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Dear ladies and gentlemen,

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My name is Iryna Varabei. I am a writer.

I am proud Canadian of Belarusan origin.

My country Belarus is a Central European country whose neighbours are Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania. It is the size of England, with population of 10 million people.

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I am a Belarusan writer in exile.

I am a patriot, a nationalist, who has devoted skills and talent to my culture. That’s why I am forced to live abroad.

Why?

Simply because things are upside down in my post-colonial, post-soviet country.

When Russian people hear me saying, "I am a nationalist", they scarily run away from me.

In the Soviet Union the word “nationalist” has been put in a par with “terrorist” or “bandit”. But the only horrible crime of those ones was that they wanted to destroy “the great united indivisible family” of the Soviet Union and to establish our own independent country. And it’s not already matter that 200 years ago, it was Russia, who conquered our country, occupied our land, ruined it and oppressed our people.

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Before that, for centuries Russian tsars waged bloody destroying wars to get our lands. Hating our identity, our independence, they declared that their goal was to join all Slavic nations into one so-called “Slavic brotherhood” under Moscow governing.

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But neither common cultural roots nor common Orthodox religion prevented our brother-neighbors from ruining to the bottom our cities, robbery of our churches, stealing our sacred assets. Not from murdering millions and millions of innocent people.

Violence and genocide don’t have nationality. They are only a goal for itself. Its essence is annihilation. While the essence of nations is creativity and development through their ethno-cultures.

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Hasn’t it been the highest refinement of genocide after that? – They shut down all national schools, universities, media, banned our language and even our historical name Litva (The Grand Realm of Litva) – and pronounced to the whole world: “ There is no such country, there are no such people. Forget it. There are just north-west territories of Russia”.

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There were three rebellions against Russian Empire in the XIX century. As you can guess, the rebels were named “bandits” and “robbers”, and the rebellions were drowned in blood.

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During the WW I Germany and Russia fought against each other solely on our land, using our people as cannon-fodder.

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In 1917, the Great Communist Revolution happened in Russia, and declared “the right of nations to self-determination”. This inspired the Belarusan people to establish the Belarusan Democratic Republic.

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What then?

The Communist Russian forces reconquered Belarus, murdered the members of the new Government, and Belarus became part of the Communist Russian Soviet Union.

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The Communist Revolution of 1917 declared “freedom, equality, brotherhood”. Okay.

During 1930-s, more than 220 Belarusan writers were shot. Thousands of intellectual people, workers of science and culture, were shot or tortured to death in the concentration camps.

What was their guilt?

They had been creating Belarusan institutes, universities, schools, and media, developing language and culture... They were nationalists. But “nationalist” is the same as “terrorist”. Even enlightening was threatening to the Empire.

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That’s not all. Recently, there were mass graves revealed beside each city in our country. One of them was Kourapaty near Minsk. 250 thousands of the murdered. Killed by the KGB during 1930-s. Who are those killed? Plane workers and peasants. What was their guilt? They were just Belarusans. How many such graves are there in the country? Nobody knows yet exactly.

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World War II. Again, Germany and Russia fight against each other on our land, using our people. Moscow organizes guerilla detachments. They derail military trains and rob local peasants for their own supply. In revenge, not being able to deal with military detachments, the German fascists do simple thing: they name the peasants “bandits” and burn villages. They burn them together WITH their SETTLERS. They gather them into one barn or church and fire it up. Who are those “bandits”? Elders, women, children.

More than 300 Belarusan villages were burned together with alive people. Hundreds villages and towns were ruined, capital Mensk was destroyed completely.

The Belarusans lost the third of their population in this war.

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And hasn’t it been the last and the worst aspect of completed genocide? – They have raised up the new generation – not of Belarusan people, but of Soviet people, -- which was their goal! – who knows nothing about what I’ve just told you. Because our people have got the Soviet education, in which Belarusan history and culture was completely excluded or rewritten, and the Communist propaganda brainwashed the people. It’s a smart thing – to brainwash people, so they do not upraise.

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“There is no such country; there are no such people”.

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And the world doesn’t even know about our existence. How much did you know about Belarusans before now? And even many Belarusans have treated themselves not as identity nation, but as the part of “brotherly” Russian culture.

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...I have told you the suffering history of my people. In very short.

I didn’t even mention about Chernobyl accident, the 70% of which’s aftermath have been falling on Belarusan shoulders.

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The world should get know that we exist, but now we are a bleeding, dying nation.

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And we will be dying unless we eliminate our latest trouble. The current tragedy of Belarus is a government headed by a president, “the last dictator of Europe”, who is a protégé of Moscow. He continues the russification of Belarus, the destruction of Belarusan language and culture, continuing the policies of the Russian Tsarist Empire and the Russian Communist Empire.

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The world should get know that we are reviving nation. We exist and we struggle for our identity and existence.

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We want the world as well as our own people to remember that once, it used to be a great nation. It was one of the most progressive stats in 15-16 cc., the prosperous Great Realm of Litva.

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To remember that it’s the nation, who once brought to a stop the Golden Horde from invading Europe and, at the same time, stopped the Western Crusaders from invading Central Europe.

The nation, who the first in Europe began to print the Bible in their native language.

The nation, who created the first democratic constitution as early as in the 1588, whose principles the whole Europe has followed.

The nation who has given the world and other nations thinkers and heroes, who have become their national assets such as General Tadeush Kastiushko (his statue is beside the White House in Washington) or scientist Ihnat Dameyko in Chilly.

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That will be.

Because the essence of nations is – creativity and development through ethno-cultures. And sharing their progressive steps with the rest of the humankind.

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P.S.

I prepared my speech few months ago, when I still didn’t know how things would develop till now in my country. 10 days ago our dictator Lukashenko again cheated the whole world, falsified the elections for his “elegant victory”. The only country who recognized the results of the so called elections is Russia. With the Russian President’s approval, Lukashenko has started repression of people’s peaceful mass protests, of people who upraised against the Lie. During the last week, thousands people, claimed by him to be “terrorists”, are severely beaten and arrested.

These “terrorist” are our new generation, our youth, who don’t want to put up with the violence anymore. They are the bests, the flower of our nation whom Lukashenko again is brutally tramping down.

I just want to point that the oppression and genocide on Belarusan people is just going on.

And the struggle of our people for their human rights and freedom is still going on.

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Thanks for your attention.