The Belarusian language is under attack

[LiberalArkie]

The Knihauka bookstore in Belarus, which specialised in Belarusian language books, had unexpected visitors on the morning of its first day of operations on May 16.

Rygor Azaronak and Lyudmila Hladkaya, two journalists infamous for spreading state propaganda, visited the small shop and criticised it publicly for its alleged “nationalist ideology”.

A few hours later, the police arrived, searched the store, confiscated more than 200 books – including a translation of George Orwell’s 1984 – and reportedly sent 15 titles to an “expert” to determine whether they contained “extremist materials”.

During the operation, the shop’s owner, publisher Andrey Yanushkevich, and sales assistant, literary blogger Nasta Karnatskaya, were also arrested on “petty hooliganism” charges that are commonly used in politically motivated arrests in Belarus. They remain behind bars after their administrative sentences were extended.

Snip

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/12/belarusian-language-is-under-attack

[niyad]

1. KNR

[Wounded Bear]

2. K & R...nt

[Marcuse]

3. The police confiscated "1984". Maybe the firemen burned "Fahrenheit 451".

[RainCaster]

4. Will Putin attack here next?

This one is easier to attack, as there are more rail lines in the Russian gauge. Could be a good distraction from the failure of their Ukraine invasion.

[patphil]

5. Belarus is already in Putin's camp, and Lukashenko is his man.

They just want to make sure the connection is irreversible. Destroying their culture, their language and history, is just one of the ways it's done.

[LiberalArkie]

6. They may learned from the way we assimilated the Native Americans to make them Americans.

[patphil]

9. Exactly!

[cbabe]

7. Like we forced literate African Muslims

to become illiterate enslaved Christians.

[Hav]

8. Should they elect a EU friendly President,

I'd start worrying about them. As long as Russia has a puppet there, there's no need to do anything.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. There's no point. Russia already thoroughly dominates them.

But they'll certainly use their influence to push for greater repression and more suppression of Belarusian language and culture.