Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Education

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In December last year, a new association for helping Roma youth was founded in Maribor – Sprememba takoj, the second Roma association in Maribor, founded and run exclusively by Roma. It was registered by Murim Baftiaro, who says that the position of the Roma community in Maribor is declining and that the eternal problems of the Roma – especially poor education and chronic unemployment – must finally be fixed.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Fico, and Roma

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In the Slovak Parliament, Thursdays has a question hour. Normally, Fico’s party (SMER) dopminates the questions but there are exceptions. One such case happened last week. They randomly drew a question from the member of the Slovakia movement (former OĽaNO) Petar Pollák. He wanted to confront Prime Minister Robert Fico with his statement at the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he made claims that it is difficult to force Roma to work. In addition, Fico used the term Gypsy in English to refer to Roma, which is considered racistic.

Pollák did not expect what followed. Instead of answering, he heard accusations from the prime minister that the Slovakian movement had corrupted the inhabitants of Roma communities before the parliamentary elections. Fico is said to do everything to let the public know how it was. The Slovakia Movement rejects any corruption and is considering filing a criminal complaint against the prime minister.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Commemoration

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The memory of the Nazi camps is not just a thing of the past. The obligation to prevent something like this from happening again appeals to each and every one of us and puts us in front of the responsibility to actively oppose racism and fascism, as they appear in new but no less dangerous forms even today. This is the core of the call that Andrea Bellavite addressed at yesterday’s commemoration of those deported to the Nazi extermination camps in front of the Goriška railway station. The municipality was represented by deputy mayor Chiara Gatta, senator Tatjana Rojc and many Slovenian and Italian citizens of Gori were present.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine on Minorities and Foreigners

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A newly released statistic shows that the Ukrainians are definitively no longer Russian friendly. They are at the bottom of the list of people they willing to deal with. They are even less popular than Africans and Roma…

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine: Shattered Dreams

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The story of a Romano ethnographer and researcher, Janusz Panchenko from Kakhovka, the initiator of the creation of a Roma space in Kakhovka. Before the full-scale invasion, Janusz was writing a dissertation, documenting the memories of elderly Holocaust survivors, and teaching at a school for Roma children.

Even though he was pro-Ukrainian, he remained in the occupied territories. Until the Russian started looking at NGOs.

Sad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Fico and the 27th of January

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Fico’s party, Smer-SD commemorated the Holocaust as well as the Genocide and stated: “On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz – Auschwitz. It is time for reflection, to remember the memory of millions of innocent lives that were victims of the Nazi regime,” they said, adding that they will never forget the victims of the Holocaust.

Well, in view of Fico’s comments on Roma, there is a touch of doubt about this.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Auschwitz Commemorations

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Today, on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, about 20 former prisoners of German camps and representatives of the Auschwitz Museum management laid a wreath and candles at the Death Wall in the former Auschwitz I. It was the first part of the celebration of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the camp on January 27.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine, the Holocaust, and Roma

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A long article on the Genocide of the Roma in the Ukraine and the parallels to the Jewish Holocaust in the Ukraine with a presentation by a German researcher of work done with and by Ukrainian researchers who, for the most part are currently on the front.

Other articles are on the commemorations of the 27th of January.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Romnja

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The exhibition “PhotoVoice” of the women’s advocacy club of the association LARGO Kyustendil under the motto “A Romni is ….” is presented by Sasho Kovachev from the Association in “Our Day”.

According to him, the photo exhibition is dedicated to successful Roma women and is part of a larger initiative, of a larger project called “I have a dream”. He also shared that a collection of short stories named “The Price of Success” has already been published as part of the initiative.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Murder

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In Brno, a young Roma was killed by a Ukrainian last summer following an altercation. While the thirty-eight-year-old Ukrainian Roman Rohozin, whom the public prosecutor accuses of murdering a young Roma at the Brno dam, has to wait until the beginning of March for the verdict, other participants in last year’s incident already know their punishments. Two men who attacked the Ukrainian together with the deceased young man were punished by the Brno city court for disorderly conduct.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Fico, and Roma

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Petr Pollák asked the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico about his statements at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where, according to him, he spoke about “gypsies in Slovakia”. According to Pollák, he about how difficult it is to get them to work despite the fact that nowadays in every community they tell him that they need work. According to Fico, the Roma cannot only have rights in Slovakia, they must also have obligations, and they could create jobs for people who cannot be employed in the long term, for example “cleaning streams”.

He also claimed in the parliament that someone from OĽANO “bribed, corrupted and made promises Roma” before the last elections.

  • Premiér Robert Fico v parlamente tvrdí, že niekto z OĽaNO Rómov pred poslednými voľbami „uplácal, korumpoval a sľubovali im“. In: Dennik N. 25.01.2024. https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3794126/
News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Integration

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In Trebnje, the mayor and the mayors of Slovenian municipalities signed an important Agreement for the support of Roma settlements, promising to improve conditions and integration.

The agreement was signed by the mayor and the mayors or deputy mayors of municipalities in which Roma settlements are registered and which receive state funds in accordance with Article 20a of the Municipal Financing Act.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine: Riots

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Several article in the Ukrainian press about Roma rioting in Transcarpathia Ukraine following the release of two murder suspects from custody. The murder occurred during elections of Roma representatives.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria – Puppet Theatre

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Eighteen Romane children will appear on the stage of the Sliven puppet theater in the performance “The Bird of Happiness”. Evelina Kösovska, who directed and dramatized the play, said this at a press conference today. The children, who are fourth-graders from the “Miladinovi Brothers” and “Yuri Gagarin” elementary schools, in addition to being actors, participated in the creation of the show based on Romany fairy tales and legends.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Kalderaša Kitsch

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An article on photographs of rich Kalderaša in Transcarpathian Ukraine shows the extent of the kitsch and unfortunately reinforces stereotypes.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Online Hate

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Young Roma and Romnja who participated in a volunteer project that fights against hate speech on the Internet in the Czech Republic published two studies today. They reveal the extent and impact of online racism against Roma and propose measures to counter it. The publications are the result of an innovative initiative that showed how Roma people can actively defend their rights by documenting and filing complaints and criminal charges against those who spread racial hatred on the Internet. The project was organized by the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), the ROMEA organization and the Human Rights Forum.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Gifted Musician

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Although he is only 16 years old, Samuel Bandy has already managed to perform in front of 3,500 spectators and win several music awards. “I started playing the violin when I was about three years old,” he recalls.

In addition to studying at the Košice Conservatory, today he is the leader of the family band Ďusi band – he leads both his father and his older siblings. They play Romani folklore, but also Jewish, Ruthenian, Hungarian and classical music. “Roma musicians have played at parties since ancient times and had to be versatile – they had to be able to play everything. And it’s the same today,” says Bandy.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia: Exhibition

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The historical-documentary exhibition “Between Empathy and Prejudice: Roma in the Press of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929-1944)” by Dr. Kristina Jorgić Stepanović and Slavko Stepanović will open tomorrow in In the Historical Archives of Šumadija, on Thursday January 25 from 1 p.m.

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