Marching Together
BERLIN/WARSZAWA/MINSK (Own report) - Following the visit of President Lech Kaczynski, the German government offered its Polish neighbor joint control of the East and views Warsaw's resistance to the idea as surmountable. The Ukraine and Belarus are the targeted areas of this common interest for expansion. With the forthcoming Belarus presidential elections, circles of the German and Polish governments are banking on a transfer of power and are supporting the opposition as much as possible. The German/Polish duo's plans for an overthrow in Minsk are being pursued for geostrategic and immediate economic objectives - similar to those behind the upheaval in Kiev, at the end of 2004. German government circles consider a joint expansion to the east also as a means of distracting Polish opposition to the establishment of a "Center Against Expulsions" in Berlin. The decision to establish the Center could be taken, in late summer, at the annual event of the Federation of Expellees (BdV) "Homeland Day". President Horst Koehler is announced to be keynote speaker.
Differences of Opinion
Polish resistance to several German hegemonic projects were again openly expressed during Kaczynskis visit to Berlin. Once again Warsaw protested the exclusive German/Russian energy cooperation and opposes the construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline.[1] Berlin's attempt to placate the Polish government by proposing the construction of a branch pipeline to Poland, misses the "crux of the matter", affirms Kaczynski.[2] Warsaw disapproves of the pipeline route, that bypasses Poland, depriving the country of substantial transit rates, but above all, of the power to intervene. Besides, it increases the potential for Russia applying pressure on the energy sector. Likewise German plans to still have the unsuccessful EU Constitutional Contract adopted, with slight modifications, in the coming year, would be doomed to failure, insists Warsaw's foreign policy makers.[3] On this question Poland is on the same wavelength as Paris, and is supported also by London. Likewise, no agreement could be reached in Berlin on the current favorite project for the reinterpretation of German history, the creation of a "Center Against Expulsions". On this question there are still "differences of opinion", explains the Polish President.[4]
Open
Germany, with its offer of a common east expansion, seeks to bridge the gap leading to continuous Polish resistance. Germany and Poland share the interest, of rolling back Russian influence, as far as possible. Besides, both countries' enterprises view the Ukraine and Belarus as useful addresses for markets and cheap labor.[5] Already in 2003, Polish foreign investments in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia amounted to more than US Dollar 100 million. By summer 2004 more than 800 Polish companies were active in the Ukraine. Due to the change of power, in early 2005, both German and Polish enterprises had expected to enjoy improved business possibilities because of the elimination of Russian influence - a wish, left unfulfilled due to a conflict of interests with the Ukrainian Oligarchy. The former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Julia Timoschenko, revoked the privileges of foreign investors in the special economic zones of the country. "We've opened the gate, the door and the window for you, and even rolled out the carpet", she explained in the Polish press in summer 2005, "but pay your taxes."[6]
March 19
Western expansionist efforts are likewise being met with resistance in Belarus. Minsk refuses the transfer of national property to foreign capital enterprises ("liberalisation"). Berlin and Warsaw hope that the obstruction will end, with a change of power through the presidential elections on March 19. Both governments maintain close contacts with the opposition in Minsk and are involved in the preparations for the overthrow.[7] Tuesday, Gernot Erler, Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry was host to Alexander Kosulin, viewed as a candidate of the Belarus opposition, who doesn't have a chance of winning. The Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier conferred on Wednesday with the OSCE Secretary General about "election observers" in Belarus. Accusations of electoral fraud will be the signal in Minsk to begin the "Cornflower Revolution" along the models of Georgia and the Ukraine.
Homeland
Berlin traditionally sweetens the offer of a joint eastward expansion with historical reminiscence. Medieval Poland extended as far as Kiev and Smolensk, the Second Republic, founded in 1919, included areas of today's Ukraine and Belarus. According to Lech Kaczynski, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in contacts with the Polish government at the beginning of the 1990s, spoke "persistently of 'East Poland' when referring to the areas, that today belong to the territories of the Ukraine and White Russia."[8] This revelation shows that, already at the time of the reunification, German foreign policy was seeking to exploit nationalist tendencies of the Polish neighbor. At that time Warsaw hesitated to accept the German offer of revision, above all, out of fear of it being a trap: shift the debate over lost territories to the East, in order to dissolve the Oder-Neisse German/Polish border. Today, since no direct German expansion onto Polish territory is feared, Kaczynski seems prepared to discuss. After all "Poles from the East, just like Germans from the East (...) have the right (...) to harbor nostalgic sentiments for their homelands."[9]
Offer
Winning the Ukraine and Belarus ("formerly eastern Polish territories") over to an agreement on the "Center Against Expulsion" is considered possible in Berlin. The implementation of several exhibition projects on resettlement, as well as, the positioning of personnel in the Office of the Chancellery, indicate the intention to carry out this project in the near future.[10] The next suitable date in consideration is the BdV's annual "Day of the Homeland" on September 2. Keynote speaker, for this year's event, will be the German President. According to announcements for the "Expellees" exhibition, "Compulsory Paths," the revision offer made to Poland will be renewed. The "compulsory resettlements, banishment and Deportation of Poles" which took place between 1939 to 1949 are among the themes, with which publicity is being made.[11] The "European Network for Remembrance and Solidarity", which began its work last year to Warsaw, is being handled similarly.[12]
Invasion
These beginnings of a joint eastward expansion, bring to mind various periods in German/Polish history, in which Warsaw opted in favor of Berlin and offensively turned against Moscow, judged to be more dangerous. Thus (1919 to 1921) Poland successfully shifted its boundaries to the east, in the war against the Soviet Union, without having to fear German objections. In the mid 1930s Hermann Goering openly offered the Polish government to "march together against Russia."[13] The political enticement ended in the spring 1939, in open conflict between Berlin and Warsaw and was no obstacle to the German invasion on September 1, 1939.
[1] see also Area of Natural Gas
[2] "Ist das der europäische Geist?"; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08.03.2006
[3] see also Expelled from Class
[4] "Ist das der europäische Geist?"; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08.03.2006
[5] see also "Über Polen nach Osten"
[6] Rzeczpospolita 11.06.2005. See also Ergebnis eines Jahres
[7] see also Traditionsradio, Über Minsk hinaus and Zehntausend plus
[8], [9] "Ein künstliches Gebilde"; Die Welt 09.03.2006. See also Ostverschiebung
[10] see also The Culprits' Perspective and "Zur Relativierung führen"
[11] Erzwungene Wege; Pressemitteilung der Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen 31.01.2006
[12] see also History Revision, Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Gegen Prag and Aufgabe des ganzen Landes
[13] Martin Broszat: Zweihundert Jahre deutsche Polenpolitik, München 1963
