Foreign Ministry’s turn for Belarusian language: Long-term trend or one-off event?

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has held today’s briefing in the Belarusian language.

“The MFA Press Service is guided by the constitutional principle of equality of the two state languages. But on the eve of Mother Language Day declared by UNESCO, I propose to use Belarusian today. All the more so because, as one of the statements that we are going to voice today touches this important international date,” the Ministry’s press secretary Dzmitry Mironchyk said.

Usually Mr Mironchyk reads some statements in the Belarusian language, and some – in Russian.

On February 19, the Ministry will be celebrating International Mother Language Day, Radio Svaboda reports. The event is part of the dialogue of cultures which is being jointly organized by the Ministry and Yanka Kupala’s State Literary Museum.

During the event poems by the great Belarusian poet will be recited, the exhibition of graphic works “She and Me” to mark the 100th anniversary of Kupala’s wedding will open. Top officials of the Foreign Ministry as well as heads of several foreign diplomatic missions confirmed their participation.

In the course of the briefing, reporters asked the press secretary three questions. Dzmitry Mironchyk answered in Belarusian, despite the fact that two of them were put in Russian.

belsat.eu, following «Радыё Свабода»