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President of the Republic at the 78th Independence Day Celebrations, Estonia Concert Hall, February 24, 1996
24.02.1996

My dear fellow Estonians, Your Excellencies!

Please accept my best wishes on the occasion of our nation's birthday, which we are observing today for the 78th time. Not a very round figure, 78, nor, for that matter, was the year well-rounded. The democratic traditions we also celebrate today, however, are.

As a democratic state, we are nearly three times younger than the United States of America, but about twice as old as the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1921 we were active in the League of Nations, which united 63 states. Of today's 185 United Nations, then, two-thirds - mostly small states - are younger than Estonia.

Like us, these nations achieved sovereignty through wars of independence, owing to the disintegration of the last colonial powers, and by seizing the right to self-determination. This defines Estonia's place as well as obligations in the time and space of a world beset with perils. This also defines our partners' attitude towards us.

This attitude, I can assure you that have assembled in this hall as well as those who have tuned their TV sets and radios to us or are likely to read it in the press, - this attitude reflects respectful and sincere - not merely formal - support. This support radiates forth from every continent of the world. The first to wish us well on our 78th birthday, dear fellow Estonians, was the president of France, our friend Jacques Chirac. Today Pope John Paul II will pray for the Estonian people. Hungarian President Arpad Göncz has not failed to mention that our common goals to join Euro-Atlantic structures are as important to us as our Finno-Ugric, spiritual proximity.

US President Bill Clinton writes: ''Estonia's political and economic reintegration into Western Europe, one of the most extraordinary developments in the post-Cold War era, is worthy of particular notice on this special day.''

''The parallel growth of our bilateral relationship, which now covers such a wide range of common interests, gives both our countries a reason to celebrate. Our nations have forged a strong partnership based on shared democratic and open-market values.''

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, in the midst of a heated campaign battle, also sent Estonia a congratulatory note along with a plea to ensure the rights of minorities, which Estonia, based on its legislation, has every intention of continuing to do and would like to see occur in every other country as well, large or small, with the help of the UN and other international organizations. In this respect, I would like to encourage Mr Yeltsin by a quote from a long-ago press conference of mine that is once again relevant today: ''Everybody talks of the death of communism, but where is the corpse?''

And here are two more messages received recently. Gerald Ford, to whom Estonia awarded a Cross of Terra Mariana for his role in stressing the continuity of Estonia at the CSCE's 1975 Helsinki summit, says the following: ''Thank you, your country and your people. The Helsinki accord was a major, major step forward and I'm pleased that you...recognize my role in making this possible.''

George Kennan, a veteran American diplomat in Estonian relations who actively worked for the continuity of the Republic of Estonia, informed us he would visit Estonia again after 59 years to receive our nation's gratitude. George Kennan, Ladies and Gentlemen, is 92 years old and the man who gave Ernst Jaakson (longtime head of Estonia's NY legation) a US visa.

To sum up, the Republic of Estonia plays a more active role in the world than it did before the war. But the world too has changed. Let us leave open the question whether our international relations are active enough to ensure our international security.

2.

If five is a round figure, it will go into this year's anniversary. Five years ago we restored our independence de jure and de facto. Yesterday Estonia repaid its debt of gratitude to the people who in word and deed helped preserve the continuity of Estonian sovereignty.

May I mention that our celebration is honoured today by the presence of a member of the French National Assembly, President of the Franco-Estonian friendship group and since yesterday a chevalier of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st class. I am sure you will join me in warmly thanking Gabriel Kaspéreit and his nation.

Estonia, which our freedom fighters, Gabriel Kaspéreit and many others carried on in themselves, has triumphantly returned to the maps of the world and, a week or so ago, to the first Estonian-language globe displayed at Palamuse.

But how do Estonians themselves value their country? The world has changed, and not for the better. Today we need urgently and seriously to address this question. Is Estonia strong enough to remain on the map of the world for ever? Are Estonia's aims clear enough to unite its people? Is the memory of history sufficiently vivid not to repeat old mistakes? People learn from their mistakes, and so do nations. But to learn only from mistakes is an error itself. Although not for a man, for a state that can be the last fatal error.

Where do Estonia's strengths lie?

Estonia's strength is our common sense, our aptitude for learning and our will to act. Our common sense tells us that the world is round, and not just our Estonian-language globe. That Estonia is exactly where it is. That it is just as large as it is. Estonia's small size can be an asset if we are able to apply this property intelligently. Even our underwater diving record - fifty years in the murky depths of Soviet occupation, arriving ashore gasping for breath, with liberty, equality and fraternity still clenched between our teeth - is an asset. The resilience of our independence, democracy and statehood is a unique attribute if we are able to, and want to, make the right conclusions.

And finally, Estonia's strength is a kind of healthy impatience in its people when, say, the dialogue between politicians and citizens lasts only during election campaigns, leaving the people alone with their fears the rest of the time.

The majority of the Estonian people are unsatisfied rather than satisfied with the present state of affairs. But at the same time they are optimistic. That is what the surveys say. The surveys imply there is a healthy, constructive impatience, and this coincides with my perception of the situation. They also imply there is light at the end of the frighteningly dark reform tunnel - and that light has begun to shine in the hearts and homes of Estonians. We must not turn away from that light.

