Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 3 -- “To have an independent state in Europe is a
great luxury,” Anton Trafimovich of Radio Liberty’s Belarusian Service says;
“and therefore millions of people envy the Belarusians who have a large and
independent country” (svaboda.org/a/30141089.html; in Russian at thinktanks.by/publication/2019/09/02/10-narodov-evropy-kotorye-zaviduyut-nezavisimoy-belarusi.html).
The ten nations in Europe which have
major independence movements and thus envy Belarusians are the Basques, the
Catalans, the Scots, the Flemmish, the Corsicans, the Sardinians, the Faroes
Islanders, the South Tyroleans, the Venetians, and the Bavarians. In addition,
there are others that aspire to shift from one state to another.
This list as a message t Belarusians
is intriguing for at least two reasons: it is a reminder t them that many nations
in the world would be delighted to have the problems Belarusians have as compared
to the ones they do; and it is yet anther reminder that the current international
system is far from being fixed once and for all.
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