Peace communiqué

Dear friends,

We stay still in a state of shock. Europe has entered a new era, with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
These days more than a million people are now displaced from Ukraine and seeking refuge in neighboring states.
As a strategic partnership we stand united with Ukraine and we condemn the Russian government’s illegal military invasion of Ukraine; this is an imperialist war and innocent people are losing and suffering too much. We support the Ukrainian independence, dignity and well-being with all our hearts.
There is no justification for President Putin’s brutal assault. As humans, we support all the ones who have stayed or gone, both who suffer and who will continue to suffer.

We disagree with those countries that consider Ukrainians to be “better migrants” than other people fleeing wars, colonialism, neo-colonial economic plunder, oppressive regimes and environmental disasters to get to Europe. We are glad that such countries are finally opening up to refugees and wish the same treatment would be given to all refugees from all nationalities.

In the meantime the partner associations propose to carry out the following activities:
ILA (Turkey) aims to: help Ukrainian migrants to request and receive equivalence certificates, facilitate their language learning, create a CV and check job search portals for better and faster job integration.
YMCA Parthenope ONLUS (Italy): to promote the inclusion, integration and interaction of migrants in the community, by teaching Italian and English, holding art workshops and helping migrants in their search for work.
Alrahallah theater – Berlin (Germany): to use art and theater for language teaching and for therapeutic and social integration purposes.
Rosto Solidario (Portugal): to promote human rights, global citizenship and intercultural dialogue also with artistic activities
CET Platform Skopje (North Macedonia): to organize volunteering activities supporting migrants, locally and within the 8 countries of its European network
Asociación Juvenil Intercambia (Spain): to encourage in institutional and non-institutional places, projects aimed at reducing racism and promoting respect between people, regardless of cultural affiliation.

We also stand by Russian citizens who want this war to be over as much as anybody else: so many that never supported it and are actually risking their freedom and even lives to rebel against it.
Hate will never be an instrument of peace, and there’s too much hate for Russians out there right now, when even some soldiers are deserting and probably many more wish to do it but are just too scared of the consequences.
We are calling out for swift negotiations and a ceasefire and a solution that brings justice and peace back to a world already damaged by the pandemic.

Peace.