"Just a few years ago, the European Union was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for having secured peace in Europe over the past 50 years. During this time, there have been so many peaceful transitions from dictatorships and oppressive regimes to completely free and open democracies that the face of Europe is almost unrecognisable. So much has been achieved because the right path has been shown. I have no doubt that a peaceful transition to democracy can also be achieved in Belarus. I do not believe that Europe wants to rest on its laurels. But it must establish mechanisms that promote its values. What happens in Belarus will help determine Europe's success in the future." (ZEIT ONLINE, 9.8.2021)
This fiery appeal, which Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya recently made to the EU, underlines something essential: since the fall of the Iron Curtain a good three decades ago, Europe has undergone an almost breathtaking development. The former Western European community of twelve has become a comprehensive union of 27, the world's single market with the highest purchasing power, a globally respected model of success.
However, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU has increasingly lost the appeal of its founding narrative. The historical dimension of the United Europe as the greatest peace and freedom project of the post-war era, which was out of the question for decades, has increasingly given way to an economic cost-benefit calculation. And the passion of Europe's founding fathers has been replaced by the slide rule of controllers.
However, while an increasing indifference towards the political dimension of the European project has taken hold within the EU, the fragile preciousness of our peace and freedom order is coming to light on the Union's external borders. The criminal attempt by the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko, for example, to instrumentalise refugees and their human plight for egomaniacal political motives, the terrorist kidnapping of an aeroplane he ordered in order to arrest an unpopular blogger without justification, the imprisonment of around 900 people for political reasons since August 2020, but also the threats against the EU must reinforce our belief that common values and fundamental convictions, freedom and the rule of law as well as democracy are at the heart of the EU and must apply to all citizens throughout Europe.
Since last year, the voices of democracy, freedom and justice have also become increasingly audible in Belarus: first a few, then thousands, then tens, then hundreds of thousands. And it is above all three courageous women who, despite persecution and repression, have given and continue to give these voices a face.
In recognition of their courageous and encouraging commitment against brutal state arbitrariness, torture, oppression and the violation of elementary human rights by an authoritarian regime, for democracy, freedom and the rule of law, the Board of Directors of the Society for the Conferring of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen honours the Belarusian political activists Maria Kalesnikava, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronica Tsepkalo in 2022.
The three leading figures of the Belarusian democratic movement are energetic, vibrant symbols of the spirit of freedom. Their sacrifices are unparalleled. Their messages are infectious and stirring. They are an indomitable signal to their own Belarusian society to take its fate into its own hands; they are also a signal to a weary European society to once again stand up with conviction and fight for the European values that have been fought for over centuries and which are now being jeopardised by the global struggle for profit and supremacy, but also by the indifference of many citizens themselves.
The spirit of the Belarusian democratic movement must not be allowed to fail in Europe.
Maria Kalesnikava was born in Minsk on 24 April 1982. She studied flute and conducting at the State Academy of Music in Minsk, then early and contemporary music at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts (until 2012), after which she played in various ensembles in Germany. From 1999 to 2019, she taught music, first in Belarus and then in Germany. From 2016, she worked on numerous music projects in Germany and led projects in Belarus with the participation of musicians from abroad. In 2019, she became Artistic Director of the cultural centre ‘OK-16’ in Minsk. For the 2020 presidential election, she was initially a leading member of the campaign of opposition figure Viktor Babariko.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was born on 11 September 1982 in the Belarusian provincial town of Mikashevichy. After attending secondary school, she studied education at the State Pedagogical University in Mazyr from 2000, specialising in English and German. She then worked as a translator; after the birth of her two children, she mainly worked as a housewife. She is married to the businessman and blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky.
Veronica Tsepkalo was born on 7 September 1976 in Mahiljou. She graduated from the Faculty of International Relations at the Belarusian State University in 1998. This was followed by further studies at the State University of Economics from 2004 to 2006. The mother of two is married to the founding director of the Belarusian High Technology Park, former diplomat and IT consultant Valeri Tsepkalo, whose candidature for the presidency she actively supported. Until her forced flight, she worked in Belarus as a senior manager for business development for Microsoft. She is currently chairwoman of the Belarus Women's Foundation, which helps female political prisoners and their children.
The joint story of the three strong and fearless women begins in May 2020. When the widely known regime critic Sergei Tikhanovsky, who is later imprisoned on flimsy grounds, is denied the presidential candidacy by the Central Election Commission, his wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who had not previously made a political appearance, decides without further ado to apply herself - and is admitted to the pre-election campaign. Within the following two months, she now has to collect 100,000 valid (original) signatures; in an autocratic system - and especially under pandemic conditions - a thoroughly ambitious endeavour even for better-known democratic candidates.
