Larousse & Oxford Press place Crimea in Russia, sparking outrage; activists call for action

Two publishing houses, France’s Larousse and UK’s Oxford University Press, stirred up outrage recently when they pictured and described Crimea as not being part of Ukraine.

Following an official letter by the Ukrainian embassy to the UK and public outrage, Oxford University Press has promised that it will add “further detail into this section of the textbook” that the text will be amended to include the position of the UN on the matter, before additional copies are sold. At the moment of publication, there was no official response from Larousse to the letter of the Ukrainian embassy to France. However, Larousse did tell AFP it did “not wish to be drawn into this controversy.”

It is hard to see how publishing a map that places Crimea in Russia can be seen as noncontroversial. Moreover, in doing so, the respected academic publishers have made a political statement that contradicts the official positions of their governments.

100 countries, including France and the UK, condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea at a UN General Assembly on 24 March 2014, where they adopted the UN Resolution 68/262 that affirms the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Among other things, it calls upon all States not to recognize any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status, and declared the so-called “referendum” of 16 March 2014 as invalid.

This disregard for international law of a UK and French publisher is all the more cynical, given that in 1994 both countries gave Ukraine security assurances against threats or use of force against its territorial integrity or political independence in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. Ukraine voluntarily gave up the world’s third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in return for security assurances from the USA, UK, and Russia, which were signatories of the treaty, and individual assurances from France and China. Ten years later, Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory and hybrid war in its East has received no reaction from the other countries that were also supposed to assure Ukraine’s safety. Moreover, it is legitimized by scientific publications issued by the publishing houses of those countries.

Ukraine Action, Euromaidan Press, and London Euromaidan invite you to remind Larousse and Oxford University Press that #CrimeaIsUkraine by joining the twitter/message storm on October 19 to remind the once respected publishers that:

• Crimea is not Russian and has never been;
• Crimea in not an exclave and can not be compared to Kaliningrad;
• Crimea was brutally annexed in 2014 with Russian boots on the ground;
• so-called referendum held in Crimea by the Russian occupants was held in violation of all the general recognized procedures;
• Crimea has never been recognized as a part of Russia;
• Atlases and textbooks should be a place for knowledge about the world, not platforms for Russian propaganda.

Join the storm on Monday, October 19. If you can’t wait until Monday, send your letter to Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP);
– email to [email protected], [email protected] (why not copy the Ukraine officials as well – [email protected])
– tag them on FB – https://www.facebook.com/OUPAcademic
– tweet to @UniofOxford та @OUPAcademic. Use hashtag #CrimeaIsUkraine. You can find a full list of Oxford University Press contacts at the bottom of this article.

And to LAROUSSE on fb, or write to [email protected] or the editors at [email protected], tweet to @Larousse_fr.

https://www.facebook.com/euromaidanpress.en/photos/a.220820914768385.1073741828.220542374796239/448668218650319/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/euromaidanpress.en/photos/a.220820914768385.1073741828.220542374796239/448685785315229/?type=3

Larousse, a French publisher, released a socio-economic Atlas of the world, in the paper 2016 edition of which Crimea is pictured as part of Russia.

https://www.facebook.com/didier.maubailly/posts/959743184092134

Oxford University Press called Crimea an “exclave” of Russia like Kaliningrad that Russia “took from Ukraine in 2014” in a textbook for students.

https://www.facebook.com/ukraine.in.uk/posts/1186821114668073