The Association of Belarusian Parents in Lithuania has supported the position of Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas that municipal authorities should use Belarusian rather than Russian when communicating with Belarusians.
At the same time, the organization stressed that Lithuanian remains the official language of Lithuania and that learning it is necessary for everyone planning to live in the country, especially children.
“We want children to speak Lithuanian fluently and become a full part of Lithuanian society. Therefore, it is important to expand opportunities to learn Belarusian while ensuring high-quality Lithuanian language education. The Belarusian language helps us remain Belarusians. The Lithuanian language helps us become part of Lithuanian society,” the statement said.
The association also offered the Vilnius city administration free assistance in translating municipal websites, electronic forms and information systems into Belarusian.
Earlier, Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas, commenting on the Vilnius authorities’ decision to stop accepting written applications in Russian, said that a possible compromise could be to communicate with Belarusians and Ukrainians in their native languages. He said people who had arrived from Belarus and Ukraine should not be forced to use Russian when interacting with municipal institutions.
Earlier, Vilnius decided that information in the languages of countries outside the European Union would be provided orally if a particular employee speaks them. However, the acceptance of written complaints and applications in such languages will be discontinued. Russian has also been removed from the administration’s website and customer queue management system. The decision was actively promoted by Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas.
