MINSK, 22 March (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has addressed compatriots on the 78th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian leader.
The head of state remarked that 22 March is a sad date. On that day in 1943 Nazi invaders and their collaborators burned the village of Khatyn to the ground.
“149 innocent people, more than a half of whom were children, were burned alive, dying a horrible death. Thousands of Belarusian towns and villages shared the tragic fate of Khatyn during the war. Many of them were never rebuilt,” the address reads.
The president stressed that Belarusian people honor the memory of all war victims. “We remember that those brutal crimes were committed under the flags which some are promoting as national symbols today. Such historical amnesia is blasphemous,” the Belarusian leader is convinced.
“May the mournful bells of Khatyn be heard by those who are sowing seeds of evil and hatred, who are trying to divide the nation, to destroy peace and accord in our society. It will never happen because we are a united nation and we know very well that the tragedy can repeat itself if people forget about it. The memory of the nation is a sacred thing. Belarus remembers the past for the sake of the future,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
