Nikolay Khalezin: “Contemporary History Knows Facts of Liberalization of Authoritarian Regimes” :: Charter'97 :: News

“The address of the opposition leader to the head of the Belarusian regime as such is a fact of maturity of the democratic forces and a balanced approach to the situation. I can add that this address shows Alyaksandr Milinkevich’s maturity as a politician and a public leader. Such facts occur in the history: Vaclav Havel sent a letter to Gustav Husak, urging the Communist authorities of the Czechoslovakia to start a dialogue; Dalai Lama called upon the leadership of Chinese Communists to discuss problems of Tibet; Nelson Mandela urged Frederik de Klerk, State President of South Africa to stop the apartheid policy,” told a well-known Belarusian playwright and journalist Nikalay Khalezin, commenting to the Charter’97 press-center on the address of the Belarusian united opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich to Alyaksandr Lukashenka with an appeal to start a dialogue with the opposition for the sake of Belarus’ future.

Nikolay Khalezin notes that those appeals ended with an absolutely positive fact in the history of the Republic of South Africa: for a rather long time an alliance of President Mandela and vice president de Klerk ruled the country, which to a large extent allowed preventing the bloodshed.

“Besides, the contemporary history knows the fact of liberalization of an authoritarian regime, when Prime Minister of Slovakia Vladimir Meciar had to resort to revolutionary changed of the regime’s structure, bringing it in line with democratic standards. It resulted in an unprecedented growth of Slovakian economy,” Khalezin noted.

Analysing the situation in the country, Nikolay Khalezin says that he does not observe any headway on changing the situation on the part of the state. “[I see] several statements of the leader of the state, and actions of force structures aimed at discrediting of his words. If Alyaksandr Lukashenka would start the work on negotiations seriously, I am ready to come to the square in support of these negotiations, but I should see actions, not simply words for that,” the journalists said.