- March 4, 2014
- 311
Virginijus Savukynas: The so-called patriots only intensify the Polish-Lithuanian conflict
Russia wants to provoke ethnic conflict in the Baltic States – a famous Lithuanian journalist and a columnist Virginijus Savukynas wrote on the website lrt.lt.
“Political scientists warn that the Kremlin will attack the Baltic States after the intervention in Ukraine. What do they need in Lithuania? A regional or ethnic conflict. Just like on request because that is exactly what we can see right now. The conflict between the Lithuanian Poles and the Lithuanians is mounting. There is a fear that the Vilnius Region will declare autonomy” – Savukynas wrote.
Some Lithuanian politicians and activists believe the permission for bilingual inscriptions or original spelling of surnames will intensify separatist tendencies among the Polish minority in Lithuania.
The columnist takes a different view. “I don’t understand why the so-called patriots do everything to intensify this conflict. If we don’t want to have separatist movements, we should permit bilingual inscriptions and original spelling of surnames as soon as possible” – Savukynas emphasised.
Savukynas emphasised that there were no obstacles to solve these problems after the Constitutional Court had adjudicated on the issue of surnames. “We can solve these problems and resolve this pointless conflict really quickly. It is self-evident that the spelling of surnames is not a part of a language, so it does not pose any threat to the Lithuanian language. Neither do bilingual street names. In the interwar Kaunas there were trilingual street names. Apart from the Lithuanian and the Polish names there were also the names in Yiddish” – the columnist wrote.
Tłumaczenie by Martyna Kołtun w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Martyna Kołtun within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
