Events

MINSK, 28 June (BelTA) – Austria President Alexander Van der Bellen has arrived in Belarus on a visit. The aircraft with the Austrian leader on board landed in the Minsk National Airport. The same aircraft brought the Austrian ex-president Heinz Fischer to Minsk. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei welcomed the guests and their spouses in the airport, BelTA has learned.

BelTA reported earlier that Alexander Van der Bellen and Heinz Fischer are expected to participate in a requiem rally to honor the memory of Nazism victims at the site of the former death camp Trostenets on 29 June. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and many other foreign guests from various countries will take part in the event.

The Belarusian head of state is expected to have a meeting with the Austrian president.

Trostenets is one of the largest death camps set up by the Nazi to eliminate civilians in 1941-1944. It is the fourth largest death camp after Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka in terms of the number of victims. Residents of Belarus, other USSR republics, deported citizens of Western European countries, including Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, perished in this death camp. The official death toll exceeds over 200,000 people from various countries.