Dear Association of Ukrainians in Aachen,
dear citizens,
dear friends,
A year ago, the terrible news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine shook us and showed us that what we thought were the norms and values of Europe had feet of clay.
Since then, our lives and our world have changed. The belief in perpetual peace in Europe has proven to be deceptive. We are stunned by the images of war crimes, of breaches of international law, of countless taboos being broken, of the weakest members of society being attacked, of the immeasurable suffering that this war is causing the people of Ukraine. Our sympathy goes out to all of them today.
Dear friends in Ukraine, the world is watching you. You are not forgotten. The attack on you is an attack on us. We are united by the European idea of living in solidarity, peace, freedom and justice. We are united by the belief that injustice will never become justice, the belief that the idea of peace is greater than that of war and the conviction that inhumanity will never conquer humanity. Never.
While our parents and grandparents faced each other on the battlefield of Europe, my generation took it for granted that we would live in a peaceful, open and free world. A civil and civilized Europe in which differences of opinion are settled through agreements and treaties. A world in which arms are disarmed rather than rearmed, in which the democratic state system is superior to all others. Because it is the most humane.
This self-evident truth had already cracked during the war in Yugoslavia, the Middle East conflict, the suppressed peaceful revolutions and many other global trouble spots. On February 24, it was finally destroyed. By the barbaric act of an autocrat and now, unfortunately, we must also say: by the unscrupulously planned attack of an entire state system on its sovereign, innocent neighboring country on Europe's doorstep. This situation overwhelms us all.
Now we stand stunned in front of the ruins in Kiev, Mariupol, Kharkiv and many other cities. Chernihiv, our solidarity partner city in Ukraine, which is so similar to Aachen, is 70% destroyed. The suffering of the people in Ukraine is immeasurable and it is difficult for us to watch helplessly. According to UN estimates, a third of the Ukrainian population has been forced to flee since the start of the Russian invasion, over 8 million people are now living in European countries as refugees and a further 5.4 million people have fled within the country. 13.4 million shattered dreams, hopes and plans.
Even though we in Aachen, like the whole of Europe, were stunned by the developments, we did not stand idly by. We stood by our promise to be a safe haven for people from war zones and welcomed the first Ukrainian people seeking help with open arms on February 26.
The citizens' willingness to help was touching. But politicians and administrators also got involved out of personal conviction. Effective aid networks were woven very quickly and are still in place today. I am proud of our city and the people of this city who opened their doors and arms wide without asking.
Many of you are here today and I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for looking and not looking away, for going to and often beyond your own limits. Thank you for being who you are. For showing that people can be human after all, that humanity illuminates the darkness in our world.
However, I am also proud of the European community, which is united in the face of this massive threat and is thus showing that we are now united by much more than an economic union, that we have developed into a true union of values.
I am proud of the Ukrainian people, the people who have been fighting every day for a year, putting their lives on the line to defend their country and thus also fighting for the European idea of democracy, peace and freedom. Values that unite us in the European community.
For this courage and determination, we will award the Charlemagne Prize to the Ukrainian people and its president this year. In doing so, we would like to send a signal from Aachen to the world that we believe that humanity and democracy will triumph in the end. Even in these dark times. Even in Iran, in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Myanmar, in Syria, in Belarus, in all those countries where dictators think they are on the road to victory. You will never win because injustice will never be right.
We are one, we are in solidarity, in Aachen and so many other places around the world. Let us not stop putting our finger in the wound and publicly standing up for peace, freedom and democracy. Peace for Ukraine and freedom for the countless oppressed.
25.02.2023