WARSAW — Thousands marched through Warsaw to celebrate Poland’s Independence Day. They were led by far-right groups calling to build strong borders. Meanwhile, its troops stopped hundreds of migrants trying to enter illegally from Belarus. This was a tense political standoff.
For the holiday parades, security forces patrolled the capital city and other cities. They were peaceful unlike recent years which saw some violence by extremists.
One banner in Warsaw read “We Thank the Defenders Poland’s Borders”.
The march was overshadowed in part by events at Poland’s border to Belarus. There, thousands of riot police and soldiers are returning migrants from the Middle East to the EU. With temperatures dropping and access to the frontier being restricted, there are concerns of a humanitarian emergency.
Officials from the EU have accused President Alexander Lukaschenko, Belarus, of using migrants as pawns during a “hybrid assault”to respond to sanctions he imposed on his authoritarian regime in response to a brutal internal crackdown against dissent.
Lukashenko threatened to stop Russian natural gas from Europe if the EU puts pressure on Belarus for the border issue. He said, “I would suggest the Poles, Lithuanians or other brainless people think before they speak.”
The march, which celebrates Poland’s statehood, was banned by Warsaw’s liberal mayor. However, right-wing officials in the national government overruled the order and gave it the status of a state ceremony.
The support of the government for far-right leaders at the march was a clear indication that Poland’s right-wing ruling parties want their support. It is also engaged in a political battle with the EU over Polish changes in the country’s judiciary. This is viewed by Brussels as an erosion in democratic norms and discriminatory rhetoric to LGBT groups.
The 2017 parade attracted tens of thousands, and featured white nationalist and antisemitic slogans. The president, prime minister, and other leaders marched on the same route as nationalists the year after.
Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski (an opposition figure) sought to ban the march. He argued that Warsaw was destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II and is therefore “no place for fascist slogans to be propagated.”
As the march began on Thursday, many groups carried Poland’s red-and-white national flags. Others also carried the green flags from the National Radical Camp, which displayed a stylized hand holding a sword. This symbol is a far-right symbol that dates back to the 1930s.
Many marchers were aware of the standoff at Kuznica (250 km/155 miles east of Warsaw) and their thoughts.
Maciej Wasik, Deputy Interior Minister, tweeted that some security forces would “go directly from Warsaw in order to defend our border avec Belarus.” Remember this when marching
Robert Bakiewicz, March leader, stated in a speech that all Poles should support those who protect the eastern border. “There are many internal disputes today. There are also many external disputes today. He said that there was an attack on the Polish border today.
Around 15,000 Polish troops joined the border police and border guards, joining riot police. According to the Belarusian Defense Ministry, Poland was accused of an “unprecedented military buildup” at its border. They claimed that it did not have sufficient control over migration.
According to the Defense Ministry, the migrants tried several times to cross the border from Wednesday as they did throughout the week.
A few hundred migrants were seen throwing debris over the fence near Bialowieza. They then attempted to destroy the fence by firing shots in the air.
The ministry stated that shots were also fired from the air in the vicinity of Szudzialowo, after a soldier was attacked by migrants. He was struck on the chest with a branch. The ministry stated that he fired two warning shots in the air. The soldier was not hurt and the attackers fled to Belarus.
According to the border guard service, 33,000 illegal attempts have been made to cross the border since the beginning of the year. 17,000 were made in October.
Since summer, the border crisis has been in full swing with thousands of migrants crossing from Belarus to Poland to Lithuania, Latvia, and Lithuania to escape persecution. Many people want to go to Germany, but Finland is also an option.
Poland took a tough line, describing migrants as dangerous criminals, and changing its laws to allow for the rejection arbitrarily of asylum applications. This is something that the U.N refugee agency condemned.
Although Poland is facing criticism for its democratic slippage, it has found broad support for the issue of the border and received only mild criticism from the EU for pushing back the migrants.
Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister, stated that the problem is not Poland. Problem is Lukashenko, Belarus and its regime. Therefore, Poland has gained our European solidarity in this circumstance.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko’s main ally, on Tuesday for the second time in two days. According to the Kremlin, they spoke by phone about the Poland-Belarus border as well as the importance of a quick settlement in line with international humanitarian norms.
Merkel’s office stated that Merkel stressed that the crisis had been brought about by the Belarusian regime which uses defenseless people to attack the European Union.
Moscow and Minsk share close military and political ties. Russia sent two strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons on a training mission in Belarus for a second day, as a strong showing of support.
Lukashenko stressed the importance of strengthening military cooperation to counter NATO’s aggressive actions, which include Poland.
The EU is currently looking into the role of airlines in transporting migrants and asylum-seekers to its doorstep. There are also reports that it may be considering sanctions against them.
Aeroflot Russia, Russia’s flag carrier, strongly denied any involvement, saying that it doesn’t operate any charter or regular flights to Syria or Iraq and also didn’t have any flights between Istanbul and Minsk.
According to a Turkish official, Turkish Airlines will stop selling tickets to Iraqi and Syrian citizens for flights to Minsk. This is part of Turkey’s efforts to assist Poland in its crisis resolution. Because of the sensitive nature of the topic and the fact that he wasn’t authorized to discuss company policy, the official spoke under anonymity.
Turkish officials claimed that Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said Wednesday in a telephone call to Zbigniew Rau his Polish counterpart that he had rejected “baseless claims” that Turkish Airlines was involved.
Other developments
== The Iraqi Deputy Migration Minister Karim al-Nuri stated to the Russian state news agency Sputnik, that his country would help in the return of its citizens from Belarus, if they so desire, through its Russian embassy, as it doesn’t have one in Belarus.
Jan Egeland (secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council) said that it was shocking to see Europe’s inability handle the low number migrants crossing the border between Poland and Belarus. He said that the mere presence of a few thousand migrants at Europe’s Polish border is “a small fraction of the total number of people who have fled to some of the most severe crises in the world.”
