Last week in Berlin I (James W. Carden) down with Sevim Dagdelen, a Member of the German Bundestag since 2005. She is the spokeswoman for the Left Party parliamentary group on the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, a deputy member of the Defense Committee and spokeswoman for international policy and disarmament. […]
WC: Thank you for taking the time to talk. Let’s begin with the war in Ukraine. I must begin by admitting that I was disturbed by Chancellor [Angela] Merkel’s recent admission that in her view the point of the Minsk Peace process was actually to give Ukraine more time to build up its defenses – in other words it wasn’t really intended to be a peace process.
How did we get to a point where we are on the verge of a hot war in Eastern Europe between Russia and NATO? I believe that the West bears a lot of responsibility for what has happened, particularly because of the US-led policy of NATO expansion.
What is your view?
Sevim Dagdelen, MdB: Well, [Chancellor] Merkel’s statement was quite revealing. Through the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2202, the Minsk Protocol became a treaty under international law. To say the Minsk agreements were just a maneuver to betray Russia to gain more time to militarize and weaponize Ukraine, is to admit that the West, and especially Germany and France, two of the guarantors of the Minsk agreements, acted against public international law. That makes future negotiations, on an equal basis, with Russia very difficult. And we shall not forget that the war did not start in 2022, but in 2014, as the General Secretary of NATO has admitted. Kyiv’s subsequent eight-year war on the people of eastern Ukraine claimed 15,000 lives. That means that Russia’s violation of international law in waging war on Ukraine was preceded by a violation of international law on the part of the West and the Ukrainian administration. To be clear, one breach of international law doesn’t justify another breach of international law. Nothing justifies this invasion. I reject this aggression as I reject using military force in international relations, at all. Läs intervjun