(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Greenland Vote Favors Independence - The New York Times

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Greenland Vote Favors Independence

In a referendum on greater autonomy leading to eventual independence, the people of Greenland, the world’s biggest island, voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday in favor of loosening their 300-year-old ties to Denmark, final results showed on Wednesday.

Hans Jakob Helms, a political adviser to the dominant political party in Greenland, said the ballot offered a “very clear answer” to the question of what Greenland’s people wanted their future to be.

The turnout was more than 70 percent and almost 76 percent of the voters were in favor. “The support was overwhelming,” Mr. Helms said in a telephone interview. The island has a population of 56,000, 90 percent of whom are native-born Inuits. Eligible voters numbered 39,000.

Denmark, which colonized Greenland three centuries ago and granted home rule almost 30 years ago, will maintain influence over matters including foreign policy and defense, Mr. Helms said.

But a new law will allow Greenlanders the option of taking more responsibility in several areas. It will also permit them to be recognized as a separate people under international law and make the Eskimo-Inuit tongue known as Greenlandic the island’s official language.

The measures are to come into force next June following approval by both the Greenland and Danish parliaments.

The new arrangement will allow Greenland to take control of revenues from potential oil, gas and mineral finds, but the full extent of those natural resources is not yet clear.

Greenlanders in the capital, Nuuk, welcomed the outcome of the referendum with fireworks, news reports said. Agence France-Presse quoted Anne Sofie Fisker, a voter in her 60s, as saying: ”It’s a day to celebrate, a historic day, one that I have waited for years and years.”

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