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26 May 2017

Lukashenko in favor of more people speaking Belarusian

MINSK, 26 May (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is in favor of more people speaking Belarusian but without artificial encouragement. The Belarusian head of state made the relevant statement as he met with school students on 26 May, BelTA has learned.

The head of state was asked what he thinks about using Belarusian to teach historical disciplines in secondary schools. “I am totally against forcing school students to speak one state language only. We have two state languages: Russian and Belarusian. It is up to individuals to decide whether they want to study disciplines in Belarusian or Russian,” said Alexander Lukashenko. “If you ask me what I would like, I’d say I’d like these disciplines taught in Belarusian. We speak Russian a lot in our everyday life. We could use more Belarusian in our lives. Is it good or bad? I don’t know. I don’t think it would be a catastrophe.”

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that many people view Russian as a property of the Russian Federation but the approach is totally incorrect. “It is our language. We’ve been speaking Russian for centuries. The language is a living and breathing thing. The current Russian language has been improved century after century. It is the way it is now because we’ve invested our souls in it, because Russian people have invested their souls, and Ukrainians have done as much. Even the nations, who spoke Russian less than we did. We sacrificed our lives for this language. Russian is our language. It is a great treasure,” stressed the Belarusian leader.

“Truth be told, we have another language, too, which makes us different from other nations. A state and a nation have to have their own peculiarities, including a language of their own. If a nation has a language of its own, it is a nation indeed. We have two languages. We are rich,” said the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko noted he is against artificial incentives because the approach can cause rejection. “Wars often began in the past due to misunderstood language problems. We don’t need that,” he noted.

The president also explained why Russian must never be abandoned. For instance, discussions during all the international conferences are synchronously translated into a number of most popular languages, including Russian. Apart from that, the Russian language has a lot of terms, particularly in the sphere of exact sciences. “Let’s not lose what our ancestors paid for with their lives. Why should we reject Russian?” wondered the Belarusian leader.

“Certainly, as the president of Belarus I would very much like us to speak more Belarusian,” stressed Alexander Lukashenko.

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