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Ambassador Nikolay Patskevich: â€œAzerbaijan is an example for a developing countryâ€

01 July 2009 12:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“ APA. Belarusian ambassador to Azerbaijan Nikolay Patskevich held a press conference on Wednesday on the occasion of the national holiday of his country â€“ Republican Day, APA reports. The ambassador said Belarus celebrated the Republican Day on July 3 related to the Bagration operation, one of the largest military operations of the Great Patriotic War in 1944. â€œThis day is a symbol of Belarusian peopleâ€™s revival and sovereigntyâ€, said Patskevich and reminded that despite that his country was a part of USSR, but it was one of the founders and members of the United Nations as a subject of the international relations. â€œBelarus lost its every third citizen during the Great Patriotic War. 240 towns and regions and 90 percent of the capital city Minsk were destroyed completely in Belarus during that war. Nine thousand villages were ruined. The world well knows the Khatin tragedy, but there were hundreds of Khatins in Belarusâ€.

The diplomat said partisans made great contribution to the victory. He said there were 350 thousands of partisans in Belarus and they killed 500 thousands fascists. Speaking about the present development model of his country, the ambassador said Belarus attached special attention to the development of scientific fields because it hadnâ€™t crude resources. Patskevich said sales turnover between Azerbaijan and Belarus was increased by 110 percent in the past five months. He underlined the rapid development and the opening of new facilities in Azerbaijan. He said Azerbaijan could be an example for developing countries.

The ambassador said he is addressing via mass media every person participated in the liberation of Belarus from German fascists and reminded that there are more than 300 alive veterans of the Great Patriotic War in Azerbaijan. President Alexander Lukashenko decorated all these veterans with the jubilee medal on the occasion of 65 years of liberation of Belarus. â€œI visited several regions of Azerbaijan and presented the medals to the veterans who fought for the liberation of Belarus. I ask the veterans in other regions to receive their medals from the local military commissariats because I have no opportunity to travel all over the country. If any veteran fought for Belarus didnâ€™t find his name in the list please contact us and send necessary documents to receive the medal he deservedâ€.