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Nyaklyayew ambivalent about Makey`s participation in Eastern Partnership summit

Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, chairman of the "Tell the Truth!" movement, told Lithuania`s news website delfi.lt in Vilnius on Thursday that he had mixed feelings about the participation of Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey in the Third Eastern Partnership Summit, which will begin in the Lithuanian capital city earlier in the day.

"In politics, there`s always the contradiction between your own convictions, moral and civil principles and realpolitik, that is, the expediency of making certain decisions," Mr. Nyaklyayew said.

On the one hand, Mr. Makey should remain on the list of citizens of Belarus barred from traveling to EU countries because he bears personal responsibility for the brutal dispersal of the December 19, 2010 post-election protest in Minsk, he said. It was Mr. Makey who provoked a crackdown on protesters by his remarks prior to the demonstration, Mr. Nyaklyayew said.
On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine the scenario proposed by the "radical wing" of opposition forces where a "Berlin wall" should be erected at the border to put an end to any dialogue with the EU, he said.

Mr. Nyaklyayew noted that Mr. Makey could not make any decisions on his own but would simply act as Alyaksandr Lukashenka`s spokesman at the summit. "I`m not talking about developing the Lukashenka-EU dialogue but about stepping up the dialogue with civil society," he said.

Mr. Nyaklyayew said that he did not agree with people dismissing Belarus as a hopeless case for Europe. He expressed confidence that Belarus was a European country in terms of mentality, and that its integration into Europe was delayed by objective factors relating to its Soviet past. He acknowledged that Belarus could not possibly join the EU with Mr. Lukashenka at the helm.

It was unclear until the last moment who would participate in the Eastern Partnership summit on behalf of Belarus. In June 2013, the EU suspended its entry ban against Mr. Makey to "facilitate diplomatic contacts" between the EU and Belarus. //BelaPAN