Estonian Defense Minister Jurgen Ligi published an article in Estonian newspaper Postimees on a legislation draft “On the struggle of Estonian citizens for restoring sovereignty of the Republic of Estonia,” according to which Estonians who fought on the side of Germany in the World War II can be recognized as “fighters for the independence of Estonia” and entitled to corresponding benefits. Ligi, in particular, writes in his article : “So it happened historically that that Estonians’ rather sympathized with the Germany who lost the war that the ‘red’ Russia who did more evil on our land. The attitude only became stronger with time. At the time when Germany had returned to the way of liberal democracy, Russia for more than one decade continued to force on us her totalitarian ideals, having not abandoned them until today.”
This is how Ligi comments on the behavior of Estonians who fought during the war in the USSR’s armed forces: “They were courageous soldiers, they had to go through severe war experience. But their goal was just to end the war and come home. They could never imagine that, wearing a uniform of a state that suffocated the Republic of Estonia, they were fighting for its restoration.” At the same time, the minister argues, the “uniform of Waffen-SS cannot be a distinctive feature of a fighter for freedom not only for internal reasons, but also because the organization was declared criminal at the Nuremberg trial. Belgium and Netherlands regard their compatriots who fought together with Estonians as traitors. This is how differently we view history. We are not convincing in our strivings if we give rise to accusations that we support Nazism.”
Earlier, Jurgen Ligi on behalf of the ......
.... government of Estonia introduced a bill in which Waffen-SS servicemen and Estonians who fought in “alien uniforms” during World War II were not to be considered fighters for the independence of Estonia.
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