Security and Human Rights (2020) 1-22 Belarus at a Crossroads Vahram Abadjian Independent International Affairs Analyst, Vienna, Austria
[email protected] Abstract The article analyses the critical aspects of recent developments in Belarus and the deeply rooted causes that led to the current unprecedented political crisis. It gives a thorough consideration to the negative aspects of non-observation by the osce/odihr of the 9 August presidential election. Furthermore, the article examines the preconditions of a national dialogue, and suggests an agenda and a roadmap as a way out of the crisis, placing a special emphasis on the osce’s possible mediation role. In conclusion, the article comes up with the idea of Belarus’s neutral status as a legal and political framework to guarantee the country’s stability and democratic progress. Keywords democratic transition – elections – national dialogue – Constituent Assembly – osce – mediation agenda – geopolitics – neutral status Introduction The 9 August 2020 presidential election in Belarus and the following events brought the country into the limelight of news coverage all over the world. They raised a huge wave of innumerable comments by political analysts and pundits, statements by parliamentarians and government officials, intensive consultations and meetings up to the level of heads of state and government, public discussions and rallies of solidarity in numerous countries. This unprecedented attention was triggered by, undoubtedly, the most acute political crisis that Belarus has been witnessing since 1994, the year, when Aleksandr Lukashenko was elected as president for the first time. Although © Vahram Abadjian, 2020 | doi:10.1163/18750230-03101002 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-ncDownloaded 4.0 license.