When the final decision on who will be allowed to stand in the presidential election is announced on 14 July, Lukashenko's most highly rated opponent Viktor Babariko has already been in custody for weeks and is excluded from the election. Valeri Tsepkalo, who is also considered a promising candidate and is still at large, has been denied registration as several tens of thousands of the supporting signatures he submitted are not recognised.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on the other hand, the ‘candidate from nowhere’ (taz, 23 July 2020), whose impact on the population was obviously completely underestimated by the current ruler, was allowed to stand for election.
Just days later, together with Maria Kalesnikava and Veronika Tsepkalo, she achieved what the Belarusian opposition had been lacking for decades: a unification of forces. Setting aside previous rivalries and political differences and including smaller parties and trade unions that contribute their expertise and resources, the three very different women form an alliance that is united above all by one major goal: overcoming dictatorship and totalitarianism and a democratic awakening in Belarus.
In the coming weeks, the three will be able to reach the broadest sections of the population personally; according to estimates by the human rights organisation Vyazna, a central rally in Minsk at the end of July alone will attract over 60,000 participants. Admittedly, the trio will not present a detailed political programme and - unlike previous opposition candidates - will not allow themselves to be painted into an anti-Russian corner; rather, they are committed to democracy and freedom and want to win the election legally in order to free the country from dictatorship, release political prisoners and introduce free and fair elections as quickly as possible.
As winning, new and direct as the three campaigners appear in their appearances, whose emotional message in the form of a fist, heart and fingers spread out in victory soon becomes an unmistakable sign of departure, the mission on which they have embarked is just as dangerous. With her husband already imprisoned and the threats of what might happen to her family becoming ever more blatant, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya sends her two children to Lithuania with their grandmother. In the meantime, Valeri Tsepkalo travelled to Moscow with his children. The three women continue their election campaign undaunted.
When the alleged results of the ‘elections’ of 9 August 2020, which violate all international standards, are announced, Alexander Lukashenko is said to have received a good 80 percent of the vote, while Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya received just ten percent. According to independent observers, however, Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya actually won the majority of votes. When she went to the Central Election Commission to protest against the manipulation, she had to flee to Lithuania under threat from the Belarusian security forces; Veronica Tsepkalo had already followed her family to Moscow a few hours earlier to escape repression and arrest.
Maria Kalesnikava, who refuses to leave the country, is imprisoned in September 2020 and sentenced to eleven years in prison in September 2021 for allegedly preparing a plot to seize power illegally and jeopardising national security. And when she smiles in the courtroom on the day of the verdict - standing in a kind of cage - and once again forms her shackled hands into a heart, the symbol of love, it is a message that touches and encourages people in Belarus and far beyond.
The protests against the ‘election results’, which were joined by tens of thousands, in some cases over a hundred thousand citizens, and the Coordination Council initiated by Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya with the aim of coordinating a peaceful, democratic transition, were met with repression, arrests and often arbitrary violence by the Belarusian regime. In order to arrest a blogger critical of the government, the rulers did not even shy away from hijacking an aeroplane and forcing it to land in May 2021. And in autumn 2021, they will not shy away from exploiting and endangering refugees in need of protection with the aim of destabilising the EU and discrediting its values.
Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who continues to fight for freedom and democracy in Belarus together with Veronica Tsepkalo and numerous other fellow campaigners, recently wrote: "Every day I see more people being imprisoned for their beliefs and political stances. These are not just people who are in the public eye like my husband Sergei Tikhanovsky or my friend Maria Kalesnikava. In Belarus today, anyone can become a political prisoner. [...] But then I think about the courage of Belarusians who stand up for freedom and democracy. It is so powerful and I am so proud to see this awakening. It gives me hope every day for my children, my husband and our future together." (ZEIT ONLINE, 9 August 2021)
An awakening that deserves the support and solidarity of the European Union, its institutions and its civil society.
With Maria Kalesnikava, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronica Tsepkalo, the Board of Directors of the Society for the Conferring of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen in 2022 honours three courageous women who stood up to the dictator of Belarus under the most difficult political conditions, at the risk of their personal freedom and integrity; three outstanding personalities who stand up for what is at the heart of the European project: human rights, peace and freedom, the rule of law, democracy and solidarity. With their resolute and fearless commitment, the three Belarusian leading figures have become an important role model for the democratic struggle for freedom not only for hundreds of thousands of compatriots, but also far beyond the Belarusian border.
