General information
FRIENDS OF CRIMEA : WHO WE ARE
The idea of the creation of the Association was introduced by the foreign politics and public personalities during the II Yalta international economic forum in April 2016. Therefore, Friends of Crimea Association was established as an informal public association on the 6th of November, 2017 in Yalta, Republic of Crimea.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Our main objective is to develop intercultural communication, contacts and cooperation with international, regional and national organizations that share Association’s targets.
Our goals are the following:
to restore mutual trust in the world, friendship and good neighborliness between countries and peoples;
to develop by the means of public diplomacy cooperation between countries in political, economic, trade, scientific, cultural, educational, energetic, transport, ecological and other spheres;
to support respecting political, economic, social and humanitarian rights of peoples;
to stop an imposed upon the world information war that leads to fueling conflicts, growing threats and international crisis;
to acknowledge the legitimacy of the all-Crimean referendum of 2014 and the rights of the Crimean people to determine its future;
to withdraw the Crimean issue from international agenda, to prevent using it to impose confrontation between countries and peoples;
to provide international community with objective information about life in Crimea and historical reasonability of the choice of the Crimeans made in March, 2014;
to fight against misinformation and fake news about Crimea.
The Association, founded in 2017, meets regularly to assess the political, economic and cultural developments around Republic of Crimea, explore case studies. A central aim of the Association is to draw academics, activists, artists, journalists, jurists, public policy makers, and other colleagues into activities
COORDINATING BOARD OF THE ASSOCIATION
In October 2018, the leadership of the Association was changed, and Mr. J. Charnogursky (Slovakia) was elected as a Chairman of the Friends of Crimea Association. In addition, Mr. Isychos (Greece) and Mr. Messaoudi (Tunisia) were appointed as deputy Chairmen of the organization.
In addition, for the purpose of improvement of the work of the Association and of providing assistance to the national clubs of the Friends of Crimea worldwide, the Coordinating Board of the Association has been established with the following membership:
Jan Čarnogursky, Slovakia, Chairman
Born 1. 1. 1944 in Bratislava. Graduated at Charles University in Prague in law. Worked as lawyer in Bratislava. In the year 1981 was dismissed from the Bar after the defence in the political trial. Joined the disident movement in Czechoslovakia. 1989/90 deputy PM of the Federal government of Czechoslovakia. 1991/92 PM of Slovakia. 1992-98 MP of Slovakia. 1998-2002 Minister of Justice of Slovakia. 2003 – private lawyer in Bratislava. Chairman of the Slovak-Russian Society 2006 till now except 2013/14. From 2018 Chairman of the Coordinating Board of the International Association of the Friends of Crimea.
Konstantinos Isychos, Greece, Deputy Chairman
Konstantinos (Costas) Isychos was born in Buenos Aires Argentina from parents with Greek ancestry. He immigrated to Canada in 1976. He studied political and economic sciences at York University in Toronto, Canada. He then followed political studies in Havana Cuba. He came to live and work in Athens, Greece in 1980. He participated in left wing political movements since his early youth following the same road in antiwar pro peace movements till today. He worked in OLYMPIC airways and for many years was a leading trade unionist in the civil Air aviation for many years becoming the Vice President of the civil aviation employees Federation in Greece. He participated in meetings and congresses traveling to many countries around Europe defending employees and passengers’ rights during his professional career in Olympic airways. He also served as the Vice President of the Athens Labour centre. He participated in the first truck convoy from Athens to Belgrade during the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO, organizing and contributing medical and food supplies, along with other civil and political representatives becoming the first foreign civilian aid group in breaking the western embargo against Yugoslavia in March of 1999. He has travelled to many countries around the world heading or being a member of delegations. He has given speeches and lectures on international politics and geopolitics in the European Parliament, in Brazil, China, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Egypt, etc. He was an electoral observer in the first Free elections of South Africa after the apartheid regime in 1994, meeting Nelson Mandela along with the other international electoral observers. He was also an electoral observer in Venezuela in 2007. He then met the late President Hugo Chavez Frías, in another Greek delegation in July 2012 participating in an international solidarity congress in Caracas. More recently he was an electoral observer in Don bass in the last presidential and local elections. He was a member of the political secretariat of SYRIZA from 2008 to 2015. He was also responsible heading the foreign policy and defense dept. in the party ( 2010- 2015). He was appointed in the first Syriza government as alternate minister of defense and was elected as member of the Greek parliament in the general elections of January 2015. He is a strong political activist against western militarization in our region and staunchly against the existing NATO military bases and their expansion in Greece and the Balkans, promoting peace and dialogue. He was also appointed as the co-president of the Greek Russian ministerial group during his term in the first Syriza government (January 2015 - August 2015). He participated actively in many bilateral discussions between Greece and Russia in government level supporting a strategic long term mutual beneficiary relationship for both nations and peoples. He resigned from parliament and as minister along with other 50 members of parliament and six ministers, after strongly disagreeing by not voting in favor in the Greek parliament in the signing of the 3rd memorandum in August 2015, implementing a de facto new colonial long term policy in Greece by its lenders. He took part in a Greek delegation in the first Yalta economic forum and since attending the forums thereafter, and has recently co-founded along with other renowned Greek citizens in the fields of political and social sciences , university professors , city mayors, actresses and actors , science researchers, lawyers, teachers, businessmen and businesswomen, peace activists (among them heading the Greek club, Antifascist world war ll hero Manolis Glezos) the Greek Association “friends of Crimea” .
Abdelaziz MESSAOUDI, Tunisia, Deputy Chairman
Hayk BABUKHANYAN, Armenia, Member
Detlef WIMMER, Austria, Member
Vanya DOBREVA, Bulgaria, Member
Andreas MAURER, Germany, Member
Stefano VALDEGAMBERI, Italy, Member
Mitsuhiro KIMURA, Japan, Member
Hendrik WEBER, Norway, Member
GE Zhili, PRC, Member
Unver SEL, Turkey, Member
