Mikalai Statkevich: No Chance For Sitting It Up

The Belarusian Association of Military Officers was created 25 years ago.

Ex-President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev came up with a statement that “the world came close to the dangerous line”. This was a reply to the statement of Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army General Mark Milley. The top-ranked military officer claimed that an armed conflict “is practically guaranteed at a certain stage”.

Lieutenant-Colonel of reserve, founder of the Belarusian Association of Military Officers, politician Mikalai Statkevich has commented upon the situation to Radio Racyja.

– The Americans seem to have claimed the inevitability of such war. How would you comment it?

– I think that Mark Milley remains a responsible general who is trying to prevent the most horrible things from happening by such statements. The situation appears incomparable with starting of the Cold war in the last century, when the forces of the West and the USSR were relatively equal. The Soviet leaders behaved very responsibly after Khrushchev and the Caribbean crisis. They never rattled the saber. Everyone realized that peace could vanish fast and forever.

Now we clearly observe the white trash style behavior of Putin’s board. They are excitedly waving the nuclear bludgeon and admit they do not exclude the possibility of a nuclear war!

Of course this is teasing and provocation. Today’s Russia does not even come close to the power of the Soviet Union, it is much weaker and has no allies. They want to become equal to the superpowers, to achieve their own goals. However, they remain so irresponsible and risky that it makes an armed conflict potentially possible. Indeed, the country, although the economically weak and backward one, but with a huge stock of nuclear weapons, is ruled by irresponsible, risky, provocative people. The world hasn’t seen such situation for long.

– If they speak about the war in Europe with ordinary weapons, the party which loses would probably be forced to use more powerful means, and this includes tactical nuclear weapons …

– They teach in any military school that a war may start not with a blow of strategic warheads, but with a sudden shot. There is a war going on in Syria, and Russia actually stated it would shoot down American planes, calling them “unidentified flying objects”. The counter-party will start striking on the bases where their air-defense forces are located, in response. And hell broke loose…

– How could all this affect Belarus?

- It appears more than just dangerous, as formally we remain the closest ally of Russia. We have Russian bases which host no soldiers so far – the missile warning station in Hantsavichy district and the communications point in Vileyka district.

Russia is trying to finally press Lukashenka so that he opens real military bases. He is trying to be persisting in his refusal as he considers himself a historian. I reminded him how the Baltic States were annexed. They demanded – place our bases at your territory. Those bases immediately became the points for destabilization of the situation. Then there were the early election “under control”, like in Crimea. And then – entering the Soviet Union, and, correspondingly, Russia.

Besides, it was the Russian base in Sevastopol which became the base of the annexation in Crimea. Lukashenka has cornered us so in case there happens a war there will be no chance for sitting it up. Moreover, Moscow will not ask us. Their generals always spoke about the “Belarusian balcony”. If they start exchanging blows, they may start from Belarus – because it’s not theirs…

– Today is the 25th anniversary since the founding congress of the Belarusian Association of Military Officers, which was held on October 12-13, 1991. You were its founder. A few know and remember that on August 20, 1991 Lieutenant-Colonel Statkevich entered the broadcasting unit of the Belarusian Radio and announced the creation of the Belarusian Association of Military Officers.

– The head of the radio station shouted we all would be hit in the back with a pioneer spade, the operator’s hands were shaking. I faced the court-martial. Still, everybody was afraid to take over responsibility for banning the air. I read out the appeal to all the Belarusian military men so that they don’t fulfill the orders of the GKChP, and announced creation of the Belarusian Association of Military Officers.

The morning before this there was a founding assembly at which 7 people were present. Victar Ivashkevich offered the name. The goals were set as follows: independence of the country, creation of the Belarusian army, patriotic and historical upbringing of the nation. Dozens of officers came to the official founding congress on October 12, both retirees and those who were still in service from all over the USSR. They became the delegates. They announced the main goals: the independence of Belarus and creation of the national army.

Later on, there was a public vow for loyalty to Belarus, organized in the Independence Square on September 8, 1992. And then came a wave of repressions, when it was legally prohibited to hold any socio-political activity in the army, to participate in any public associations.

However, we have reached the above goals. We made our minds to conduct self-dissolution, so as not to tarnish the bright and glorious history of the Belarusian Association of Military Officers. As there were plans to make the organization a puppet branch of a certain political party. And we were, perhaps, idealists, romantics. This allowed us, however, to act consolidatedly, unitedly and with dedication.

– So the BAMO became a rare historic occurrence when the romantics won!

– Yes! I have never seen anything like this in my life anymore. Up to 5 thousand servicemen joined the BAMO within the several months after the congress. We terminated our activity in 1995.