“Everything that we write about the peninsula is a pure lie”: Slovak writer Josef Banas spoke about his trip to the Crimea

One of the most popular Slovak writers, Josef Banas traveled to the Crimea to find out whether the peninsula was added five years ago against the will of local residents, according to media reports in his homeland. Prior to the division of Czechoslovakia, Banas worked as a diplomat, was a member of parliament in the 2000s and represented Slovakia in the NATO parliamentary assembly in 2004. However, major publications refused to publish a report on life on the peninsula.

- How did you decide to go to the Crimea? Were there any concerns?

- Very simple. Three years ago, in Moscow, the Mig publishing house published my novel The Zone of Enthusiasm, which begins with the invasion of the Warsaw Pact army in Czechoslovakia in 1968. And there is one very interesting situation there - at that time Yevgeny Yevtushenko, being in his house in Koktebel, and this is a well-known fact, sent a telegram to Brezhnev, where he opposed the invasion. Such a landmark episode.

And it became interesting to me how people live in Koktebel now. Is there still a house of Soviet writers. That was my first idea. The second is the interest in literature in the Crimea. All the famous Russian writers lived there - Chekhov, Tolstoy, Bunin, Voloshin, Nabokov and so on. The third reason is a bit political. I just wanted to find out how people live five years after joining Russia.

- Have you been to Russia before?

- Three years ago in Moscow, when my book was published. In 2013, I was in Tula - I really wanted to visit Tolstoy's house in Yasnaya Polyana. Last year, we traveled to Altai and Siberia from Mongolia. I was in the Soviet Union in 1974. When I arrived in Russia (several decades later . - RT ), I saw a huge difference - Moscow became a completely different city, it is impossible to compare.

- What were your expectations from the trip to Crimea?

- From the point of view of the international definition, “annexation” means the accession of part of the territory against the will of the inhabitants of this territory. Therefore, I logically told myself that if the inhabitants of Crimea are dissatisfied with, say, the Russian occupiers, there should be some resistance. Crimea has always fought against the occupation, for example, German.

In the five years after the referendum, I have never heard of resistance against the Russians. So I just decided to go with my friend and see how people live under occupation.

- And how did it actually turn out?

We learned that people there live absolutely normal, they are happy and smiling. Therefore, the fact that our newspapers in Slovakia and, I think, in other European countries write about Crimea is simply a pure lie.

- That is, in the Crimea you did not meet a single person who would be dissatisfied with the accession of the peninsula to Russia? Maybe there were doubters?

- I asked people very frankly how it was part of Ukraine, or how they speak under Ukraine or under Russia. Even the Tatars told me that it is better now. We flew to Simferopol, and from there we went by car to Sevastopol, Yalta, Balaklava, Alushta, Feodosiya, Koktebel, Kerch, through the Crimean bridge and returned to Simferopol. During the week I talked with 25-30 residents of the Crimea, various professions, tourists, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars.

- How did your former colleagues, acquaintances, family react to your trip?

As a result of the information circulated by our newspapers, many people think that there is a war going on in Crimea, as in the Donbass. Many people asked me if I was crazy to go to the Crimea, because it is very dangerous there, there are Russian soldiers.

- After your report, which only one of the Slovak newspapers agreed to publish, did people have a desire to visit Crimea?

- A lot of people wrote to me asking for recommendations on a trip to the Crimea. Travel companies need to be more active. In Slovakia, many people want to go there, but they have no information. I said that there are no problems - I bought a ticket through Moscow to Simferopol. They will tell you right at the airport where there are good hotels in Crimea, they will take you wherever you want. No problem.

- Have you had any fears that after your visit to the Crimea you will have problems, for example, with entering Ukraine?

- There were fears. Some of my friends told me that they would not let me into Ukraine. But my novel was published in Ukrainian. But if I hadn’t written a report about Crimea, no one in Ukraine would have known that we were there because we flew through Moscow, there were Russian visas. Nominally, no one would know about this.

• Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait
• © most.life

But I had no purpose to hide my trip. On the contrary, I wanted people to know that I was there. After all, I am a famous Slovak writer, a former member of parliament, which means that here people know me, and if I say something, then people will hear it and read about it.

- In 2004, you became the deputy chairman of the NATO parliamentary assembly and you probably shared the ideas of the bloc. However, in your recent publications you can see a critical view of the organization. How did it happen ?

- I must say that in 2004, when I was elected to the post of deputy chairman of the assembly, NATO was very different from NATO today. The more I learned, the more the illusions about the alliance were dispelled. And after the American invasion of the countries in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, I totally changed my attitude. Today I am very critical of NATO.

- In your report, you also drew a parallel with historical events when the United States declared independence from Great Britain. Can we talk about double standards in this case?

- The United States did not ask the British if they could create their own country, they just did it and that’s it . It is interesting that in the EU countries all parties, both in power and in the opposition, are all totally anti-communist. In the situation with Crimea, all these anti-communist leaders allude to the decision of the CPSU leader Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev to transfer the peninsula to Ukraine. This is in order for them, but the fact that most of the Crimean residents decided to return to Russia, and that this is a democratic decision, does not bother anyone.

But normal people live in Slovakia and throughout Europe, and the point of view of the people differs from what they are told in the media and from the opinions of politicians.

People are not particularly interested in foreign policy. If politicians and journalists knew that people consider the annexation of Crimea annexation, they would conduct a survey, but they did not. This is sufficient evidence for me.

Today, all newspapers and magazines speak of Russia only in a negative way. The same thing happened with us during the days of communism - everything that was from the West, from the USA was bad, and what was from the Soviet Union was good. Today it’s the same, just the opposite.

- Your travel notes published only one Slovak online edition Hlavné správy. Why did the rest of the media refuse and how did they explain it to you.

- They are afraid. I sympathize with Russia. But I also sympathize with the Poles, and the Hungarians, and the Czechs, all normal people. And most of all I sympathize with the truth. I went to the Crimea to find out the truth. I believe that the task of every writer is to tell the truth.

In the report I ask the question: why didn’t the popular media publish my report? Because they are afraid of the truth? No one gave me an answer to this question. I know many journalists, but they just smiled and said that writing the truth about Crimea and Russia is simply impossible.

- What do you think, when the issue of Crimea will cease to be a stumbling block in relations between Russia and the West?

- Russia needs to be more active in talking about Crimea, inviting journalists from Europe and the USA. Go wherever you want and see what you want. Indeed, in five years not a single Slovak journalist has arrived in Crimea. Even President Macron has already recognized sanctions as a stupid undertaking. Politicians think one thing, they say another.

If the EU, especially Germany, is convenient to have good relations with Russia, including from a business point of view, then they will change their official position. I think the situation will change within two years.