Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, member of parliament, Viktor Vovk’s formal pronouncement on his resignation as a co-chair of the Ukraine-Austria inter-parliamentary cooperation group
In his official statement addressed to the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament A.Parubiy, Viktor Vovk wrote as follows: “When three and a half years ago I assumed the position of the co-chair of the Ukraine-Austria inter-parliamentary cooperation group (one of the most numerous friendship groups in Ukrainian Parliament), I did this with vigor and enthusiasm. I was confident that friendship between Ukraine and Austria had a positive future that I could contribute to. I was also convinced that, as a neutral European state, Austria had great potential to be Ukraine’s true partner in the EU”.
“I continue to hold these beliefs,” he added.
“Unfortunately, Austria’s good name in Ukraine was severely tarnished once the country’s Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl decided to demonstratively invite to her wedding Russian President Vladimir Putin (whom she barely knew!); and once the disgraceful images of Minister Kneissl kneeling before Putin spread across the globe,” pointed out the politician feeling indignant at her blameworthy misbehavior.
“It must have taken great political vanity to invite - in the middle of two wars (in Ukraine and Syria!) – someone who redrew European borders and is responsible for the loss of tens of thousands of lives and turning millions of homes into rubble. A number of those lives and homes were Ukrainian. It will take years for Ukrainians to see Austria the way they did before the infamous “Styria kneeling”. In particular, as many other Ukrainian MPs, I can no longer envision Austria as an impartial international mediator in Ukraine,” runs then the statement.
Particular stress was laid in the document upon the following conclusion: “Unfortunately, the issue is not limited to Minister Kneissl’s personal decisions, but rather is evident in a pattern of disrespect for Ukraine shown over the past several years by the Austrian Freedom Party (AFP), which Minister Kneissl represents in Government. Virtually, the party sides with President Putin regardless of his actions or decisions. This party even followed in the footsteps of the parties of the Presidents’ of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and signed a “cooperation treaty” with Putin’s “United Russia” in 2016”.
As the parliamentarian then stressed: “Oddly, it was an AFP representative who was chosen to chair the friendship group with Ukraine in the previous convocation of the Austrian Parliament (until the fall of 2017) - rendering cooperation between our groups in effect paralyzed, despite extensive efforts of the Ukrainian side. Even after you, as the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, intervened by diplomatically and respectfully requesting the Second President of the Austrian Parliament Karlheinz Kopf to correct this obvious political misstep - a representative of the same party was assigned to chair the group in the new convocation of the Austrian Parliament in 2018. This turned a political misstep of the predecessors into an affront to common sense and effectiveness of inter-parliamentary cooperation, let alone a disregard for Ukraine’s struggles in repelling the Russian armed aggression”.
Finally, Viktor Vovk announced his readiness to get the sack: “Considering the circumstances as outlined above, I cannot continue to discharge my duties as co-chair of the Ukraine-Austria friendship group at the Ukrainian Parliament and declare my resignation from this position. I also withdraw my membership in the group”.
“I am confident that the spirit of friendship between the two nations will in due course repair the damage done by irresponsible politicians and this crisis will be overcome; however at this time I believe someone has to speak the truth and call things by their name,” underscored Viktor Vovk, MP, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.