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President of the Republic On the Dinner Hosted in Honour of the President of the Republic of Greece on October 11, 2000
11.10.2000

Dear Mr. President Constantinos Stephanopoulos,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen!

A little while ago, the Greek President and I participated in a moving service to commemorate the first Estonian saint, Bishop Platon, or St. Platon from now on. He and the saints Nicholas and Michael, who shared his fate, made the supreme sacrifice to faith on the day when they were murdered by Bolsheviks in the cellars beneath the Tartu Credit Bank in January 1919 along with other innocent people. Let us commemorate and honour them with a moment of silence.

Mr. President, it is a great pleasure to welcome you in Estonia.

We can now extend the direct contacts we made during my state visit to Greece last spring. Now you can have a look at the Baltic Sea - a sea that was, as far as we know, discovered by a Greek, Pytheas. Thus, the bridge of thought extends over 24 centuries.

Once again, we have the possibility to compare opinions and attitudes, to cast an appraising look on the world in the year 2000. As small countries - one of us is bigger, the other is smaller, but we are still small countries - we consider the progress of the integration process to be very important. In this field, our positions are not equal. Speaking in the spirit of the Olympic Games, we could say that Greece is a champion. Estonia is still an apprentice. But you have witnessed our resolve and consistency. I believe that also the days you now spend in Estonia will convince you of this. Greece's unequivocal support to our accession to European Union and NATO is very important for Estonia, and we are deeply grateful to your country.

This is a very important stage in the process of integration. The enthusiasm that followed the collapse the Berlin wall and the Soviet empire has faced a series of setbacks. Euphoria has been replaced by hesitation, and sometimes political resolve is buried under the bureaucracy of regulations. This may be the daily bread of public servants, but we are not building the Europe of public servants, but the Europe of nations and human beings. I believe, Mr. President, that our countries can exert their influence here. Our countries are situated in complex regions, and this is why our need for a harmonious and strong Europe is especially manifest. Estonia is ready to fulfil her obligations. This concerns both accession to the European Union and accession to NATO.

Of course, it is obvious that the flaws and scars of half a century under the occupying powers can not vanish overnight. Not even with nine years of restored independence, an anniversary that we had in August. But all this time, Estonia has been aware of the time factor. I believe that the spirit of ancient seafarers has helped us in our development and bolstered our spirit of enterprise. I hope, dear guests from Greece, that you will be able to sense this spirit during your stay in Tallinn, and not only in the roofs and walls of the Old Town, but also in the efficient and industrious manner of the Estonians.

I hope that we will also be able to arrange trade relations between our two countries in the same spirit, as the political resolve to do so is obvious on both sides.

Dear Mr. President, dear guests.

I would also like to find the right words for a feeling that pervades the global routine considerations and the acute problems of Europe. It is a feeling pertaining only to your country, your tradition, your creative fantasy and ethics.

Estonians have their own ancient folklore, or I would even say, their own refined folk song form structure. And yet, as soon as literacy started to spread among Estonians, the scholars who aimed to enlighten the spirit of the people started to retell Greek mythology to Estonians.

Almost inconspicuously, Estonians became familiar with bits and pieces of Greek culture. Such is the vitality of a powerful culture.

Many times in history, the question has arisen whether Estonians would endure. Endure and preserve their identity.

Our country has been called the country of winds, as indeed many turbulent conquests have swept over this spot of land.

Mr. President, this morning I had the delightful opportunity to hand over to you a silk painting by the Estonian artist Sirje Raudsepp, inspired by a poem of our poet Juhan Liiv, as a souvenir from your visit to Estonia.

Juhan Liiv is the poet who best represents the Estonian national spirit, one who has painted the most anguished picture of the tortuous fate of Estonians.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1908, when Estonia's nationalist spirit had been hit by another wave of repressions, and once again, we had been faced with the question that only a small nation can understand so clearly - to be or not to be - in 1908, Juhan Liiv forged his tragic outcry into an allegorical poem with the heading ''A Hellene and a Persian''. This is the poem that inspired the mood of Sirje Raudsepp.

It ends with the words of the Hellene who refuses to trade his freedom, and goes as follows:

''Ei, võõras! Sinu kuld mu ustavust ei murra,
ma olen kreeklane - mind lase nõnda surra!''


(No, stranger! My loyalty your gold can never break,
I am a Greek - so let me die a Greek!)

The Greek ethos had reached a simple Estonian poet, who never travelled outside Estonia. But Greece had come to him.

Thus, it is quite simple to find a name for the feeling that we have for you.

We are here in the north, and you are in the south, each on the shore of our own sea, and both open to the whole world. What we feel for you is gratitude.

Pytheas of Massalia and Juhan Liiv are the high symbolic arches connecting us.

Mr. President.

In the name of myself and Mrs. Helle Meri, in the name of the people, the Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Estonia, let me most sincerely wish success and happiness to you and to the people of Greece.

Let us raise our glasses to the health of the President of Greece, to the glory and prosperity of the Republic of Greece.

 

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