The Council of Europe ended its third summit since 1949 in Warsaw on Tuesday with everybody calling for democracy in Belarus, which is the only European country that cannot attend the event. Out of all the countries, however, Poland really stood out with its calls.

WARSAW – Calls for democracy in Belarus and agreement on the Warsaw Declaration charting the course for the Council of Europe over the coming years closed debate at the council’s summit in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Poland’s president Aleksander Kwasniewski slammed human rights violations in Belarus and called for the democratisation of Poland’s eastern neighbour, dubbed by other leaders at the summit Europe’s last dictatorship.

Kwasniewski was echoing calls made on Monday by senior leaders from France, Georgia, Latvia and Lithuania, among other states, that Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko introduce sweeping democratic reforms which would allow Belarus to join the Council of Europe.

The especially harsh criticism from Poland seems to be over the regime’s anullment of the Belarussion Union of Poles convention. Due to the anullment, the group is stuck with the previous leader, who is basically a henchman of the KGB. They even called the process by which they choose new leaders “undemocratic,” as if they can talk about that with a straight face.

What resulted was a huge diplomatic row between Belarus and Poland, and after the comments made to the Council of Europe, each country has simultaneously expelled each others’ diplomats.

WARSAW, May 18 (Xinhuanet) — Poland and Belarus expelled each other’s diplomats on Wednesday.

“We have made a decision to expel a counselor of the Belarussian Embassy from Warsaw, from our country, in an identical procedure,” Polish Vice Foreign Minister Andrzej Zalucki told reporters here.

Earlier in the day, Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld said his country’s decision was in response to Belarus’ expulsion of Marek Butcko, first secretary of the Polish Embassy in Belarus.

He also denied Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko’s accusation that Poland was working against the president.

Lukashenko’s accusation was “complete paranoia,” the minister said, noting that Poland’s policy has been to support the Belarussian people.

But in Minsk, Ruslan Yesin, press secretary of the Belarussian Foreign Ministry, told reporters that Belarus’ expulsion of Butcko was in retaliation for the actions of Poland which several weeks ago asked a Belarussian diplomat to leave.

Now they’ve even asked the European Union to get involved, something which it has been doing increasingly over the past few months. Between Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltics, and United States, and all of Europe, Lukashenko seems to have a little problem on his hand. All of these countries have become incredibly outspoken toward his regime, to the point where they don’t mind opening wounds and applying gratuitous amounts of salt.

Well, at least Lukashenko has Russia to call a friend. And, er, Vietnam.