KENNESAW, Ga. | May 27, 2021
Dr. Silke Zoller, Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History and Philosophy had a perspective piece published in the Washington Post, providing historical perspective on the recent plane hijacking by Belarus:
On Sunday, Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair plane that was traveling over Belarus airspace on its way from Greece to Lithuania to land at the Minsk airport, claiming a bomb threat from Hamas. Once the plane was on the ground, authorities arrested passenger Roman Protasevich, a journalist with significant influence among the opposition movement to Belarus’s authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.
European leaders quickly criticized these actions, and the European Union announced
on Monday that Belarusian airlines would no longer be permitted to fly over the airspace
of member states and would be denied landing rights in E.U. countries.