Ilyak

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Meelar (talk) 20:34, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

Hello, your question about Belarus is important. This is really a problem. A few days ago opposition chose a candidate for presidential elections (which no one believes will be fair). It is however possible to make something similar as in Ukraine. But I agree the level of awareness in terms of democracy is lower in Belarus. (Jasra 20:20, 4 October 2005 (UTC))

Answering your questions: The opposition in Belarus chose former vice- mayor of Grodno Aleksandr Milyenkyevich (I'm not sure Engilish spelling of his name). It was just last Sunday (2nd October). He will be the presidential candidate. He is politically centre-right. As far as profession is concerned - physicist.

I have second cousins (troyurodnye bratya i syostry) in Belarus. I visited them in 1988, 1990 and 1992. Now we contact one another rather rarely by posting greeting cards. We haven't had chance to discuss politics lately. When I was there last time the situation looked as if it went towards independence and (however slow) liberation from Soviet system. It looks that coming Lukashenka to power was a step back. It was even visible in changing the flag. From a white-red-white into a Soviet-style one. From purely aesthetic point of view it was a change to worse. As a Polish person I am also concerned about the situation of Polish minority in Belarus. The authorities did not recognize the elected leaders of the Association of Poles in Belarus and established their own leaders.

Talking about my visits in former USSR: I was in Lithuania when it was still a Soviet Republic and later when the independence was announced but not recognized and also after the recognition of independence (last time in 2001). Russia - 1973 (Leningrad), 1984 (Moscow) Ukraine - 2001 Estonia (already as an independent country) - 1994. I have also contacts with people from other parts of former USSR, but I haven't been there.

Talking about Turkmenistan - I must admit my knowledge is limited, but of course I do not approve authoritarian regime there. It is true that my interests concentrates rather on Europe, but this is nothing strange that I feel more emotional about Europe, because my country (Poland is in Europe). Situation in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia has greater impact (although indirect) on my country. But in any case the more democracy the better. (Jasra 19:00, 5 October 2005 (UTC))

"By the way, what's your positions on other indepence/separatist movements, like in Transnistria in Moldova or Abkhasia in Georgia? They might be less mass-shouted-at, but there are still people dying."

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jasra"

Any case when people are dying is bad. All the questions of separatism should be solved by talks, not by force. I must admit I do not know much about the situation in the countries you mentioned. (Jasra 22:16, 7 October 2005 (UTC))

Ok. I put some answers on Ichkeria talk, but you put some points on my talk page - so I'll try to comment them.

First - election in the US - the problem that Bush and Gore got very similar number of votes is different. There was a question whether a machine counting is a proper way to count, but this way of counting was accepted before election started and it could not favor any of the candidates. It is also not true that no one said Bush was unfairly elected. Many people did and Michael Moore made a film viciously criticizing Bush. Film was released and Moore lives quietly in US and nothing happens to him.

In the matter of Belorussian flag I said that white-red-white looks much nicer than the present official one. It is a matter of taste of course ;) On the other hand the access of people not sharing Lukashenko's views to the media looks limited. Correct me if I'm wrong (i.e. prove that opposition to Lukashenko has the same or comparable access to media). When the access to media is limited, even if the referendum or elections are fair the government can get a "proper" result.

As far as Chechnya is concerned - I know many Chechens who fled their country to Poland or Western Europe. They admitted that there was chaos after the first war, but they blame the Russians for creating such situation. Chechnya was informally blocked economically. The lack of recognition did not allow establishing normal relationships with other countries. On the other hand they praise the situation in early 1990s, after announcing independence, but before the war. As you can see my knowlegde about Chechnya does not come only from TV. I agree that putting separate items Chechnya and Ichkeria is problematic, however in this situation it is the only way. Neutral PoV cannot be really achieved here. One can either support Russian PoV and see Chechnya as a part of Russia or Chechen PoV - see Chechnya as a country now occupied by Russians, but in spe independent. You can only present two PoV to be neutral. The name "Ichkeria" is not very fortunate, but used to meke distinction between the two. BTW. Can you say that the war in Chechnya ended? Do you believe the hostilities can ever end? Do you think giving independence and recognizing Chechnya internationally would end the hostilities? Jasra 23:46, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Central Asia

Hi, I'm trying to start some sort of working group to improve the coverage of Central Asia and related topics in Wikipedia. Leave a message on my userpage if you're interested. Aelfthrytha 04:15, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Kudos:

Peter Vasiljev: Thanks for your contributions to the Aria article! It's great to see on of my favorite bands on Wikipedia!