Belarus’ Defence Minister: experience of historical interaction of nations that defeated fascism is of enduring relevance
In the context of escalating global tensions, the experience of historical interaction between the nations that defeated fascism has an enduring relevance and world-historical significance – as noted by Belarus’ Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin at the international scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide held today in Minsk
“Then, almost eight decades ago, it was possible to achieve victory over fascism thanks to the efforts of all peoples united in the anti-Hitler coalition. Thousands of Americans and Brits selflessly fought on the battlefields of World War II. We preserve memory of their feat and pay tribute to the wisdom of the anti-Hitler coalition’s leaders who, in conditions of almost irreconcilable contradictions, managed to unite in the fight against a common enemy and ultimately destroy it,” Mr. Khrenin said.
The Defence Minister stressed that the main results of the victory over fascism were the creation of the United Nations, the Nuremberg process – when, for the first time in the history of mankind, there was an attempt to stop wars, to agree on the future of mankind on an international scale. The adoption of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was also a contribution to that.
“Unfortunately, many current leaders of Western countries have forgotten the tragic lessons and their great compatriots who fought against Nazism. While trying to maintain a unipolar world order, the United States and its satellites are destroying the global security system, initiating ‘colour revolutions’ and armed conflicts on all continents, rudely interfering in the affairs of independent states – doing this before our eyes. The WWII history is being rewritten in the West, and resolutions are being adopted at the level of European structures that shift the blame for the outbreak of this war to the USSR and that justify Nazi war criminals, up to their honouring in parliament. The revanchist aspirations of the West are also evident from the results of the vote in the UN General Assembly, when 50 states turned out to be against a resolution condemning Nazism,” Mr. Khrenin stated.
The Defence Minister added that everything looks as if there were no results of WWII once recognised by the world community: torchlight processions are staged in the Baltic States and Ukraine, young people march under the banners of SS divisions, outright nationalists take the law into their hands and deal without trial with those who do not allow monuments to fallen soldiers of the Red Army to be demolished, and those honouring the memory of the Great Victory are declared virtually enemies of the nation.
“Disgusting Russophobia has covered many European countries that have positioned themselves as ‘lights of democracy’,” Mr. Khrenin said.
