Vilnius has more and more questions for Belarusians
Lithuanian conservatives want to deprive Belarusians of a residence permit if they have traveled to their homeland more than once in three months. Representatives of the same circles want to ban Belarusians from using their national emblem because of its similarity to the Lithuanian one. So far, these initiatives have not found support in the government. But against the background of the actions of provocateurs covering Vilnius with Belarusian graffiti, the situation may change.
The Lithuanian Interior Ministry had to respond to an initiative by local conservatives aimed at restricting the rights of Belarusians living in the country. The chairman of the conservative Fatherland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats party, Laurinas Kaschiunas, recently proposed to tighten restrictions for Belarusians, prescribed in the bill submitted by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on the extension of sanctions against Minsk.
The parliamentarian and his associates intend to register their version in the Seimas. Lithuanian media reports the deputy’s statement: “I am ready to help the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who actually brought last year’s version, but did not update anything. We will register the amendments, propose to strengthen the project a little, and introduce the same restrictions.”
The essence of the strictures proposed by the deputies is to restrict freedom of movement for citizens of Belarus who have a Lithuanian residence permit. If their trips to their homeland are recorded more than once every three months “for non-objective reasons, without explanation,” then it is proposed to cancel the residence permit.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs quickly responded to this initiative. Lithuanian information resources broadcast the opinion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “The Agency warns that the proposed measures will create a significant burden on the State Border Guard Service and the Migration Department, and in some cases may be difficult to implement.”
“The State Border Guard Service will not be able to track if a person enters Lithuania through another EU country, such as Poland. And the Migration Department will not be able to check how many times he crossed the border of the European Union,” said Deputy Interior Minister Alicja Shcherbaite.
Despite quite reasonable statements by representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lithuanian conservative politicians are clearly not going to calm down. Recently, there has been quite consistent pressure from them on the Belarusian emigration.
A large group of activists appealed to the Lithuanian Seimas with a call to ban Belarusians from using the “Chase” coat of arms. The problem is that a very similar image is the universally recognized state symbol of this country itself. The long-standing debate about the right to the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has escalated due to an attempt by the Belarusian opposition to start issuing passports with the “Chase” coat of arms on the cover. But the activists had to put this process on pause, primarily because of the negative reaction from the Lithuanian side. However, the discussion about the coat of arms is painful for the oppositional Belarusians also because it undermines the foundations of their identity.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian right-wing activists are unwilling to compromise. Characteristically, one of the initiators of the letter against the “Chase” was actor Algis Ramanauskas, a former Lithuanian television presenter who lost his job after a scandal caused by his words on the air that Lithuanians listening to Russian music should be shot. And in one of the interviews, he also stated that “the Belarusian nation does not exist,” and called the Belarusians themselves “biomass.”
Belarusian historian Alexander Pashkevich clarifies the situation with the controversial symbolism of the coat of arms: the “Chase” was never used to spite the Lithuanians, but, on the contrary, was a symbol of the European choice. Such misunderstandings are primarily the result of the fact that, despite centuries of neighborhood life and common history, Lithuanians now know very little about Belarusians. The coat of arms “Chase” has not appeared in Belarusian usage recently and is not a novelty in the Belarusian space, which Belarusians can freely replace with some alternative project if they wish. The “chase” has been used by Belarusians as a symbol of national revival and the desire for freedom since the very beginning of the national movement. It was under this symbol that the formation of non-Soviet Belarusianism took place throughout the difficult twentieth century. It’s easy to see this by looking at historical photographs and other artifacts that have survived to this day: The Chase was on seals, passports, and postage stamps of the Belarusian People’s Republic, established in 1918, and on many photographs from Belarusian events 100 years ago.”
But these balanced arguments do not convince Lithuanian radicals, whose activity is by no means limited to speeches from the parliamentary rostrum and writing collective letters.
Aggressive street actions carried out in recent months include the burning of the doors of a Belarusian house, acts of vandalism against the Kropka store, owned by a Belarusian oppositionist and former prisoner, as well as chapels of the Belarusian Orthodox parish of the Constantinople Patriarchate, and even the desecration of the grave of one of the Kalinov fighters at the Vilnius cemetery.
At the same time, Belarusian graffiti that periodically appears on the streets of the Lithuanian capital plays a provocative role. The most popular: “Our village”. They are accompanied, as a rule, by the image of the white-red-white flag used by the Belarusian opposition. Thus, the struggle for the inheritance of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which both the ancestors of Lithuanians and the ancestors of Belarusians lived for centuries, creates today a field of high tension between activists from both sides.