The New York Times
April 19 2014
Looking at the Ukraine-Russia Crisis from my Ancestral Village
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF April 19, 2014, 3:19 pm
For my Sunday column, I returned to the village near Chernivtsi,
Ukraine, where my father grew up. What struck me there was the deep
yearning for connections to the West, for a future tied not with
Russia but with Western Europe. Obviously, one encounters somewhat
different sentiments in eastern Ukraine, but overall this popular
yearning for a future in Europe runs both deep and broad.
A word about my father’s roots. His family was Armenian but had left
Armenia centuries ago, then moved to Iasi in what is now Romania, then
to a Polish-speaking area in what is now western Ukraine, and finally
in the early 19th century to this village of Karapchiv. The family’s
Armenian name was Hachikian, but it was translated by meaning into
Polish as Krzysztofowicz-which my father shortened to Kristof. When my
dad grew up the area was Romanian, northern Bucovina, but in 1940 the
Soviets annexed it. After spying for the free Poland government in
exile, my family fled mostly to Poland; some relatives were executed
by the Nazis and others by the Soviets. For his part, my father fled
to Romania, then Yugoslavia and, after years in a labor camp, to
Italy, France and finally America. He arrived in 1951 and finally
passed away, at age 91, in 2010. His life story-from
Austrian-Hungarian nobility to war refugee, concentration camp
survivor and finally American university professor-was astonishing.
The next few days in Ukraine are likely to be pivotal-either the
pro-Russian militants will begin to back down, or Russia may annex
part of what it calls “New Russia” in Ukraine-but I’m hoping that the
popular yearning for change and for a life in Europe will ultimately
prevail at least for the great majority of Ukraine. Read the column
and share your thoughts.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
