Belarus Under Lukashenko: A System of Repression, Exile, and Identity Destruction

This article examines whether the structure of state power consolidated in Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko may constitute a modern form of genocide under international law, even in the absence of immediate and explicit physical annihilation. Drawing on publicly available reports from international organizations, investigative research, and documented testimonies, it argues that the regime is not only repressing opposition and the population, but participating in a broader process of dismantling the continuity of the Belarusian nation through forced exile, restriction of legal identity, suppression of historical memory, obstruction of return, prolonged exile, unsafe return, and deepening subordination to Russian power. While elements of this structure have already been characterized as crimes against humanity, the article asks a broader question: whether cumulative processes of displacement, identity erosion, legal disablement, and forced transformation may amount, under modern conditions, to a form of genocide directed not only against individuals, but against the continuity of the nation itself.