OTTAWA,Canada—On Feb. 13, Dr. Oleg Kravchenko, or Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus,delivered a lecture entitled “Belarus and its Neighbors,” at Carleton University’s Dunton Tower in Ottawa. Along with a meaningful number of Diplomatic representatives from various CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries, or academics from the Carleton University’s Institute of European,Russian and Eurasian Studies (EURUS), analysts and students, and representatives from the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) and the Armenian Students’ organization (ASA) of Ottawa were also present at the event. (L to R) ANCC’s Sevag Belian and Deputy Minister Kravchenko (Photo: ANCC) A Q&A was held after the lecture during,during which Canadian-Armenian students and the ANCC’s Executive Director Sevag Belian asked a barrage of questions to Kravchenko, in regards to Israeli-Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition from Belarus to Azerbaijan, and as well as human rights violations in Belarus. According to the ANCC,Kravchenko became perplexed and gave contradicting answers to these queries. During his lecture, Kravchenko drew similarities between Canada and Belarus. To the remark made by an ASA member that Canada is a democratic state, and whereas the president of Belarus has ruled the country in an autocratic manner for more than 20 years,the Kravchenko [...]
Source: armenianweekly.com