Despite the reluctance of Rīga’s mayor and of a commission that oversees place names, the Rīga City Council has approved restoring a downtown boulevard’s name in honor of Latvia’s first foreign minister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics.

Basteja Boulevard, which runs at the edge of the Old Town district, will again become Z.A. Meierovics Boulevard, the council decided July 21. The boulevard was originally named for Meierovics from 1929 to 1940, but before that had been called Basteja Boulevard—a reference to the old city bastion.

The council voted 34-11, with 8 absentions, to restore the Meierovics name.

Current Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš, who had suggested restoring the name as a way to honor Meierovics and the work he did to gain international recognition for Latvia, applauded the council’s decision.

“Restoring Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Boulevard on the eve of Latvia’s 90th anniversary is a great appreciation of Latvia’s first foreign minister and a wonderful gift to all of Latvia’s inhabitants,” Riekstiņš said in a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.

Meierovics became foreign minister when Latvia declared its independence in 1918. He was killed in a one-car accident in 1925.

The World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība, or PBLA) backed restoring the Meierovics name to the boulevard. Meierovics’ late son, Gunārs, headed the PBLA from 1990-1993.

Rīga Mayor Jānis Birks opposed renaming the boulevard, suggesting instead that Rīga International Airport be retitled to honor Meierovics. However, that idea was strongly criticized by Transport Minister Ainārs Šlesers.

Renaming Basteja Boulevard also was overwhelmingly opposed by respondents to a poll conducted in June for the city council by the SKDS survey firm. The poll found 79.2 percent of respondents were not in favor of renaming the boulevard, according to a city council press release.

Latvia will field at least 50 athletes in 11 different sports during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Latvian Olympic Committee has announced. The number of athletes is the most ever in Latvia’s history of competing in the summer games, topping the previous record of 48 during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Track and field athletes make up the largest contingent, and Latvia’s women’s basketball squad will be the country’s first team in the Olympics in nearly three quarters of a century. Other sports represented will be judo, the modern pentathlon, swimming, cycling, kayak and canoe rowing, weightlifting, shooting, tennis and beach volleyball.

The number of athletes could increase yet in track and field events, for which qualifying continues through July, Latvian Olympic Committee President Aldons Vrubļevskis said in a July 18 press release.

Latvia’s Olympic delegation will be supported by 46 coaches, technicians, doctors and administrators.

Beijing will be the first Olympic Games in which a Latvian women’s basketball team competes, as well as the first in which Latvian BMX racers and beach volleyball players appear, said Einars Fogelis, chairman of the Latvian Olympic Committee.

Athletes from Latvia heading to the Beijing Olympics include:

• The women’s basketball team consisting of Elīna Babkina, Gunta Baško, Aija Brumermane, Zane Eglīte, Anda Eibele, Liene Jansone, Anete Jēkabsone-Žogota, Ieva Kubliņa, Dita Krūmberga, Aija Putniņa, Zane Tamane and Ieva Tāre.
• Judo competitors Jevgeņijs Borodavko and Vsevolods Zeļonijs.
• Modern pentathlon competitors Deniss Čerkovskis and Jeļena Rubļevska.
• Swimmers Andrejs Dūda and Romāns Miloslavskis.
• Track cyclists Raivis Belohvoščiks and Gatis Smukulis, as well as BMX racers Ivo Lakučs, Artūrs Matisons and Māris Štrombergs.
• Kayak competitors Krists Straume and Kristaps Zaļupe, as well as canoe athlete Miķelis Ežmalis.
• Weightlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs.
• Shooting competitor Afanasijs Kuzmins.
• Tennis player Ernests Gulbis.
• Track and field athletes Ronalds Arājs (200 meter), Jolanta Dukure (20 kilometer walking), Aiga Grabuste (heptathlon), Ingus Janevics (50 kilometer walking), Jānis Karlivāns (decathlon), Igors Kazakevičs (50 kilometer walking), Ainārs Kovals (javelin), Dmitrijs Miļkevičs (800 meter distance), Staņislavs Olijars (110 meter hurdles), Sinta Ozoliņa (javelin), Inna Poluškina (3,000 meter steeple), Jeļena Prokopčuka (marathon), Ineta Radeviča (long jump), Ēriks Rags (javelin), Igors Sokolovs (hammer throw), Māris Urtāns (shot put), Vadims Vasiļevskis (javelin), Valērijs Žolnerovičs (3,000 meter steeple) and Ieva Zunda (400 meter hurdles).
• Beach volleyball competitors Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Aleksandrs Samoilovs.

