MINSK, 23 April (BelTA) - The revival of neo-fascism is a fashionable trend in Europe, which is promoted under the guise of freedom of choice, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov said at the international conference “The People’s Feat Will Live Through the Ages”, timed to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory of the Soviet people against the Nazis. The conference was held in the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War on 23 April, BelTA has learned.
According to Maksim Ryzhenkov, the conference organized by the museum is an important event contributing to the preservation of the memory of the events and consequences of the largest and most destructive war in the history of mankind. He expressed hope that such meetings between museums and leading international historians in Minsk would become a good tradition.
The minister recalled that 80 years ago the countries set up the United Nations Organization to prevent the horrors of war in the future. “I am especially proud to note that among those countries was Belarus, which for its contribution to the Great Victory, yet not being a sovereign state at that time, became a participant and founder of the UN and put its signature to the Charter of the organization. Back then, we were able to form together the architecture of international law, achieving a common understanding and interpretation of the main global challenges and threats. All that was based on the consensus of opinions about the Second World War, its causes and the role of individual states in that war,” he stressed.
However, according to Maksim Ryzhenkov, years later some countries that were not satisfied with the outcome of the Second World War began to blur the historical truth and reinterpret the international processes that took place on the eve of the Second World War. “First of all, among those were the ones who sided with Hitler's Germany, and also Germany itself. Their goal is obvious, which is to justify the aggression, to whitewash the traitors and accomplices, so that inhuman deeds and atrocities against civilians would be forgotten, and their then nurtured plans would become a reality today. The ancestors of these people would turn from executioners into heroes,” the minister said.
According to the minister, the world has lost the common unity that helped destroy the Berlin Wall back then and created favorable prerequisites for the development of constructive cooperation between the West and the East. “The revival of neo-fascism is today, unfortunately, a fashionable trend in Europe, which is promoted under the guise of freedom of choice,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
The minister added that today war veterans in some European countries witness the destruction of the monuments which were once erected in their honor. “How can these war veterans explain the current situation to their children and grandchildren? After all, they once liberated Europe together and saw hundreds of thousands of people dying before their eyes for the free future of Europe, for the freedom of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and many other countries. Today the so-called new fighters for freedom and independence, who have their own sentiments and their own pseudo-heroes, are replacing the liberators in these countries. Europe encourages processions in honor of ultra-right nationalists, honors the memory of collaborators and outright traitors. Some of them bring up their children in the spirit of historical lies. Naturally, all this cannot but cause a strong protest from every honest person familiar with history,” the minister said.
Europe's actions have reached the point of absurdity, he said. The descendants of those who died for freedom cannot come to the burial sites to pay respects to their ancestors. At the same time, Europe is actively arming itself in volumes disproportionate even to the most obvious threats. The money for this, as Maksim Ryzhenkov noted, is taken from the state budget, earmarked for healthcare, education and social security. Weapons are not produced to lie idle.
In this context, the minister emphasized the role of our country: “Belarus is a peace-loving state, which has been preaching inter-religious and inter-ethnic tolerance for centuries. We have never threatened anyone. We have never befriended anyone against others. Our response to all this is to act in the interests of our state and to shape a sustainable future so that we have something to pass on to our children, as our president says. Preserving the historical truth for descendants is our sacred duty and moral obligation. We know for certain that the truth cannot be destroyed by border fences, air embargoes or illegal sanctions. We must keep the peace at all costs in memory of our liberator ancestors. As it turns out, peace is not a simple given. 80 years have passed, those people who remember the horrors of war are gone, and now we are once again approaching the brink. We must increase our collective efforts in the international arena to prevent the glorification of neo-Nazism and whitewashing of Nazi criminals and their followers,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
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