging in the 19th century, the old ties became splintered.

Between the two world wars, claims for land in the reborn states of Poland and Lithuania were resolved by force, with the Poles taking the upper hand. This left an embittered legacy that flared up in partisan conflicts during the Second World War. Stalin’s subsequent regime prompted the mass exodus of thousands of Poles to within the redrawn Polish borders.

Many of Poland’s prominent noble families hail from Lithuania, including that of pre-war leader Jozef Pilsudski, as well as the forebears of today’s president, Bronislaw Komorowski.

Earlier this year, Komorowski gained favourable comments in the Lithuanian press, when it was discovered that he was enjoying a modest holiday at a pension in Nida. (nh)

---------


Grey: Areas with majority Polish population in modern Lithuania. Red: pre-WWII Polish-Lithuanian border.


The Polish National-Territorial Region (Polish: Polski Kraj Narodowo-Terytorialny) was an autonomous region of Lithuania, self-proclaimed by the local Poles on 6 September 1990. The region included areas surrounding Vilnius (Polish: Wilno), capital of Lithuania, where Poles formed the majority (60–90%). This Eastern part of Lithuania had been part of Poland before being attached to Lithuania under the Mutual Assistance Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1939. The autonomy region with capital in Naujoji Vilnia (Polish: Nowa Wilejka) included 4,930 km² and population of 215,000 (66% of them Poles).

The Lithuanian government declared the formation of the Polish autonomous district in Lithuania unconstitutional. After the August Coup of the Soviet hardliners had failed, the Lithuanian parliament suspended on 3 September 1991 the democratically elected local councils that had sought autonomy or secession from Lithuania.

[TsarSamuil]

Far-right party organizes ‘pro-Polish’ march in Silesia.

Thenews.pl
14.01.2011 14:03

A ‘Polish Pride March’ is to be organized in the Silesian city of Katowice on 22 January to protest against Silesia becoming what the protestors say is becoming “anti-Polish”.

“Inhabitants of the industrial region of Silesia want to show that in their hearts Silesia is a part of Poland,” reads a note on the website of the National Revival of Poland (NOP), a far-right nationalist party.

Organizers of the march say that the demonstration will not be the party’s only, but open to all “Polish patriots”.

“We observe that Silesia has recently been guided by anti-Polish sentiments,” claims Artur Szlosarczyk from NOP, adding that Poles have many foes in their own country.

The National Revival of Poland used to be a member of the European National Front. NOP protests against the legalization of gay partnerships, Jews and the EU, which in their opinion, threatens the unity of Poland.

NOP says that the recent call by Silesian groups wanting autonomous status for the region also threatens the integrity of the country as a whole.

“By saying that they have support of the common people, the National Revival of Poland is trying to legitimize itself. They might as well say that that the Pope supports them,” says Boguslaw Zietek, leader of August 1980 trade union.

“Everyone has the right to protest and organize marches but I don’t agree that Silesia is Poland. Opawa, for example, belongs to Silesia but is situated in the Czech Republic,” Jerzy Gorzelik, leader of the Silesian Autonomy Movement told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. (mg/pg)

[TsarSamuil]

Polish minority in Germany gets political.

Thenews.pl
23.02.2011 11:13

With the continuing failure to grant Poles in Germany with ethnic minority status, a leading lawyer based in Poland’s western neighbour is to set up a political party there.

The move is a reaction to the lack of a response from Chancellor Angela Merkel to a letter written in 2009 by lawyer Stefan Hambura, which demands the lifting of a decree by Nazi Hermann Goering which abolished the minority status of Poles in the Third Reich.

“There was no response [to the letter],” Hambura told the Rzeczpospolita daily, adding that the decision to fight for the Poles’ right in Germany “would have to be fought for on a strictly political platform.”

“There is no name set for the new party as of yet,” Hambura told the daily, adding that the party’s monicker will be established at a meeting in Berlin in March, and will most porbably include the words ‘Poland’ or ‘Polonia’.

Reciprocal minority rights?

The German ethnic minority in Poland, which numbers some 150,000 people, has rights to the state budget for culture and publications, bilingual schooling, and are able to run for parliament without having to gain the required 5 percent threshold.

“The […] German group in Poland receives 25 million euro in grants from the state budget every year,” head of the ‘Rodlo’ Union of Poles in Germany, Marek Wojcicki told Rzeczpospolita.

“[However], the 1.5 million strong Polish minority in Germany may apply for up to 300,000 euro in cultural funding,” Wojcicki adds, with the daily commenting that the disproportion of funds mirrors the fact that Poles do not have legal minority status in Germany.

Getting political

As neither the Union of Poles in Germany or the Convention of Polonia Organisations are able to be directly involved in politics, the answer is to create a separate political party.

The party’s members are to take part in the country’s politics at all levels, and are geared towards helping local Polish communities.

Even though the party will be for the large ethnic minority already living in Germany, the opening of Germany’s borders to Polish workers from 1 May may also provide a further estimated one-million strong electorate in Poland’s western neighbour. (jb)