Lukashenka highlights importance of Belarusian language
Alyaksandr Lukashenka / president.gov.by
The Belarusian language distinguishes Belarusians from others, said Alyaksandr Lukashenka at a meeting with scientists on January 25.
He urged scholars to develop new ways of making every Belarusian know their language.
The Belarusian Language Society (BLS) had lost its state accreditation at the end of 2021. The detained oppositionists often testified that the police were especially harsh on those who spoke Belarusian.
Lukashenka blamed this state struggle with the Belarusian language on the opposition.
"Due to our insane white-red-white madmen, we swept away everything and, as they say, almost threw the baby out with the water. You must realize that what separates us from the others is the Belarusian language. We do not need to move away from it," he said.
Lukashenka says that everyone in Belarus is fluent in Russian, and now it's necessary to improve the knowledge of the Belarusian language. "If we do not know the Belarusian language, we are not Belarusians," he explained. He added that there's nothing anti-Russian about it.
He also said that there would be no "imposition" of the Belarusian language.
Lukashenka pronounces statements about the need to know the Belarusian language every few years, but in reality, the state does almost nothing to support it.
