 Ethnicities in the Republic of Belarus
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The number of the Armenians, Azerbaijani, Arabs, Georgians, Germans, Ossetins, Tajiks and Turkmen in Belarus has considerably increased over 1989 when the population census was conducted. The number of virtually all other ethnicities (Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Tatars, Lithuanians, Letts, Estonians, Moldavians, Uzbeks, Chuvashes and others) has reduced. The number of the Jews declined from 112 thousand to 28 thousand.
Representatives of the majority ethnic groups live predominantly in urban areas and have high status positions in the social structure, economy, politics and culture of the Belarusian society.
Belarus has no ethnical, racial, linguistic or confessional conflicts. Such stable situation is attributed to the mentality of the Belarusian nation, the thousand-year history of peaceful interethnic interaction, strong links between ethnic groups living in Belarus and a consistent policy pursued by the Belarusian state.
The research conducted over the past ten years and constant sociological monitoring carried out by the state bodies of the Republic of Belarus show that the majority of the Belarusian citizens do not take into account national factors in their everyday activities. A considerable part of Belarusian citizens shows no interest in such issues and attach no importance to them. National identity is of no importance for the absolute majority of the Belarusians and representatives of the ethnic groups, when choosing friends, marriage, at work or in other cases of everyday communication. More than two thirds of the Belarusians have relatives of other ethnicities. The biggest part of Belarus nationals is not interested in the national identity of representatives of the state bodies, etc.
Belarusian comprehensive schools, out-of-school establishments, clubs and libraries have organised classes and societies for studying native languages, history and culture of the ethnic groups.
There are two Polish and two Lithuanian-language schools in Belarus. Sixty-six day-off schools and associations have been set up at state-run educational and cultural establishments for studying native languages. They teach native languages to more than 5 thousand representatives of the ethnic groups such as Azerbaijani, Armenians, Afghans, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, Koreans, Letts, Lithuanians, Moldavians, Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Tatars, Turks and Gypsies.
Ethno-cultural educational organisations are provided with relevant textbooks and teaching manuals by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus and the countries of historical origin (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Armenia, Korea, etc.). Establishments of higher education of Belarus train specialists for such organisations.
The funds to develop ethno-cultural education are allocated from the national and local budgets and are secured in the budget expenditures for education of the Republic of Belarus.
The legislation of the Republic of Belarus provides for equality of people belonging to different ethnicities and does not divide them following a principle of duration of their residence in Belarus. For several centuries the rights of representatives of the Belarusian, Russian, Polish, Tatar or other ethnicities have been similar to those of the migrants, who came to Belarus not long ago.
The Republic of Belarus promotes cooperation with other countries in ensuring the rights of the national minorities. First of all, it concerns the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and neighbouring states. In 1997, the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Republic of Moldova signed an agreement on cooperation in ensuring equal rights of the national minorities. In 1999, Belarus signed a similar agreement with Ukraine. The Belarusian Government closely cooperates with the Department for National Minorities and Emigration under the Government of the Lithuanian Republic.
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