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The President of the Republic Address on the occasion of Victory Day On June 23, in Paide23.06.2005
Dear fellow countrymen,
Excellencies,
Members of the Defence Forces and the Defence League!
We celebrate our Victory Day on the anniversary of the Battle of Võnnu marking one of the most important victories of the War of Independence. This is a day when alongside with the heroes of that time, we give recognition also to the heroes of today who have given our people back their belief in freedom and better future.
Our gratefulness belongs to our own compatriots, but also to the representatives of many other nations - to our friends and allies from all over the world. We can find proof to the importance of having partners for achieving our goals both from distant history and also from today.
Let us have a look at the time when the national consciousness of Estonians had not yet been shaped. The uprising on St. George's Day against the injustice of rulers started for Estonians successfully and spread quickly from Harjumaa to Läänemaa. But when the uprisers lost their kings who had come for negotiations to Paide, and also the support of their allies, the outcome was tragic.
Fortunately, the War of Independence offers quite an opposite example: a possibility to get support from allies was certainly one of the factors that secured victory and independence for Estonia. But in both cases, the wish of Estonians to direct their own life, to rule their own lands and to stand for their freedom were determining factors.
The support of partners is very valuable, as the world is becoming ever so "smaller", but at the same time also more polarized. Nevertheless, the will and consensus of each nation to protect one's interests and independence determines the cause of events.
Estonian military units protect peace in different places around the world, and the skills of our soldiers are highly appreciated. Unfortunately, our participation in peace operations has brought us also losses: in addition to several wounded, two Estonian soldiers have perished in Iraq. It is our obligation and our honour to commemorate them as our heroes.
Also the Defence League has an important role in foreign service. The members of the Defence League's Harju regional unit have been guarding the Estonian Permanent Representation to the European Union for almost a year now, by the end of the year one unit of the Defence League will be ready to go for its first independent mission to Bosnia. This shows that while fulfilling our obligations as allies we cannot rely only on our professional soldiers. Also voluntary reservists are involved in fulfilling the allies' obligations of our state, and this, in its turn, makes their readiness and up-to-date training even more important.
A year as a NATO member state has given a proof of Estonian capability to be a reliable and equal partner to its allies. Though we can be proud of a good training and competence of our servicemen, nevertheless we have to do also our homework. Alas, we are in a situation where a part of our units is forced to carry out more complicated shooting exercises in neighbouring countries. This is a result of endless and so far fruitless dispute over gunnery-practice ranges.
The foundation of reliable national defence is the capability and the will of people, local authorities and the whole state to defend the country. Among other things, this involves creating conditions for training and polishing the skills. At that, gunnery-practice ranges and training sites are unavoidable requirements, and local authorities, as well as the state, have to turn their attention to that problem.
In many states the security problems are defined in a White Book, defence or security strategy papers, or some other documents that are approved by the parliament. National defence related tasks resulting from legal acts have been assigned to different ministries, state agencies, and local governments, as security in today's world embraces various, depending from each other areas. And so, importance is given alongside with defence dimension, also political, economic, social and environmental factors.
This reveals an actual fact that the protection of state is not only the task of defence forces. The protection of state depends on efficient interaction of all structures and involves the whole society. But, similarly to any fruitful cooperation, this has an indispensable value also from the viewpoint of everyday performance of the state.
Dear listeners!
Celebration of Victory Day is not only a parade and recollection of glory gained in the battle. Today it is appropriate to bring once again into awareness that by now Estonia has reached a development stage where we have an obligation to act in the interest of the future of our own state as well as in the global interests. Safe and secure world, successful Europe, good-neighbourly relations between the states and people are in the national interests of Estonia.
The European Union had great expectations in connection with the Future Convent. The Constitutional Treaty, born there, treats comprehensibly the future performance of the block and gives a framework for the development trends of our continent. But after that, not enough attention has been paid to a person for whose sake those plans were made and who needs comprehensible information and assurance that democratic procedures would be maintained for him or her and for his or her nation.
Perhaps, instead of urging the legal procedures we should take a break and turn attention to sore points that worry people most, and make more efforts to explain the matters. This will make the European Union more open and we might reach solutions that guarantee wellbeing of nations and trust towards the block and each other. This will also increase confidence that the identity and national culture of all nations are preserved.
This could be Estonia's Victory Day message to other nations whose representatives are participating in today's parade. Also for many of them the Midsummer's Day is a day when light and freedom is celebrated. When we carry from here, from the heart of Estonia, torches to lit Midsummer's bonfires in all Estonian counties, we can imagine that this fire symbolically crosses also state borders. Let us offer our friends the warmth of Peace Fire that has a power of uniting people.
I wish all of you a happy Victory Day and a cheerful Midsummer's Day!
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