Lukashenko: Belarus will not be someone's 'kresy'

When in alliance with East Slavic neighbors Belarusian lands made progress, while in the arms of the West — declined, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the patriotic forum «This is OUR History!» to mark the Day of People's Unity in Minsk on 17 September, BelTA has learned. «We will remember (we can't do without it!) and remind everyone that when in alliance with the East Slavic neighbors the Belarusian lands made progress (Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire, the USSR), while in the arms of the West (more than once we were there) we declined, we degraded as a nation. We were robbed, destroyed as an ethnic group both in the time of Rzeczpospolita and during the period of 20-year Polish rule of our western lands. The lands that today's Polish elites call as their „Kresy Wschodnie“(Eastern Borderlands).

You see, they do not view us as Belarusians, just „some kresy“. When you think about and recall that some members of Belarusian opposition are self exiled there… Well, what kind of Belarusians are they? What kind of independence are they for? They're for the kresy. I want us to be Belarusians.

I want our children to be Belarusians. We will be Belarusians only on our own land,» the President stressed. «Just having received back their state after more than 100-year break literally from the hands of Lenin's Sovnarkom, the Polish authorities immediately laid claim to the Belarusian territories.

From the position of today, we see the inevitability of this geopolitical catastrophe in our history,» the head of state said. As time later showed, the people had the will to resist the aggressor, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. But there was no unity in the ruling elites that stood at the origins of the Belarusian national state