Mikola Kupava: White-Red-White Flag Is National Symbol Recognized By People

The white-red-white flag shall not be judged.

Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus intends to recognize the white-red-white flag as an extremist symbol. Ostensibly, they meet the requirements of "non-indifferent citizens," who have applied to this office with an appropriate petition. Narodnaya Volia has asked Mikola Kupava, author of the standard white-red-white flag, adopted by the Supreme Soviet in 1991, how he feels about such an initiative.

"How can you ban a flag with centuries of history behind it? What do the Germans have to do with it, what do the Polizei have to do with it? The white-red-white flag first appeared on an engraving dating back to 1444! On that engraving is the battle with the Turks near Varna, in which the troops of the GDL also took part. White-red-white flags are shown en masse on the famous picture "Battle of Vorsha in 1514". In 1917, even before the proclamation of the BPR, the Belarusians who served in the former tsarist army decorated their uniforms with white-red-white ribbons and badges. Therefore Klaudiy Duzh-Dusheuski, when creating the flag for the BPR in 1918, did not invent anything; he simply took a symbol that had been tested over the centuries. I remember how in 1990, in Polotsk, Bishop Filaret at our request solemnly consecrated the white-red-white flag, which a year later became the state flag. The white-red-white stripes symbolizing the blood of Christ are present on the bishop's vestment. So is the Attorney General's office going to judge Christ now, too?" - the artist was indignant.