Three of the athletes earned silver medals in the 2004 Olympics: weightlifter Ščerbatihs, modern pentathalon athlete Rubļevska and javelin thrower Vasiļevskis. Among the better known professionals athletes are tennis player Gulbis and marathon runner Prokopčuka.

The women’s basketball team is the first Latvian squad to qualify for the Olympics since the men’s basketball team competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

The greatest number of Latvian athletes ever in either the winter or summer Olympics was 58 in the 2006 Turin Olympics.

The Beijing Olympics are scheduled Aug. 8-24.

Dual citizenship could be allowed for children born outside Latvia, but only until they reach the age of majority, Minister of Justice Gaidis Bērziņš has told representatives of the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība, or PBLA).

In a July 9 meeting in Rīga, the justice minister also told the PBLA a broader discussion of the dual citizenship question is needed among members of the ruling government coalition before Latvia’s citizenship law can be changed, according to a Ministry of Justice press release.

The meeting with PBLA Chairman Mārtiņš Sausiņš and other federation representatives was focused on the question of dual citizenship for World War II refugees and their descendants, Jānis Andersons, head of the PBLA’s office in Rīga, said via e-mail. However, the justice ministry’s press release makes no mention of that discussion. Inga Saleniece, Bērziņš’ press secretary, said in an e-mail that the discussion focused on children, but the question of dual citizenship for refugees and their descendants was raised.

Sausiņš told the minister that when children born abroad are not able to get Latvian citizenship, the nation loses loyal citizens.

One option, Bērziņš said, could be to allow dual citizenship for children until they legally are adults. At that point, they would have to decide which citizenship to keep and which to drop.

“Amending the citizenship law is a sensitive question,” Bērziņš said, according to the ministry’s press release, “and that is why clear support is needed from all coalition partners. Amendments have to be prepared with great thought and reason, by analyzing the current situation and considering the changes.”

Because the citizenship law has already been amended several times, Bērziņš told the PBLA representatives, the better option would be to rewrite the law rather than to amend it again.

Members of three coalition parties—the People’s Party (Tautas partija), For Fatherland and Freedom (Tēvzemei un Brīvībai / LNNK), and the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savieniba) —in May announced that they did not support legislation proposed in March to amend the citizenship law. The amendments would have made it possible for chidren born to Latvian citizens abroad to claim dual citizenship, while also renewing the opportunity for World War II refugees and their descendants to regain Latvian citizenship without giving up the citizenship of their host country.

Under the current law, dual citizenship is no longer allowed. World War II refugees and their descendants had until July 1995 to reclaim their Latvian citizenship while keeping the citizenship of their host country.

The proposed amendments came from the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs after a task force spent several months studying how to encourage repatriation. Integration Minister Oskars Kastēns, a member of the First Party of Latvia (Latvijas Pirmā partija), said he was surprised by the opposition from coalition partners.

The government at some point likely will tackle the citizenship law and the integration secretariat will be sure to remind officials of the need for dual citizenship, Dana Heiberga, head of the secretariat’s section in support of Latvians living abroad, told Latvians Online in a June e-mail.

The Lithuanian parliament in June approved amendments to that country’s citizenship law to allow dual citizenship for several groups of people, among which are those who live in European Union or NATO defense alliance members states, as well as World War II refugees and their descendants. Lithuanian law previously allowed dual citizenship, but in 2006 the country’s Constitutional Court ruled those provisions unconstitutional.