Vilnius – The Prime Minister of Estonia, Andrus Ansip, the Prime Minister of Latvia, Valdis Dombrovskis and the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Andrus Kubilius, signed a joint declaration, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way, in which the Baltic Way is remembered as a unique, peaceful demonstration that led to the restoration of the independence of the Baltic States.
On 23 August 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, almost two million people joined their hands in a 600 km long human chain in order to protest peacefully against the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, stemming from the Pact.
The leaders of the governments said that the recent decision to include the Baltic Way in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register acknowledged the significant meaning of this historic event.
The Prime Ministers also welcomed the recent decisions of the European Parliament and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the initiative to declare 23 August as the pan-European Memorial Day for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism.
According to the declaration, the Baltic States will continue their joint efforts to preserve the historical remembrance of the shared totalitarian heritage of 20th century Europe and to ensure that it is assessed fairly and openly.
On 23 August 1939, Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed a non-aggression pact, otherwise known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Pact had additional secret protocols that ignored international law and divided Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. The conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact led to the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, which in turn gave rise to the occupation of many democratic countries in Europe for the following 50 years.
The joint declaration is available at: http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/index.php?id=24449
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Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/
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