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President of the Republic on Victory Day at Haapsalu June 23, 2000
23.06.2000

Dear fellow countrymen in Haapsalu, Estonia, and all over the wide world!
Dear Victory Day guests!
Members of the Defence League!

The Midsummer Eve is our Victory Day and the midsummer bonfire is older than the Republic of Estonia. Tonight, on the shortest night, dawn and dusk join hands. What does this mean? It means that we, the entire nation, join hands with light, hope, and a safe future, and light our sacred bonfires all over the country as a token of this.

We have a song that says: the dawn of our hopes.
What does it mean?
This means a hope for a safe family, a safe home, a secure future, internal and external security.
This is not a beer party.

This is much more than singing and dancing around the midsummer bonfire. Our future is secure only if we take it into our own hands, hold it in our hands and defend it if need be.

This is the victory that fosters the Victory Day, and its flame will blaze in our midsummer bonfires tonight.

From now on, from today, the Victory Day will be our Home Defence Day. On our Independence Day, we think of the men and women who founded the Republic of Estonia and the Estonian Defence Forces, and defended our centuries-old dream on the frontlines of the War of Liberty.

On Victory Day we think of having overcome our doubts; we know that if necessary, we are prepared to defend our homes and families, our state and our nation; that we are ready to show our will to defend in every situation, in every county, in every family.

From now on, the Victory Day is also the Home Defence Day. The Home Defence Day is above all the day of the Defence League, a day when the entire nation demonstrates its will to defend. This is why I have sent the midsummer flame - the flame of victory of the Republic of Estonia - all over the country from different counties every year, and am sending it to you from the Lääne County today.

The briefer the speech, the stronger the word.

I have three messages on this Victory Day.

First. The Defence League is a voluntary league. It is your free decision to join or not to join the Defence League. But once you have joined the Defence League, you are an integral part of the Estonian national defence. This means that strict discipline and fulfilling orders is no longer voluntary, but just as self-evident as it is in the defence forces. You undertake to submit yourself to the discipline of the Defence League, you undertake to participate in the training, and you undertake to set an example to your fellow citizens. Your weapon has been trusted to you not for defending your potato fields, but for guaranteeing the integrity of Estonia. Whoever is a disgrace to the name of the Defence League, shall be expelled.

Second. We are not a big nation. Estonians are few in numbers. And therefore, the commanders of the Defence league must be especially intelligent in the employment of their people. Intelligent command and intelligent, purposeful action will increase the skills and striking force of the Defence League twofold, even manifold.

And third. The Republic of Estonia, the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League are the producers of our security. In security, no one can depend on charities. The wisdom of the Estonian citizens to guarantee and produce their own security is the first threshold on our way to NATO. We have been successful. Yesterday, the first Estonian officers graduated from the Baltic Defence College, along with officers from many other countries. I felt proud to look at them. We have succeeded in creating a generation of young, educated officers to whom we can trust our sons and daughters, and to whom also other countries have trusted their sons and daughters. As we remember, the start was not easy, but our Estonian persistence has helped us to overcome the difficulties. We are much stronger today than we could even have imagined ten years ago. We have made friends in Europe and in America. We are successfully implementing the NATO Membership Action Plan and we have enhanced the capacity of our defence forces. We have gained international confidence and regained our own self-confidence. Today, we can organise better the command of our defence forces and the co-operation between our Defence Forces and the Defence League and the Border Guard. We are able to look into the future, to plan, to set tasks for operative command, we are able to treat sustainably our most valuable resource - the human being. And I assure you here, in the beautiful city of Haapsalu, that hand in hand with the above, Estonia's will to defend and defence capacity are powerfully evident, as well as Estonia's good repute among our partner states, with whom we share the supreme task: to guarantee here, on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, the calm self-confidence that would yield a safe future to our children and grandchildren.

In the name of this, I congratulate and greet all of you today, my dear fellow countrymen in Haapsalu, in the Lääne County, in Estonia, and all over the wide world!

 

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