Lukashenko: we are united Belarusian people by right of the land where we live and where our children will live
All peoples are equal in Belarus, and one nation will never be allowed to dominate another – as stated by President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko at today’s solemn ceremony honouring agricultural workers at the regional Dazhynki-2024 festival-fair in Mosty (Grodno Region)
The Head of State noted that he, as a man from a village, has a special attitude towards the Dazhynki fair ‘because it is a good and real holiday that life itself has created’, “It is the result of tremendous work and the joy of its results. It is an occasion to give deserved praise to those who grow bread. Today, Dazhynki arrived at our Grodno Region which is, as the proverb says, small but daring. It is one of the leaders of the Belarusian agro-industrial complex, a cultural and spiritual centre, the keeper of a number of sites from the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Belarusian leader added that all this could not have happened, as well as the region itself, “The land and people here have become a bargaining chip in political games many times… But they did not lose faith, hope, and national identity and reunited in a united Belarus in 1939.”
In the 1990s, history almost repeated itself, the President continued ‘when there were no jobs or prospects here, as well as all over the country, “When products were sold on coupons. When small pensions were delayed for 2-3 weeks. People in the region survived through shuttle trade, taking vodka and cigarettes to neighbouring Poland. Amid this collapse, they tried to play the notorious ‘Kresy Wschodnie’ (eastern borderlands) car again.
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised representatives of one nationality won’t be ever allowed in Belarus to rise above others, “Our Belarusians, our Ukrainians, our Russians, our Jews, our Poles, our representatives of all nationalities, of which there are one and a half hundred in the country, live here.”
It is not for nothing that the Festival of National Cultures takes place in multinational Grodno. The forum started in 1996, the Head of State recalled, and is the same age as Dazhynki. Each host will cordially welcome any guest at their national farmsteads.
“We are all different, but we are a united Belarusian people by right of the land on which we live together now and on which our children will live.”
