The eventual creation of a Belarusian office in Prague has Lipavský’s support
Update: 10/08/2022 13:16
Issued by: 10/08/2022, 13:16
Prague – The possible creation of a Belarusian office in Prague has the full support of Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Pirates). According to him, it should be open to all democratic-minded Belarusians in the Czech Republic, he said in a statement to ČTK. According to him, the issue of establishing a Belarusian office or a Belarusian home is being resolved regardless of Tuesday’s statement by the leader of the Belarusian opposition Svjatlana Cichanouská, who expects to open a representative office of the provisional government in exile in Estonia, Prague and Brussels.
“The issue of establishing a Belarusian office or a Belarusian house in Prague is being resolved regardless of the current media announcement by Svyatlana Cichanouská about the creation of a Belarusian government-in-exile under her leadership. We discussed this issue with representatives of the Belarusian diaspora in Prague. We are now waiting for steps from their side,” said Lipavský.
He reiterated that if the office is established, it will have his full support. According to him, it should be accessible to all democratic-minded Belarusians in the Czech Republic. But this is not a diplomatic mission. “A number of Belarusian activists and independent journalists already live and work here and are welcome here. We are ready to accept other members of civil society and the democratic opposition who are facing repression and political persecution at home,” added the head of Czech diplomacy.
Cichanouska announced the formation of a provisional government-in-exile on Tuesday at a conference in Vilnius, Belarusian opposition newspaper Naša Niva reported on its website. The main goal of the new government will be “to rid the country of de facto occupation and organize free elections”, the leader of the Belarusian opposition emphasized. The formation of the cabinet is to be completed in September.
In the summer of 2020, Belarusians took to the streets en masse to protest against the fact that the authorities once again declared Alexander Lukashenko the winner of the presidential election. The opposition, the European Union and other countries believe that the results were falsified and that the opposition candidate Cichanouská, who later fled to Lithuania, actually won. In Belarus, after the elections, large-scale demonstrations broke out, accompanied by strikes in a number of enterprises. The police brutally suppressed the protests, arresting tens of thousands of people and imprisoning opposition leaders. A large number of Belarusians fled the country.