Belarusian Language Society urges public to join campaign against street renaming in Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

The secretariat of the Francisak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society (BLS) has issued an appeal urging the public to join a campaign against the renaming of Minsk’s main thoroughfare.

Aleksandr Lukashenko directed earlier this month that the city`s major artery, named after revered printing pioneer Francisak Skaryna, be renamed Independence Avenue, while Pyotr Masherov Avenue, another major street in the capital city, should be renamed Victors Avenue (Prospekt Pobeditelei in Russian).

“This ill-considered and untimely step stirred entire Belarus, affecting the interests of dozens thousand people residing on the renamed streets and various organizations,” the BLS says in its statement.

The association has suggested that all Belarusian newspapers publish paper forms for the signature collection drive, noting that such forms also should be available for downloading from web portals.

The BLS has called on the Minsk City Soviet to take steps to restore the name of the major street and urged the government to annul the decision that “has been met with opposition from the overwhelming majority of the country’s population.”

As BLS Deputy Chairman Serzhuk Kryuchkov said in an interview with BelaPAN, the Society has decided to join the campaign. “Even before we have issued the statement, hundreds individuals contacted us suggesting joining signature collection drives that they had begun. Homemade petitions and their copies sent to the Presidential Administration with around 3,000 signatures on were brought to us. After they started to remove signs bearing the name of the Belarusian printing pioneer from Francisak Skaryna Avenue, the public became more active and we decided to launch a BLS drive to preserve the name of the capital city’s main thoroughfare,” Mr. Kryuchkov said, adding that a total of 100,000 signatures are expected be collected in a couple of weeks.

Similar campaigns have been launched in Vitebsk, Polotsk, Novopolotsk and the Polotsk district.