Belarus is planning to alter its national emblem so as to align the imagery with «the peaceful purport» of the state, Interfax says.
«We’ve prepared a bill which adjusts the law on national symbols. This is due to questions arising over the imagery of the national emblem,» Belarussian Minister of Justice Oleg Slizhevsky said at a press conference in Minsk.
He said that the Presidential Heraldry Council re-evaluated the current symbols of state and concluded that the emblem design needs «to be perfected.» As an example, he cited the depiction of the star on the emblem, which has sharp edges in its current execution.
«In heraldry there are generally accepted approaches, and in different cases a symbol can carry a different meaning. The current depiction of the star on the national emblem with its sharp edges is more commonly used in military symbolism and is somewhat warlike,» Slizhevsky noted.
At the same time, the Minister emphasized, Belarus is, without doubts, «a peaceful country that maintains neutrality and under no circumstances considers aggression as a means of its politics.»
The depiction of the globe on the emblem is to be adjusted as well. «The way the parallels and meridians are done on the emblem… in such an embossed image it creates a feeling that they are over the globe itself, as if it were encased in some cage,» the minister noted.
«Such nuances sometimes lead to wrong associations and should absolutely be corrected so that the emblem is executed perfectly and is perceived positively,» Slizhevsky summed up.
