Photo courtesy of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE
MINSK, 19 June (BelTA) – The delegations of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation to the OSCE have adopted a statement on the 84th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The statement was presented to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna by Belarus' Permanent Representative Andrei Dapkiunas, BelTA has learned.
The document reads: “On 22 June 1941, Hitler's troops treacherously attacked the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The followers of the Nazi ideology, convinced of their racial superiority and exclusiveness, represented an existential threat for the peoples of the USSR and the scale of the tragedy they inflicted was unheard of in world history. The expulsion and extermination of the civilian population by the Nazis and their accomplices, cited in the Nuremberg Tribunal's verdict, must be viewed as genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union.”
“We do not accept immoral and pseudo-scientific attempts to place equal responsibility for unleashing the war on the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, to memory-hole that historical period, to rewrite or give distorted moral and legal assessments of the outcomes of World War II and the Great Patriotic War. We will not allow erasing the feat of the Red Army that was able to stop the invaders and made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the Nazi Third Reich and to the liberation of European countries from the horrors of fascism and national socialism. We mourn the 27 million Soviet citizens who died during the Great Patriotic War. We honor the memory of millions of people of different nationalities and religions who gave their lives in the name of freedom and justice,” the statement reads.
The unprecedented courage and dedication of front-line soldiers and officers, partisans, participants in the anti-fascist resistance movement and home front workers will forever remain in our hearts. Their incredible determination and sacrifice secured the future for all humanity and helped defend a fundamental right - the right to life.
“We strongly condemn any form of glorification of the Nazi movement, whitewashing of former members of the Waffen-SS and their accomplices, as well as tolerance towards the manifestations of neo-Nazism. This is a sheer mockery of the memory of millions of those who died on the battlefield, who were tortured to death by the Nazis in prisons and concentration camps. There is no statute of limitations for the terrible crimes of Hitler's Germany,” the representatives of Belarus and Russia emphasized.
The Belarusian and Russian diplomats decried the war on memorials to liberators and mass graves waged by a number of OSCE participating states. They deem it necessary to stop manipulating historical legacy and flirting with supporters of Nazi ideology in order to gain political advantage and to further vested interests. The diplomats emphasized the importance of the UN General Assembly Resolution of 17 December 2024 “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”
The delegations of Belarus and Russia to the OSCE called for joining international efforts to preserve historical memory and counter racism, xenophobia, and neo-Nazism.
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