Ukraine Minister of Culture Yevgen Nischuk: We Ask UNESCO to Help Us Preserve Crimea’s Cultural Heritage

Kyiv, 18 March 2014 – “Ukraine is contacting UNESCO with a request to help avoid looting and stealing of museum exhibits in Crimea”, said Yevgen Nischuk, Minister of Culture of Ukraine, during a briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

“Now we don’t have access to the priceless rarities of the Chersonesus, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage, as well as almost 900 historical sites all over Crimea”

The Minister also said that the Ministry of Culture had sent its representatives to Crimea to call for inter-confessional peace and tolerance. “Maidan has shown how peacefully people of different religions can coexist. The whole world knows about our tolerance when it comes to religious issues. Today, seizures of temples in Crimea is being provoked by Russia,” Nischuk said.

The Minister of Culture has requested the National Security and Defense Council to protect the information environment and prevent international mass media from publishing false allegations of ethnic or religious based discrimination in Ukraine.

“The outlook of the Ukrainian people, their entire history and the events at Maidan are convincing evidence that Ukraine’s core value is the human being and its personality, as opposed to our northern neighbor where the core value is the empire and the state. This is what makes Ukraine different. We are focused on becoming part of the civilized world where respect for human rights is the main value. The purpose of art and culture is to call for love and peace in the world. We stand for non-violent resistance to evil. The support of the whole world is very important to us”, Nischuk said.