Belarus' MFA: We do not need permission to commemorate victims of German concentration camps

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the refusal of the administration of Germany's Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation to allow Belarusian diplomats to participate in commemorative events to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of these concentration camps, BelTA informs.

"This decision is essentially part of the policy of dividing people by ethnicity," the MFA said in a statement. "There can be no justification for the German foundation's cynical actions toward a country where every third person died during the war, where every family was affected by this war."

"Unfortunately, such actions by the foundation are aligned with the policy of certain political forces in the West who seek to rewrite history and justify German Nazism. What right does the foundation's administration have to ban representatives of Belarus and Russia from paying tribute to the memory of their compatriots who were tortured to death and suffered?" - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked.

The statement remarked: "The foundation's actions are extremely painful for Belarusian society, especially in the year that marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War."

"We do not need invitations or permissions to commemorate millions of innocent victims of German concentration camps. We have done this before and will keep on doing it forever," the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.