My Ladies and Gentlemen!

In a few minutes, I am going to sign a document that you can also see now and from which I will first read you the names of the members of the Round Table of Ethnic Minorities. You will hear old familiar names as well as new ones:

Dajan Ahmet, Aimar Altosaar, Viktor Andrejev, Hanon Barabaner, Aleksander Dusman, Rafik Grigorjan, Jevgenia Gurin-Loov, Klara Hallik, Sergei Ivanov, Rein Järvelill, Agu Laius, Aap Neljas, Aleksei Semjonov, Mihhail Stalnuhhin, Aleksander Stern, Jüri Tammaru, Mai Treial, Andra Veidemann, Raivo Vettik, Triin Vihalemm.

As I already said, I will sign it in a few moments.

I can remember the first time I spoke here in October 1992, when I said something I did not even give much though to, but what was later pointed out by many people. I said that I wanted to be and promised to be the president of the entire Estonian population. And as it came out later, this simple and self-evident sentence put me in opposition with the Government. There was the Government with its politics that it tried to call the politics of the Republic of Estonia, even though the politics of the government are the only politics you can have in a parliamentary state. And there was my vision of Estonia, as we remember it from books and as I remember it from the times before the Second World War.

I can simply tell you that a bad politician is one who does not accept reality. But a bad politician is also one who, when seeing reality, does not try to make it better. I think that creation of the Round Table gave one hope to many people, both Estonians and our ethnic minorities: that a certain tool has appeared. Maybe these hopes have not always been fulfilled (bad word, which was recommended by Johannes Aavik; lets us say then): realised. And to be honest, I was somewhat disappointed myself when it came out that at the present time 46% of Estonians think that the Russian people should leave Estonia - as my assistants told me. No one conducted such research in 1992 when I took this office. And we can tell only on the basis of our inner feelings whether this percentage has increased or decreased. I am convinced that it has decreased considerably. And I am not even very sure whether this percentage reflects the reality. When I travel in Estonia, I am convinced that our mutual understanding has improved a great deal. And sometimes it really touches the heart.

I would like to tell you a little episode that had a deep influence on me. A few years ago I opened the Home Decoration Year. It is a tradition that also reaches back to the pre-war time and that used to be very active then. Some well-known media figures were very ironic about the Home Decoration Year. The attitude of Estonian people was different. I have had a lot of moving experience. But maybe the most meaningful thing was that the first person who responded to the invitation of the Home Decoration Year - and I did address young people most of all - was young Russian girl Anastassia from Kohtla-Järve, who sent me a beautiful letter which really went to my heart. I wrote her a letter that same evening - just did it, like I always used to do before. I did not follow the life of Anastassia, because all I knew about her was her address. Last year I got a letter from her, where she told me that she had graduated from gymnasium, wanted to commit her life to Estonia and had continued her studies.

I think this is a beautiful benchmark, a beautiful image, a beautiful symbol of what we call actual integration. Commissions, conferences, theses have always frightened me, especially when the tasks at hand are easy. What is the task that we have put into the word ''integration''? Nothing more but the wish that every person who lives in Estonia would feel love and responsibility to Estonia. And rights and obligations come through responsibility. Anastassia felt it and I am proud of her. I would like this feeling - that we are building our common homeland with our hands, that we all have different relationships, but it all focuses on the same goal - not to be realised in conferences, but in our everyday life.


Thank you!

back | archive of speeches | main page