Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Today is the 12th anniversary of 2010 Belarusian protests. To be honest, in 2010 I did not yet understand the importance of what was happening on this day on the street. But now, when I remember this day, I see that Belarusians’ way to freedom did not begin in 2020 or even in 2010; Belarusians had been paving it for a long time already. And all of us today are continuing the work of the people who started it. The people who stood at the origins of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Who, together with Zianon Pazniak, revealed the truth about Kurapaty. Who stood by Stanislau Shushkevich and achieved Belarus’ independence from the Soviet Union. The brave members of Parliament who went on a hunger strike to protest against the illegal referendum in 1995, and the people who joined the Chornobyl Way rally alongside Ales Bialiatski. The people who have resisted the dictatorship all these years: spent nights in a tent city in 2006, listened to Uladzimir Niakliaeu’s speech in 2010, supported Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Viktar Babaryka and Maryia Kalesnikava in 2020.
To each generation it seemed at some point that the efforts might have been in vain. But each time the place of someone who had been unjustly convicted or beaten was taken by several new people. Each time new people emerged, ready to continue the path of their predecessors and stand up for truth together. All of us have come to understand that the Belarusan movement cannot be stopped. It is a long way we have to walk together. And as long as we remember those who established the ground for us, more free Belarusans will definitely join us on this way. After all, even among those reading this message, there are people who came to understand the situation in the country and its inadmissibility only in 2020, 2021 or even 2022. Many, only now, are starting to understand the threats of events like today's meeting between Lukashenka and Putin, cynically planned on a historic day for the Belarusian people.
Along our way, we are risking everything. Today, we are on the verge of losing our independence, that is, losing our country, our beloved home. But I am convinced that we will not let this happen. As many new people as possible must join our way to freedom, which began before us. And our common task is to be open and honest enough so that they can avoid our past mistakes and, building on past experiences, be with us – and be a better version of us.”