On Thursday November 21, 2013, the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts and the Student Affairs Office of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon and the USEK Library, inaugurated a photo and poster exhibition to commemorate the victims of the Holodomor (Great famine) in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon, H. E. Mr. Volodymyr Koval, the Director of the Student Affairs Office at USEK, Rev. Fr. Boutros Eid, the Dean of the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Dr. Paul Zgheib, along with a delegation from the Ukrainian Embassy, students and professors attended.

Following the Lebanese and Ukrainian National Anthem, Ms. Odile Khoury from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts said: “Death remains death regardless of the reasons that have caused it”…Crime is much more painful than a natural death; it leaves us with the uncomfortable feeling of weakness and bitterness. Then what would it be when this crime is committed against children and innocent people? …In this day, we pay tribute to all those who unfairly starved to death because they had the courage to dissent with others in order to preserve their land, civilization, beliefs and freedom…”

The Ambassador of Ukraine to Lebanon, H. E. Mr. Volodymyr Koval, explained about the Holodomor, the Great Famine, that happened in his country saying that “It was not an accidental event. The Stalinist regime had the goal to exterminate the Ukrainian peasants as the class…Because they were the only ones who had a social basis to resist to the Communist power…The Ukrainian Nation is still experiencing consequences of that tragedy since its social basis, its traditions, spiritual culture and authenticity were undermined…”

It is noteworthy that this Holodomor claimed 3.5 and 5.5 million victims in Ukraine between 1932-1933. Holodomor was engineered by the regime of that time, and millions of Ukrainians, including representatives of other nationalities living in Ukraine, were starved to death. It was only after the country took its independence in 1991 that the truth about those crimes began to be revealed.