Alexander Lukashenko, the dictatorial president of Belarus, said during a recent meeting on corruption issues: "There is a list of 30 suspects here. Forgive me, I'm not antisemitic, but more than half of the accused are Jewish."
He also said: "What's going on here? Have they (the Jews, TB) assumed a special privileged status? Stealing and not thinking about their future? In Belarus, everyone is equal before the law. Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians, and also Poles. Everyone."
Yuval Fuchs, Deputy Director of Eurasia and the Western Balkans at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Belarusian Ambassador and told him that "the statement made by the President of Belarus is unacceptable, outrageous and sounds like a definite antisemitic comment."
Last December Lukashenko praised Armenia and claimed that its people are smart because there is not a single Jew among them.
"If Armenia wants to die economically, we might lose it. But I don't think that the Armenians are stupid people. Armenians are smart people. After all, there isn't even a single Jew there. Do you know why? Because Armenians are the smartest people," he claimed.
To be noted that there actually is a Jewish community in Armenia, of about 400 members and the attitude of the authorities towards them is generally positive.