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Opening Remarks by President Lennart Meri at the International Seminar "Advisory Bodies in the Minorities Policy" December 1, 1995
01.12.1995

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,


It is my privilege to welcome you all to this seminar which will discuss a very important problem, how to deal with minority issues.

For many post-socialist countries, Estonia among them, this problem is even more complicated because of the recent past. During the Soviet occupation, ethnic minority issues were kept out of the public agenda, and to an outside observer the situation looked quite harmless with all major problems allegedly solved.

However, as we well know , this was not the case. The real issues simply could not be addressed, the aspirations and concerns of minorities could not be openly discussed.

This became possible only after the restoration of Estonia as a sovereign state. Now the minority issues came powerfully to the fore. Estonia faces a task of integrating the minorities, some of them quite numerous , into a society based on democratic values. The Estonian Roundtable on Minorities was established in 1993 as a meeting place for politicians and representatives of minorities to achieve consensus on such disputable matters as minority education, cultural activity, citizenship and participation in political life. It can be said that our Roundtable has made a certain progress in facilitating the interaction of different views that exist in our society. In particular, it helped to resolve the problem of political participation of minorities in the local elections of 1993. You should not overlook the simple fact that in contrast to Estonians , it was a totally now experience to all those who had immigrated from the totalitarian Soviet empire and never seen democratic elections. However, there is still a long way to go.

I very much appreciate it that the High Commissioner on National Minorities, His Excellency Max van der Stoel has taken interest in the activities of the Estonian Roundtable and supported the idea to organise this seminar in Tallinn. I also appreciate it that he has found time to participate in this seminar in person.

Let me wish you a lot of co-operative spirit and express my confidence that this seminar will be a success. Your task is not an easy one, but can we possibly expect life here and now to be easy ? Thank you.

 

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