The name of former Ukrainian representative Irina Farion was well remembered by Transcarpathian Hungarians after her statements in 2018, when she compared Hungarians living in Ukraine to dogs.
The Ukrainian linguist, teacher, political and social activist entered the public consciousness of Transcarpathian Hungarians five years ago. In one of his speeches - of which a video was also made - he called the Hungarian minority living in Ukraine "morons" and compared them to dogs.
At the time, Farion said that he believed that the Transcarpathian Hungarians had nothing to earn in Ukraine, and that the seven years that the law provides for learning the Ukrainian language is an extremely long time.
"Listen, when we send a dog for training, that dog returns home after a month knowing the command words 'sit!, stand!, lie down!' And they need seven years to learn the language of Stepan Bandera, Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka? Do we need so many morons in Ukraine? They should take their passports, which Hungary gave them, and go to Hungary. Why should I feed them, why should I give money for Hungarian, Romanian, Russian and Polish schools?" - asked the teacher in confusion, who since then has broken the fuse several times in Ukrainian society as well.
For example, he recently accused the Ukrainian army, particularly the Azov Regiment and the 3rd Special Brigade, of communicating in Russian. As he said, such people "cannot be called Ukrainian", and then he called the Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldiers "Muscovites".
Due to his statement, dozens of students protested in front of the main building of the Lemberg Polytechnic University. Their demand was that the professor of the Ukrainian language department, Irina Farion, be fired. The students held placards reading "University responsible for teachers' humiliation of Ukrainian soldiers" and "Leave Farion from Polytechnic."
The members of the university management finally went out to the students. By November 22, the university task force must evaluate the teacher's behavior, as well as her statements in interviews and on social media.
Ukraine's ombudsman Dmytro Lubinec finally turned to the relevant authorities to "verify the information provided and take appropriate response measures." And the authorities seem to be doing their job, as the Ukrainian Security Service (SZBU) has initiated criminal proceedings and has already ordered several investigations into Irina Farion's statements and publications.
According to the investigation, the representative stated in an interview that he categorically rejects Russian-speaking members of the armed forces and cannot call them Ukrainians. This caused outrage among Ukrainian human rights defenders and society as a whole.
In addition, the accused published a post on social media in which he published a screenshot of a message from a friend of Ukraine, a student from Crimea, which contained the sender's name, surname and other personal information.
Because of these facts, criminal proceedings were initiated under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
– Violation of the equality of citizens based on race, nationality, territory, religious belief, disability and other reasons (Article 161);
– Violating the honor and dignity of soldiers, threatening soldiers (Article 435-1);
– Violation of the confidentiality of correspondence, telephone conversations, telegraph or other communications transmitted via a communication device or computer (Art. 163);
– Violation of privacy (Article 182).
SZBU initiated a psychological and linguistic investigation regarding Irina Farion's statements. The investigation prior to the procedure is ongoing, the Ukrainian authorities said.
Cover image: She called Hungarians dogs five years ago, now a case has been launched against the teacher
Source: YouTube
