Always remember the genocide of the Tatars of #Crimea.
Also always talk about the forced disappearances, torture, persecution of #Tatars and the destruction of their culture by Putin's #Russia since 2014.
Also do not write off Crimea.
Right time to write a #thread on #Crimea. 1/9
1 Some consider Crimea a side issue. No, in terms of law #CrimeaIsUkraine and Western leaders must be consistent with their statements on Crimea's territorial integrity. It comprehends Crimea.
Full stop. 2/9
2 Let's stop with the lying "Crimea is Russian" speech. Besides the fact that it has not always been, the historical legitimization has no value. Only international law counts.
The annexation of Crimea had only one precedent in Europe since WWII: the Sudetenland by Hitler. 3/9
3 Moreover, Crimea voted for independence from #Ukraine in 1991.
Please do not mention the pseudo-referendum of 2014, conducted under threat, and whose result was never recognized by the international community.
The EU far right rushed there to supposedly observe... Bastards! 4/9
4 Narrative also heard: "For #Russia, Crimea is Russian and part of its vital interests".
First reaction: so what?
Second: let's stop buying the Russian propaganda speech. Let's also stop buying the perception it seeks to impose of its alleged #redlines. Let's pulverize them! 5/9
See also how little reaction there was when the Russian bases in Crimea were attacked and and the Russian tourists panicked and left this peninsula which is not theirs.
Joyful humiliation. And then? 6/9
5 From a military point of view, it is not excluded (not for sure) that Crimea can be reconquered even before the Donbass. We had this discussion in Prague (@Forum_2000) with @PavloKlimkin during a panel. Pavlo and I fully agreed to consider this hypothesis. 7/9
6 Strategically, no doubt the #Crimea matters to #Russia (notably Sevastopol), but it also matters to #Ukraine and the Allies.
We must stop systematically and first of all placing ourselves on the side of a Russian point of view.
Have we learned nothing? 8/9
7 As for the rest of #Ukraine, giving Kyiv all the means to reconquer Crimea is also a way to stop Russian exactions against the civ.ilian population. Time is of the essence.
It is not incidental, either in terms of values or in strategic terms. #SaveTheUkrainians 9/9
Like every year, on April 30, I commemorate the liberation of the #Ravensbrück concentration camp on April 30, 1945.
28,000 never returned.
On that day, my mother, a member of the Resistance and political prisoner who had been deported there, “celebrated” her 25th birthday. 1/
She would have been 105 today.
On that day, Hitler committed suicide.
I have often recounted her story here on previous April 30ths, from her time in the Resistance to her career after the war.
I will not repeat it today.
2/
I will only recall this sentence, which continues to haunt me: “In the Resistance, my comrades and I were absolutely certain: we were facing absolute evil. We had no choice but to eradicate it.”
3/
Rappel au droit.
Un fil🧵
Les propos de B. Retailleau ont suscité une indignation légitime et fondée, accrue par ses fonctions actuelles.
Ils représentent un risque majeur.
Nous devons défendre l'#Etatdedroit et montrer ce qu'il implique. Il doit nous réunir.
Voici pourquoi.
1/16
L'Etat de droit suppose qu'il n'existe pas de souveraineté absolue d'un quelconque pouvoir.
Il définit une souveraineté limitée de chacun en vertu du principe libéral selon laquelle il ne saurait y avoir de domination de l'un d'entre eux.
C'est un régime d'équilibre.
2/16
Le point fondamental est que la supposée volonté du "peuple" est limitée par la Constitution et par l'ensemble des traités et conventions auxquels le pays a adhéré et qui sont, de fait et de droit, entrés dans l'ordre juridique interne.
Le législateur ne peut les bafouer.
3/16
I'm late in sharing some remarks collected by @cleacaulcutt for @POLITICOEurope (I was interviewed while I was in Chelm train station, Poland, on my return from Kyiv last Tuesday).
Great recent progres obviously, but my main questions remain.
⬇️ 1/4 politico.eu/article/ukrain…
“The Ukrainians are very concerned about what the real objectives of allied nations are,” said Nicolas Tenzer, author of “Our War,” a book about Ukraine. “Are the Americans, the French and the Germans prepared to pull out all the stops so that Ukraine ultimately wins?”
2/4
“Even if Joe Biden is re-elected,” Tenzer cautioned, “not everyone in his administration wants to join forces with Ukraine and lead a victorious counter-offensive” against Russia.
3/4
It's high time the Allies took action to drive the Russian enemy out of Ukraine.
Not tomorrow, but now.
In fact, I've been asking for this since February 24, 2022. It would have saved over a hundred thousand lives and increased our security.
A thread.
1/13
🧵
What hasn't been done hasn't been done.
As Spinoza once wrote, “regret is a useless feeling”. But it can only haunt us.
Now, let's get on with it.
There must be not limitation on our side.
2/13
I see the debates in the US. They're not new.
The differences within the Biden administration over attacking military targets with US weapons in Russia are long-standing.
Giving up would be a sign of US strategic bankruptcy.
Taking action will also pay off electorally.
3/13
Ten theses.
A thread.
🧵
1 We're at war with Russia, not because we've declared it, but because it's waging war on us.
#OurWar
2 Russia is waging a war of extermination. That's just a fact.
It's a war without limits, neither in time nor in space.
3 With a radical enemy, there can be no negotiation. Any negotiation means both more crime — in fact, it's a license to kill given to Putin, especially in the Russian-ruled areas of Ukraine — and more insecurity.
As those of you who have been following me for some time know, April 30 is a special day for me.
On that day in 1945, the #Ravensbrück concentration camp was liberated. My mother, Martha Tenzer, a resistance fighter in Belgium who had been arrested by the Gestapo in 1943,... 1/8
was “celebrating” her 25th birthday there.
She would have turned 104 today.
She had joined the Resistance at the age of 20, and was Jewish. Fortunately, her false papers concealed her origin.
When she was liberated and handed over to the Red Cross of Sweden,... 2/8
where she spent long months convalescing, she weighed 30 kg and was suffering from numerous illnesses (typhus, turberculosis...). She survived.
After the war, she was one of the first women to enter the Belgian diplomatic service (closed to women before the war). 3/8