The crisis on the EU-Belarus border is escalating

By Costas Raptis

Revenge is a dish that is eaten cold. And Alexander Lukashenko’s revenge seems to be taken from Tayyip Erdogan’s textbook. Only the strong man of Turkey secures billions of EU funds from the instrumentalization of the immigration-refugee issue, while his Belarusian counterpart is subject to European sanctions.

“I urge the Belarussian authorities to comply with international law. The EU will not accept any attempt to instrumentalize migrants for political purposes. We are closely monitoring the situation on the European Union’s borders,” the president said in a Twitter post yesterday. European Council Charles Michel, and shortly afterwards the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen became more specific.

“I spoke with the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Ingrida Simonite, and the Prime Minister of Latvia, Arturis Karins Krisjanis, to express the EU ‘s solidarity and to discuss with them the measures that the EU can take. “to support them in their efforts to deal with this crisis,” she said in a statement, calling on member states to approve an expanded sanctions regime on Belarus authorities responsible for what she described as a “hybrid attack”. .

He announced in advance that the vice-president of the Commission, Margaritis Schoinas, in coordination with the High Representative of the EU. Josep Borrell will travel to the main countries of origin and transit in the coming days to ensure that they act “to prevent their nationals from falling into the trap set by the Belarussian authorities”.

Earlier, the Polish border guards announced that the border with Belarus in the Kuznetsa region would be closed from Tuesday morning, while a spokesman for the Polish government said after an emergency meeting with President Andrzej Duda that use of weapons is Warsaw’s last resort.

What exactly is going on?

What exactly is happening on the EU’s eastern border? Since August, messages on Tiktok and the Telegram have been “advertising” as an ideal access route to EU territory, the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian border, to which refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran have been airlifted. Yemen and Syria. This is a development only partially spontaneous (due to the growing difficulties of the Aegean sea route).

In fact, the encouragement from the Belarusian authorities is obvious, as Belarus has abolished the visa requirement for citizens of Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and South Africa flying to Minsk or five other airports. country.

And Lukashenko’s tactics seem to be following a pattern of escalation as Poland on Wednesday accused Belarus of organizing an armed cross-border invasion and summoned (for the third time in a row) the Belarusian ambassador for explanations. In particular, the Polish Foreign Ministry reported that on the night of November 1. Unidentified gunmen crossed from Belarus into Polish territory at a depth of 300 meters, before retreating, after first loading their weapons, after the appearance of Polish border guards.

However, European leaders face only half the truth. Because they do not have much to say about the illegal deportations or the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding at the border on the responsibility of the Polish side, where a fence is being erected. Already 10 people have lost their lives in the cold, as those promoted by the Belarusian army (after their valuables are removed) at the border are trapped by the Poles in the dead zone.

And most importantly: the airlines involved in transport to Belarus are EU (eg Irish), which explains the difficulty of the “27” in imposing sanctions on and against them.

All this is the logical consequence of EU assistance. in the attempt to overthrow Lukashenko (but this is not called a “hybrid attack”) after the last Belarusian elections and especially the imposition of European sanctions on the Belarusian airline Belavia, to her.