Yuschenko: European Parliament has 'historical complex' with respect to Bandera

16:27

The European Parliament has "a historical complex" with respect to Stepan Bandera, one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko said at a meeting with intellectuals in Lviv on Wednesday.

"The European Parliament has demonstrated that is has a historical complex with respect to Bandera and has not looked at history through the eyes of the present," he said.

Yuschenko noted that the dialog on this issue "was only starting" for the European Parliament, and thanked the regional councils of Ukraine's western regions, which asked the parliament to cancel a clause of its resolution on Bandera.

Yuschenko said that in passing such a clause of the resolution on the situation in Ukraine, there was "an active side that initiated and [provoked] them [MEPs] in every way possible," but he declined to specify which side it was.

He described his decision to award the Hero of Ukraine title to Bandera as a conscious one, and said that Bandera and Roman Shukhevych had brought Ukraine closer to its independence, so, in his opinion, they were heroes.

"They brought us closer to our independence," Yuschenko said.

As reported, Yuschenko awarded Bandera the Hero of Ukraine title on January 22, 2010. The European Parliament, in its resolution of February 25, deplored such a decision and expressed hope that the new Ukrainian leadership (under President Viktor Yanukovych) would cancel it.