We have grown used to comparing ourselves to Central and East European reformist states, which shared practically the same starting line with us. Those are macroeconomic comparisons, which have indeed described Estonia's reform processes very favourably. Now it is time to adopt the yardstick we have been handed by Western Europe and by our own constitution in the first place. This will require us to take into account human development and standards of living as well. No, the comparative data in these fields are not quite as favourable. But they are essential for citizens as well as the Estonian state, in particular on the homestretch of accession to the European Union.

3.

What sustains our constructive impatience?

We have progressed rapidly macroeconomically, leaving us with little time for glancing at the horizon and thinking strategically. Yet a long-term perspective is just as important for every person and family as is a blueprint for a builder. Such a perspective creates stability and order, encourages creativity and spirituality, nurtures realism, and shuts the door on populist rhetoric. It is not a campaign, for thinking cannot be a campaign. It is a method of co-existence between the state powers and the citizen. This is what ''national thinking'' is about.

The absence or inadequacy of ''national thinking'' leads to vagueness on every level: career and family planning, regional development planning, industrial and commercial business plans all suffer.

4.

What worries me is that political parties have not utilized sufficiently the potential for agreement. We should begin with the most important: we have to agree on which spheres are to remain outside any political sparring. National security is one of these by its very definition. People can see the difference between those goals that serve the continuity of our state and those that are aimed at winning points in political gambling. For such an agreement parties have to rely on the support of their electors.

We cannot play at being a state. A state is either taken seriously or it disappears. Estonian historical memory helps us draw the line between means and aims. Indeed, one of our brightest journalists has remarked that historical memory includes mostly the last four months and, with the help of the press, only two. Therefore let me repeat: power is never an aim but a means for guaranteeing the security, welfare and development of Estonians and Estonia. Elections are not an aim but a democratic means. Elections wind up the clockspring of democracy that keeps the clock ticking. If during elections we lose the understanding of this metaphor, if we lose our sense of time and space, it means the spring has been overwound. The clock will stop.

We must realize that every step taken in our domestic policy will be echoed in foreign policy and vice versa. The world is so small today and so closely interwoven. As the world truly is round like the Palamuse Estonian-language globe and Estonia a small state on the Baltic Sea, we must bear that in mind. It is the duty of every ministry to see Estonia as an indivisible whole and all the other ministries as its partners but it also has to see the entire world around us. National security is first and foremost the security of all citizens: social welfare, investment and innovation policy with a future, and active foreign policy.

5.

Clouds are gathering over Europe from Gibraltar to the Urals. And if indeed it is true that Europe borders North Korea, then it is becoming overcast from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Japan. According to the official statistics, every tenth German able to hold a job is out of one; from the underground statistics the ratio seems even more ominous. This fact makes the parliamentary election to be held in two years dramatic and motivates German businessmen to look for solutions from the Russian market, however temporary or risky such solutions may be.

Estonia welcomes, supports and takes part in cooperation with Russia on the condition that such a relationship develops according to European traditions, between two independent and equal parties. Estonia has managed to survive through centuries because the cornerstone of our foreign policy - to use the words of historian and politician Hans Kruus - has been the common sense of the peasant. The common sense of the Estonian peasant, unlike the refined bonepicking of politicians, rests on principles that might be simple but have an unbreakable ethical backbone. In great empires the bright light of principles will flash during great turning points in history. Let us recall the French Revolution, Jefferson and Lincoln, the 14 points of President Wilson that are today more topical than ever before, the labours at the birth of the constitution of Germany assuaged by democratic allies, the noble Building of Human Rights whose cornerstone was laid right here in Estonian parliament in 1925 when the law on cultural autonomy was passed. Politicians ready to build a momentary career on the security of their children have to be reminded again and again of these and other facts. Therefore I would like to conclude with the declaration issued by President Wilson on May 27, 1915, reflected most directly a few years later in our Manifesto to all the Peoples of Estonia: ''Every nation has the right to choose the sovereignty under which it wishes to live ... The guarantees cannot be adopted containing any discrimination between the big and the small, the powerful and the weak nations.'' And, two years later: ''Nations and regions are not subject to horse-trading and cannot be moved from one power's sphere of influence to another like goods or chips in a game, be it even a big political game that by now has discredited itself forever.''

These thoughts were new only insofar as they were for the first time given the form of international law. They contained more idealism than muscle. They were simply Wilson's dreams for freedom and cooperation, without peacekeeping's armoured vehicles. This was proved by the helpless League of Nations and unfortunately by the United Nations although its Statute tried to avoid the shortcomings of the League of Nations. That is why our priority in foreign policy - more urgent than ever - is to join the European Union and have close cooperation with European defence structures.

There is no other way.

But, as I said, national security must begin with us and with our own attitude towards our state. The dialogue with the people, silenced in 1934, led to isolation and in autumn 1939 to surrender to the first ultimatum, followed by others.

If our historical memory can see and understand that experience, Estonian borders will remain intact and posterity will celebrate in a hundred years the 178th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

As always, the future depends on your will, my dear fellow Estonians. With that in mind I wish you strength and resolve and all the best on this Estonian Independence Day!

 

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