The holiday, celebrated on the 25th of March, commemorates the Belarusian People’s Republic, proclaimed in 1918. The Freedom Day is traditionally ignored by the Belarusian authorities, but is widely celebrated by the Belarusian opposition. Last year’s Freedom Day was a culmination of the street protests in Minsk.
Here are some accounts of what’s been happening in other countries:
Poland
7 000 people came to the square in the center of Warshaw for the concert of solidarity with Belarus. Nasha Niva called Lyavon Volski, bealrusian Rock-Star, who was just about to climb the stage. “The concert rules! There are two times more people than during the same concert last year! The whole square is full of Belarusian flags”, he said.
Photo by Katechizis
Russia
In St. Petersburg there was a meeting of the Belarusian community of this Russian city. The meeting took place in the building of the New House of Culture. Valiantsin Grytskevich, professor and doctor of culturology from Minsk, read a lecture, which was then followed by a discussion.
Estonia
Local Belarusians put flowers to the monument of the Fallen during the Liberation War (1918-1920) in Tallinn. It was a commemoration of the Separate Squadron of the Belarusian People’s Republic, who fought for Estonia’s independence.
Great Britain
The oldest abroad organization of Belarusians, the Association of Belarusians of Great Britain, held an ecumenical church service. Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians prayed together for the Belarusian people. After that there was a celebration meeting, lecture in Belarusian history, reading of poems by Natalya Arsenneva, discussion about the situation in Belarus.
Belgium
The events in Brussels were united under the name “Minsk. Kalinouski Square. March 2006”.
The screening of the documentary film “Ploshcha” (‘the Square’) by the famous Belarusian dissident film director Yury Khashchavatski took place on the 24th of March.
The screening was followed by a concert of the Slovak-born singer Petra Jordan. The concert was held as a sign of solidarity with Belarus. The event proved to be very successful: the concert and the film were visited by more than 80 people.
The film by Yury Khashchavatski shows the backgrounds of the protests in Minsk in March, 2006. “Ploshcha” evoked a wide range of emotions among the viewers – from laughter until indignation. The screening was concluded by a lively discussion about the future of Belarus and its people.
Petra Jordan’s concert was a truly European one in its nature: performing her songs in English, the Slovak singer appealed to the audience for solidarity with the Belarusian people.
“Without the Velvet Revolution in my country we wouldn’t have got anywhere”, - Petra Jordan said to the audience. “I’m here today, which would probably not be the case, if we had not gone through that. I’m passing the message to everyone, who is out there in the audience to forward it – you are going to have a great concert tonight, but there is still a dictatorship, the last one in Europe, and it is in Belarus. We should let the people know, that there is a time for a change, and the change would be coming soon”.
These events were organized by the Office for a Democratic Belarus and were held under patronage of the Delegation on Relations with Belarus in the European Parliament. The German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Slovak delegation in the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament provided significant support to the project and made it possible for the events to take place.
The Office for a Democratic Belarus decided to mark the anniversary of the March’2006 protest by cultural actions. Thus, the photo exhibition about the post-election protests of March 2006 was unveiled on the 14th of March. The Free Theatre (Minsk) performed in Brussels on the same day, presenting its plays “Being Harold Pinter” and “Generation Jeans”.
