The department reported that the leader of the opposition of the republic Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had previously applied for a revision of the name of Belarus in the official circulation.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry will appeal to the State Commission for the Lithuanian Language on the issue of renaming Belarus in the official circulation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic republic announced this on Tuesday.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will ask the State Language Commission to evaluate the proposal [to rename Belarus] and begin the procedure for clarifying the name”, – the words of the head of the diplomatic service Gabrielus Landsbergis are quoted in the message. As the minister reasoned, “Belarus means “White Rus”, not Russia”.
The Foreign Ministry also said that the leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has been in Lithuania since the end of August 2020, has applied to the department with a request to revise the name of Belarus in the official circulation. As noted in the letter that she sent to the Foreign Ministry, Vilnius, having revised the name of Belarus, “would express respect for the sovereignty of the neighboring country, would support the linguistic and cultural identity of the Belarusian people”.
The currently accepted name of the country in Lithuanian is Baltarusija. Baltas translated from Lithuanian means “white”, Rusija means “Russia”.
Earlier, Landsbergis said that Lithuania, if the Belarusian side expresses such a wish, is ready to consider the issue of changing the country’s official name.