White-Red-White Solidarity
- IRYNA KHALIP, "NOVAYA GAZETA"
- 9.02.2021, 10:04
Belarus is supported by the whole world.
Solidarity is very simple. Solidarity is very important. Solidarity is an art which the Belarusians have mastered to perfection for the time of protests. No one feels alone anymore - it is enough to come out in the street or just in the yard.
On Sunday, Belarusian solidarity spread around the world. First came Paris: "The Belarusians in France send their greetings to their compatriots. We are with you and will always be!" In the morning, the diaspora of Paris gathered outside the embassy of Belarus with white-red-white flags. "We are here to remind the officials: all those responsible for repression will be punished," - the rally participants were saying.
Then Vilnius and Riga joined in. In Vilnius, the Belarusians supported the repressed: they launched 228 paper boats, each with the name and surname of a political prisoner written on it, along the Vilnyale River. The Vilnius residents came out not only with ships and flags - one of the rally participants was holding a placard with the inscription "I've been drying rusks for Sasha for half a year already". Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on Twitter: "Lithuanians know what it means to fight for freedom. Lithuania strongly supports the desire of the Belarusian civil society to live in a free and democratic country!"
And in Riga, the Daugava became white - red - white. The Riga City Council and the local mobile operator, LMT, used drones to draw the flag of free Belarus right on the river, which flows in both countries, only in Belarus, it is called the Zakhodniaya Dzvina. In Prague, a large white-red-white flag was hung on the parliament building. Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski sent their wishes of victory to the Belarusians.
In Boston, the Belarusians celebrated both the day of solidarity and Tadevush Kastsiushka's birthday. Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey congratulated them on both. In Canada, the Belarusians came to the rallies in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton. By the way, they came out with white-red-white flags, and with calls to release political prisoners, and with words of support for the Russian protests: some posters read "Stop Putin's terror!"
At the same time, people in Minsk were chanting "There is no place for dictatorship from Khabarovsk to Brest!"
White-red-white flags could be seen on Sunday in the streets of Japan, Finland, Britain, Romania, Norway, France, Mexico, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, USA, Canada and Australia. And in the evening, gospel singers from 24 countries recorded the hymn "Mighty God". When you listen to this hymn, which is sung simultaneously in many countries, you realize that everything was not in vain, that the world is structured right and that it is with us.
Solidarity - it's very simple.
Iryna Khalip, Novaya Gazeta