New route on 25 March (video)

An application on holding a demonstration and rally dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Belarusian National Republic on 25 March in Minsk had been passed to the Minsk city executive committee today. The street action is to be the main but not the only event in the anniversary programme. The action organisers said it on a press conference in Minsk.

The applicants are Lyavon Barshcheuski, head of the Belarusian Popular Front Party (BPF); Alyaksandr Milinkevich, head of the “For Freedom” movement; Mikola Statkevich, head of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party and leader of the European Belarus campaign; and Anatol Lyabedzka, head of the United Civil Party.

As Viktar Ivashkevich, deputy head of the BPF party, said, participants of the action will gather on Yakub Kolas Square at 6.00pm on 25 March, and move along Independence Avenue, Valadarski and Haradzki Val Streets to the monument to Maksim Bahdanovich near the Opera Theatre. The organisers will lay flowers to monuments to Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala, Adam Mitskevich, and Maksim Bahdanovich on the way.

The solemn demonstration on Freedom Day should become a main event in the programme of celebration of 90th anniversary of the BNR independence proclamation. But the national forum “For Independence,” which is to start soon, shouldn’t be of less importance. The results of the forum will be summarised ahead of 25 March.

Mikola Statkevich, one of the initiators of the European Belarus campaign, suggested to use Freedom Day to promote the only true vector of country development – in the frames of the united Europe. “Proclaiming the Belarusian National Republic in 1918, our ancestors saw it only a European country. We should continue this tendency. Independent future of Belarus is possible only in the EU,” M. Statkevich is sure.

Organisers of the events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the BNR independence proclamation on 25 March, 1918 should be considered not only in the historical context, but in the context of the future of the country, which is possible only in Europe.