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Organizers of Freedom Day demonstration seek permission to march through central Minsk to Independence Square

The organizers of this year’s March 25 Dzen Voli (Freedom Day) demonstration have applied to the Minsk city government for permission to march along Independence Avenue and hold a rally in Independence Square, Alyaksey Yanukevich, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), told BelaPAN.

The demonstrators would gather in the square in front of the National Academy of Sciences at 6 p.m., march along Independence Avenue and hold the final rally in Independence Square between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The application was signed by representatives of the BPF, the Movement for Freedom, the Young Christian Democrats, the United Civic Party, the Hramada Belarusian Social Democratic Party and the Rada (Council) of the Belarusian Intelligentsia.

Mr. Yanukevich earlier said that the Dzen Voli demonstration would be a show of solidarity with Ukraine and a protest against Russia’s invasion of that country. He said that the demonstrators would also call for the protection of Belarus’ economic and political independence and for integration into Europe.

The Minsk city government never allows opposition organizations to stage marches through the center of Minsk. Dzen Voli demonstrations usually start in the square in front of the National Academy of Sciences and end in remote Peoples’ Friendship Park in Bangalore Square, where local residents walk their dogs.

Up to 1000 people took part in a Dzen Voli demonstration on March 24, 2013. Although the event had been sanctioned by the Minsk City Executive Committee, at least eight people were arrested following it.

The short-lived Belarusian National Republic came into existence shortly before the end of the First World War, when Bolshevik forces left Minsk and the city was occupied by German troops. Although the German authorities remained reticent, if not actually hostile toward the BNR provisional government, they did not interfere much with its political functioning. On March 25, 1918, the provisional government (Rada) together with representatives of the Vilna (Vilnius) Council proclaimed the independence of the BNR. A national flag with white, red and white horizontal stripes was adopted, together with a state seal depicting "Pahonya" (Pursuit), the old emblem of the Grand Duchy of Litva.

Armenia, Czechoslovakia, Georgia, Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland recognized the BNR de jure.

To counteract the effect of the proclamation of the BNR, the Russian Bolsheviks set up a Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in Smolensk on January 1, 1919. After the Red Army re-entered Minsk, a Communist government replaced the Rada there on January 5. The Rada was forced to go into emigration.