By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - The French National Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday that recognizes the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine, commonly known as the Holodomor, as a "genocide."
A Twitter post by the lower house of parliament said the resolution was voted on by 170 deputies, with 168 in favor and two opposing.
The resolution, which was shared on the National Assembly's website, said several agricultural regions in the Soviet Union experienced famine, resulting in the deaths of between 7 to 8 million people between 1930 and 1933.
“In Ukraine, this famine, caused artificially, was distinguished by its magnitude. Systematized by the Soviet authorities, it claimed the lives of around 4 million Ukrainians, mainly peasants,” it said. “This resolution aims at the recognition by the French authorities of this forced starvation of the Ukrainian population as genocide, and at the condemnation of the acts committed, characterized by extermination and massive violations of human rights and freedoms.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the decision was “important and significant.”
“Grateful for France's strong contribution to exposing totalitarian Russia's past & present crimes, establishing truth, justice, & hence accountability. Thank you France,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
Separately, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appreciated the adoption in a post on Twitter, noting that the vote has “made it clear that such crimes will never be forgotten and must never be repeated.”
At least 3.9 million people starved to death between 1932 and 1933 as a result of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's policies and the "collectivization" of agriculture, according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
The Soviet Union implemented the collectivization of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 to integrate individual landholdings and labor into collectively controlled and state-controlled farms. It affected a significant part of the west and south of the USSR.
Estimates conclude that 5.7 to 8.7 million people died from famine across the Soviet Union.
Ukraine claims that the famine on its territory was "intentional" and has called it a "genocide of the Ukrainian people."