Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addressed Belarusians on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty. Today marks 36 years since the Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian SSR adopted the document. A year later, on Aug. 25, 1991, the declaration was granted the status of a constitutional law.
“On July 27, 1990, Belarus took a very important step toward its independence with the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty.
For some, this may sound like a dry historical date from a textbook. But behind it were people who wanted Belarus to finally decide its own destiny. They wanted us to have our own laws, our own policies and our own future. They wanted no one from outside to dictate what happened to our land.
It was the result of an awakening. After the Chornobyl disaster, after the truth about Kurapaty came to light, and after freedom movements emerged in neighboring countries, more and more Belarusians felt that we had the right to be a separate country. Belarus had the right to exist not as an appendage of a foreign empire, but as a home for its own people.
Independence did not come by itself — it was fought for, chosen and defended. Even those who later began dismantling the Belarusian state voted at the time in favor of sovereignty, neutrality and a non-nuclear status.
Today’s anniversary is not about the past. It is about the present. Because Belarus must be independent, peaceful and free from foreign weapons and foreign wars.”, the statement said.
In the first years of independence, July 27 was observed as a national holiday.
