Cyberpolice Department of National Police of Ukraine presents its compliments and wish to inform your organization regarding the following recent change. Information posted at https://www.iana.org/time-zones suggests that the latest release of the time zone database (version from 10/26/2018), states that Crimea (Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea) belongs to the time zone "MSK" and is marked with the country code "RU". This information was found in the archive, which contains the full description of the data, codes and applications, and is located at https://data.iana.org/time-zones/releases/tzdb-2018g.tar.lz. Information about the code of Crimea was found in the file "zone.tab" within the specified archive. We consider it necessary to draw your attention to the fact that Crimea is a temporarily occupied part of Ukraine. This fact is generally acknowledged by the international community, which is confirmed by a number of international legal document, including UN General Assembly resolution. Thus, by referring Crimea with the country code "RU", your organization actually accepts and supports the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation who’s armed forces annexed this part of Ukraine. Such recognition may be considered as a criminal offense by the Ukrainian criminal law and we will be obliged to start formal criminal proceedings as it is stipulated in article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Infringement of territorial integrity of Ukraine". As you probably know, the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is still ongoing and any ambiguous decision by countries or international organizations is used by the authorities of the aggressor country to justify their actions. We would like to add that there are Ukrainian citizens still living in Crimea and adhere to the legislation of Ukraine. For their beliefs, such citizens are persecuted by the authorities of Russian Federation. International support for Ukrainian citizens in their aspiration to renew the territorial integrity of Ukraine is extremely important, and in this case your organization can play a positive role. We understand the apolitical status of your organization and respect the existing rules for determining of the actual time zone, but considering the international legal status of Crimea, which is part of Ukraine, we propose to correct this mistake and to change the current version of the time zone database in order to determine that the country code of Crimea is «UA». Best regards, Head of the Cyberpolice Department of the National Police of Ukraine Serhii Demediuk tel.: +380443743738 e-mail: serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua Ukraine, Kyiv
On 12/5/18 11:21 AM, serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua wrote:
the latest release of the time zone database (version from 10/26/2018), states that Crimea (Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea) belongs to the time zone "MSK" and is marked with the country code "RU".
That marking is in the file zone1970.tab, which contains the following text: # This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select timezones # appropriate for their practical needs. It is not intended to take or # endorse any position on legal or territorial claims. And we're serious about this. We do not take any sides in territorial disputes such as the dispute Russia and Ukraine currently have over Crimea. The data for Europe/Simferopol, and the dispute over whether the file zone1970.tab should list its country code as "RU" or "UA", are like the data for Asia/Seoul, a city that zone1970.tab lists under South Korea ("KR") even though Seoul is claimed by North Korea ("KP") as an integral part of its territory. There are similar disputes over other tzdb entries, notably Asia/Jerusalem. Cases like these are resolved by the general principle that the time zone database is intended for practical use, and as a practical matter when people use time zone data they typically want to know the facts on the ground even when these are not the facts as they ought to be.
Dear Paul, We do not question your impartiality and disclaimer at the beginning of the file was well noted. Also we fully support the principle of practicality and primacy of the facts on the ground. It is absolutely clear that if occupational authorities in Crimea decided to change time zone, this becomes an obvious "fact on the ground" and it should be properly reflected in the database. We only disagree with the fact that country code of Crimea was changed from "UA" to "RU" as a result of occupation. Adequate precedent and example here is Northern Cyprus, which is occupied territory of Republic of Cyprus since 1974. Despite the long-lasting occupation and unillateral declaration of independence in 1983, this part of Republic of Cyprus is still marked with proper country code, despite the fact that it had been moved to a different time zone by the turkish cypriot authorities. In current version of "zone1970.tab" file we can see the following lines: CY +3510+03322 Asia/Nicosia Cyprus (most areas) CY +3507+03357 Asia/Famagusta Northern Cyprus Your examples with "Asia/Seoul" and "Asia/Jerusalem" are significantly different from legal point of view and there is a number of reasons why both examples are not applicable to Crimea. Our suggestion is to change line "RU +4457+03406 Europe/Simferopol MSK+00 - Crimea" to "UA +4457+03406 Europe/Simferopol MSK+00 - Crimea" This will properly reflect situation from legal point of view without prejudice to practicality. Best regards, Head of the Cyberpolice Department of the National Police of Ukraine Serhii Demediuk tel.: +380443743738 <tel:+380443743738> e-mail: serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua <mailto:serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua> Ukraine, Kyiv
6 дек. 2018 г., в 22:05, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu <mailto:eggert@cs.ucla.edu>> написал(а):
On 12/5/18 11:21 AM, serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua <mailto:serhii.demediuk@cyberpolice.gov.ua> wrote:
the latest release of the time zone database (version from 10/26/2018), states that Crimea (Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea) belongs to the time zone "MSK" and is marked with the country code "RU".
That marking is in the file zone1970.tab, which contains the following text:
# This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select timezones # appropriate for their practical needs. It is not intended to take or # endorse any position on legal or territorial claims.
And we're serious about this. We do not take any sides in territorial disputes such as the dispute Russia and Ukraine currently have over Crimea.
The data for Europe/Simferopol, and the dispute over whether the file zone1970.tab should list its country code as "RU" or "UA", are like the data for Asia/Seoul, a city that zone1970.tab lists under South Korea ("KR") even though Seoul is claimed by North Korea ("KP") as an integral part of its territory. There are similar disputes over other tzdb entries, notably Asia/Jerusalem. Cases like these are resolved by the general principle that the time zone database is intended for practical use, and as a practical matter when people use time zone data they typically want to know the facts on the ground even when these are not the facts as they ought to be.
Thank you for your response. As I understand it the Cyprus situation is different, as Turkey is not claiming Northern Cyprus and ISO 3166 has not assigned a two-letter country code to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. However, upon reflection, there may be practical reasons for people who first choose "Ukraine" in their computer's user interface to be presented with Europe/Simferopol. So I am thinking that the attached patch to tzdb may address that circumstance as best we can given the limits of the data file format.
participants (3)
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Paul Eggert -
Serhii Demediuk -
serhii.demediuk＠cyberpolice.gov.ua