“Square Remains Only Real Way To Freedom’

The July 3 action will be a small but important benchmark on our way to victory.

Activist of the Belarusian National Congress Siarhei Sparysh told this in a comment for bnknews.org.

— You participated in many action of the Protest Spring-2017. What are your main impressions?

— After the Square-2010 the opposition allowed pushing it off the city center, to some outskirts of Minsk, to the park primarily intended for dog-walking, and thus lost many adherents. Unfortunately, during the last five years, no mass political action had been held in Minsk center, until Mikalai Statkevich got out of jail. It was a very humiliating situation.

The spring-2017 demonstrated that the situation finally started improving. The space of freedom which we managed to fight back not very long before was used for the expression of the truly popular protest against the gangster regime. For the first time in many years, the opposition can confidently say that it does defend the interests of the people, that the opposition is the people.

I went to some of the actions with a red-green flag. The same thing happened in many towns of Belarus during the Outraged Belarusians’ Marches. This is the best illustration of the fact that all Belarusians today stand against Lukashenka, even his former admirers. I think the protests will continue also under the official flag.

The spring-2017 showed us new leaders, we heard new slogans. And the most important thing is that we felt the atmosphere in the society changing. This feeling didn’t go anywhere, despite the summer season and some sort of a regular temporary lull. The revolutionary situation is slowly becoming ripe. The duty of every patriot is to facilitate this process and head the new wave of protests.

— Why is it important to participate in the July 3 action?

— With this government, it is pointless to expect something good for our country, for us. Thus this government should be dismissed, Belarus must be returned to its people. There are different ways to complete this mission. History showed that the best and the safest way is peaceful protest. Therefore, if we want better lives for ourselves and our children, we have noplace else to go, we must come along this way.

See the examples of other countries, which were ruled by the anti-people regimes, just like our Belarus. Poland, Czechoslovakia, the USSR, the GDR, South Korea, Portugal... All of them passed this difficult path, got a chance for a better life and used it. To see this, it is enough to visit neighboring Warsaw or Vilnius.

Yes, if we go to the Square on July 3, there will be no instantaneous changes. Changes in our country will require long and hard work of activists, sometimes - self-sacrifice. It will be necessary to go to the Square time after time, gradually increasing the number of protesters. This is the only real path to freedom, the only way we can regain the country.

The July 3 action will be a small but important step towards our victory, freedom, independence and prosperity.