MOSTY, 2 November (BelTA) – Grodno Oblast and Belarusians will never again be a bargaining chip for politicians, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a ceremony to honor agricultural workers at the Dazhynki 2024 festival in the town of Mosty on 2 November, BelTA has learned.
The head of state noted that he, as a man hailing from the countryside, has a special attitude to Dazhynki because this holiday is kind and true. "It celebrates the result of tremendous work. It is an occasion to show our gratitude to the people that grow bread and that smell of bread," the president stressed.
He noted that Grodno Oblast, as the proverb has it, is small but feisty. This region is one of the leaders of the domestic agricultural industry, a cultural and spiritual center, the keeper of several sites from the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The head of state noted that he, as a man hailing from the countryside, has a special attitude to Dazhynki because this holiday is kind and true. "It celebrates the result of tremendous work. It is an occasion to show our gratitude to the people that grow bread and that smell of bread," the president stressed.
He noted that Grodno Oblast, as the proverb has it, is small but feisty. This region is one of the leaders of the domestic agricultural industry, a cultural and spiritual center, the keeper of several sites from the UNESCO World Heritage List.
"But all this could not have happened. We remember and know this well. Land and people here have become a bargaining chip in political games many times. I must say that never again will Grodno Oblast and Belarusians who live here (the Belarusian nation - Poles, Jews, Tatars, Ukrainians, Russians) be a bargaining chip for politicians,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. "Back then we did not lose faith, hope, and national identity and reunited in the distant 1939.”
In the 1990s, history almost repeated itself. "There was no work or prospects in the country," the head of state recalled. Food stamps, meager pensions delayed for weeks, or even months. People found themselves in a difficult situation. In the region, they survived due to shuttle trade in vodka and cigarettes to neighboring countries. Against the backdrop of this difficult situation, they again tried to play the card about ‘eastern borderlands’. But in Belarus, we did not allow representatives of one ethnicity to rise above others. You know this well in Grodno."
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