It is a great privilege to be here and address you on more than one occasion. This year Ukraine marks numerous significant anniversaries – 100 years of renaissance of Ukrainian State, 100 years of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Some of the dates are happy and glorious, some of them are sad and tragical.

Today we invited you to mark two of the most defining periods of Ukrainian history which irrevocably affected on what we are and where we go – the path of Ukrainians to self-determination as a European country based on principles of democracy, freedom and justice, represented by Day of Dignity and Freedom, and the Great Famine of 1932-1933 known as Holodomor.

What should I say about these two events?

Day of Dignity and Freedom was established as a national holiday to mark two key events in recent Ukrainian history, the 2004 'Orange Revolution” and the 2013 ''Revolution of Dignity”. So today we celebrate 14^th and 5^th anniversaries of those Revolutions respectfully.

5 years ago Ukrainians had gathered on the central square of our capital for the peaceful meeting in order to demonstrate their Europeanness, dignity and desire for freedom but were chased and beaten by previous criminal regime. Those days more than 100 unarmed citizens were killed and more than 2000 were wounded. These tragical actions drew a line between past and future and divided our history into BEFORE and AFTER showing that we have finally self-identified as a nation free to choose its future based on values of democracy, respect of human rights and dignity.

The challenges which Ukraine faces make us stronger. 5 years ago, Ukrainian Army existed more on the paper than as a real force. But external aggression in response of our choice to be Europeans made us to accumulate our resources, totally review our defense policy and rebuild the Army. And now I’m proud that in 3 days we will celebrate the Day of Armed Forces of Ukraine, Day of Ukrainian Army which now ranks the 9^th most powerful army in Europe and 29^th in the world. 

Another event which divided our history into BEFORE and AFTER and made irreversible affect on Ukrainian people is Holodomor – cruel genocide of Ukrainians that was cynically carried out by communist authorities in order to weaken a freedom-loving nation and get a total control over it. Ukraine was always known as a Breadbasket of Europe. But in 1932 – 1933 people in Ukraine had been dying from starvation at the rate of 30,000 a day, nearly a third of them were children under 10. Approximately 7 million deaths of this period are attributed to starvation within the borders of Soviet Ukraine while tyrant Stalin continued to export millions of tons of grain.

This year we mark 85^th anniversary of this terrible crime against our people.

We remember and respect our history, both – bright and dark, because it formed and united us, it pushed us to create our common great future, to protect our values from external enemies, to fight for our wellness.

And today I invite you to pay a respect to this page of Ukrainian history by looking at the photo exhibition presented in this hall which shows what we had to go through protecting our right to be Ukrainians. We believe that it should be seen by every person of every nation in order to be sure that it could never happen again on our planet.

But we are here today not only to talk about the past but also to show that we keep moving on and building our reality, our policy and our relations with the others. And one of the directions of Ukrainian foreign policy is to build and develop friendly relations with our good partner – the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

In occasion of 25^th anniversary of establishment of Ukrainian-Jordanian diplomatic relations and 15^th anniversary of Ukrainian Embassy in Jordan, our good friend – famous and talented writer, journalist and historian Mr. Omar Armouti – edited a book with title “Important Stages of Jordanian Ukrainian Relations” which will be officially presented to you here today.

Almost one year our diplomatic team has been supporting the author by gathering, sorting and managing the material, editing the drafts, selecting the pictures and explaining the chronology of events in order not to miss any important detail and show the complete history of the partnership between our friendly countries. The result of this year of hard and thorough work of Mr. Armouti and the Embassy makes us proud of what we’ve achieved.

By the way, a lot of Ukrainian and Jordanian personalities, starting with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and His Majesty King Abdalla II and some of our dear guests, are mentioned in the book as the ones who contributed into strengthening and deepening of Ukrainian – Jordanian relations, so it makes it even more special and interesting.

One of such personalities who is mentioned in the book and present here is Mr. Sultan Yassin who in 2014 created and assembled on his own cost the Memorial plague made of Italian Laza Bianco Marble in honor of the Great Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko. And filanlly today I have an opportunity to express Mr. Yassin my special gratitude and inaugurate him with the Certificate of Merit from the Embassy of Ukraine in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for his outstanding contribution to enhancement of cultural ties between our countries.

In conclusion of my speech I would like to invite once again our compatriots to participate in Presidential and Parliamentary elections in on 31 of March and October 2019 respectively.

На завершення я хочу знову запросити наших співвітчизників в Йорданському Хашимітському Королівстві взяти участь в Президентських та Парламентських виборах 31 березня та у жовтні 2019 року відповідно. Слава Україні!

And now I’m pleased to ask Mr. Omar to come to this stage and say more about the book and then you will have an opportunity to discuss it in personal conversation with the author, get a signed book from his hands and enjoy refreshments.

So please, Mr. Omar, tell us about this absolutely unique and outstanding book.

Thank you.

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