It’s not time to build walls

Sanctions, a wall on the Polish border, refugees, an alliance with Russia. What other topics were discussed in the interview of the President of Belarus to the correspondent of the Turkish TV and Radio Corporation TRT, Nisa Efendioglu.

The series of the Head of State’s interviews with foreign media continues. Although in the previous conversations of the President with journalists, many topics of the day were discussed in depth, interest in such meetings does not subside. In the dialogue that took place, one of the key issues concerned external pressure on our country. Aleksandr Lukashenko believes, 

“Many of the reasons behind the pressure on Belarus are connected to the USA.”

The origins of evil

Aleksandr Lukashenko added that he will not list all the reasons for the current situation, but outlined the main one,

“The main reason lies in the fact that we turned out to be the main link in US and NATO pressure on Russia. You know what happened in our country last year: they tried to make Ukraine out of Belarus just the way they demand of us today. I responded that we don’t want to be a Ukraine, our nation does not want it, and we will never be.”

The President recalled how, last year, they tried to turn our country into Ukraine ‘through the so-called colour revolution and revolt’, “They failed. Why do they need to turn Belarus into Ukraine? In order to completely create the Baltic Sea-Black Sea belt, which they have long dreamed of. They want to create this bloc with the eastern border near Smolensk for further pressure — and frankly speaking — move into Russia.”
Addressing the journalist, the Belarusian leader noted that Turkey also lived through this period at one time, “You also had it under Erdoğan. There was an attempted rebellion in Turkey. With us it was somewhat different, but the mutiny there, in Turkey, and the mutiny here, you cannot call it anything else. It is not possible to break the country by force.”
Therefore, the Head of State continued, the opponents switched to systematic pressure and hybrid war whose essence is as follows,

“Pressure and attacks against Belarus from various directions with different intensity are the essence of this hybrid war. It is manifested as pressure via mass media, via diplomatic and political channels. Now they have switched to tough pressure via economic channels. Five packages of sanctions have been introduced by Americans and Europeans against Belarus.”

The President also added that ten attempts were made this year to commit terrorist acts against people, enterprises and military facilities ‘by our fugitives who are now under the protection of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine’.
“Did I understand you correctly: you think that the countries that are responsible for the crisis on the border are America and its allies?” clarified Nisa Efendioglu.
“Absolutely. You know this better than me because you are close to those countries that they have destroyed,” summed up the Head of State.

A ‘stupid idea’

The journalist inquired about the President’s opinion on the project of the Polish authorities to build a wall on the border with Belarus to curb the flow of refugees. Aleksandr Lukashenko suggested, “Apparently, some of the initiators of this project in Poland have run out of money. Therefore, they want to replenish their wallets using this project. If we talk about the wall, it will cost neither $400m nor $500m, as they plan, but about $1bn.”
At the same time, the President drew attention to an indicative moment, 

“They built such a wall on separate sections of our border with Poland. And, as the Polish special services admit, most of the refugees penetrated the country in the areas where this wall was built. 

All in all, about 25,000 people. Therefore, does it make any sense to build such a wall? You know, there was an example: the Americans tried to build a wall on the border with Mexico. One president built it, the next administration is destroying this wall now. I think it will be the same in Poland.”
The Head of State stressed that the Belarusian side is absolutely not concerned about this issue, “That’s their problem. Let them do it. This will not hurt us. But the situation in Poland is very unstable. The current government may not survive. And I am sure that smarter, more rational people will come to power and find better use for $1bn.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko drew some parallels with relatively recent events in modern history, “You know, in Germany at one time the wall between the GDR and western Germany was destroyed. It was a victory for European democracy. Everyone welcomed the destruction of dividing lines and walls on the border! 

Now they want to fence the European Union off with a 5.5m high wall? Somehow it does not fit into their ideology and democracy. This is a stupid, silly idea.”

Broad agenda

The refugee crisis took a special place in the conversation. For Turkey, as a leading country in the region where people are fleeing, this issue is extremely important. The Head of State gave exhaustive answers to accusations that are sometimes heard against Belarus and common fakes. In the context of refugee issues, the role and influence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Muslim world was also discussed. Moreover, issues related to Belarusian-Turkish relations in general were also raised.
Another topic was sanctions and further possible retaliatory measures. They also talked about building an alliance with Russia. Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke about the plans, terms and prospects of this integration project while also sharing his opinion on whether it will be similar to the EU.

THE MT REFERENCE
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) was established in 1964 to broadcast on behalf of the Turkish state and until the 1990s remained the only one in Turkey. Today it has an extensive network of television and radio channels on various topics, which broadcast to the countries of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The TRT structure includes 14 television channels, including 6 national, as well as 3 international, 16 radio channels of national and regional coverage and two foreign ones. News is also published in 41 languages on the TV and Radio Company’s website.

By Dmitry Kryat, Polina Konoga
Photo by BELTA