by Prof. Dr. Michael Mozer published first in Ukrainian in the newspaper “Світ” (“World”) on 16.03.2022, extract from the interview: Міхаель Мозер, австрійський професор
Excerpts translated by Dr. Oksana Melnyk (University of Konstanz)
“ONE CANNOT SAY THAT RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS HAVE NO RELATIONSHIP TO THE WAR” states Professor Michael MOZER, the Professor of Linguistics at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna, the Ukrainian Free University in Munich and the University of Munich named after Petro Pazman in Budapest, the President of the International Association of Ukrainians, the laureate of the VI Vernadsky Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Ivan Franko International Prize. His views on the ongoing war and … on spelling rules:
- “One cannot say that Russian scientists have nothing to do with the ongoing war. Where are those proud Russian intellectuals who are so proud of their own traditions? Have we heard them? There was some letter, there were some people I still respect, but that’s not enough.”
- “If there is no big turn there, Russia will soon become a great North Korea. The luxury life that was on some streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg will be a thing of the past.”
- “It seems to me that this perception (of russia) has already gone the way of the russian warship. The first association with russia is not about some high culture, but with plain barbarism.”
- On not capitalizing: “As a linguist who has recently focused on the history of Ukrainian spelling, I express my full support for such a civic initiative. From now on, we have to write in lower case (and preferably as small as possible!) everything that relates to the criminals from the russian federation.”