Vasyl Bykov Remains Belarusian National :: Charter'97 :: News

“In connection with the apparent tendentious reports of some Russian media, in particular the newspaper “Izvestia”, on the occasion of my coming to Prague, let me say it in open that I neither asked the Czech government or president Vatslav Gavel to give me political asylum nor even intended to do so. My wife and I simply requested to let us live for a more or less extended period of time in the Czech Republic, which is necessary for my literature work and medical treatment as the one, suffering from the chronic lungs’ problems. I received this right in December 2002 not without president Gavel’s assistance. Any attempts to make a political action out of this are provocative and worthy of condemnation. “Vasyl Bykov is a citizen of the Republic of Belarus,” – these words of the Belarusian national writer have been circulated today by the Belarusian center in Prague.