Karis: Baltic Way was our nations' yearning for independence, freedom

TALLINN - In his address at an event marking the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way, Estonian President Alar Karis said that the Baltic Way -- hundreds of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians forming a chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius -- was a manifestation witnessed by the entire world of the unity of our subjugated nations and our yearning for independence and freedom.

The president said: "Those who remember this extraordinary event will no doubt recall the three rallying cries that accompanied it: Vabadus! Brīvība! Laisvė!" 

"That togetherness made us three times stronger that we would otherwise have been, and our voice three times louder in demanding the tearing-up of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact entered into by Stalin and Hitler which robbed the Baltic states -- and many other nations -- of their freedom," Karis said in his address at the anniversary event held at the former Lilli/Ungurini crossing on the Estonian-Latvian border.

The president noted that, instigated by the Popular Fronts in our three countries, the Baltic Way was a conceptual follow-up to the Baltic Appeal: the memorandum sent to the UN Secretary General by 45 citizens from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania calling for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to be declared null and void and for the independence of the Baltic states to be restored.

"That appeal was the voice of our conscience. Back in the summer of 1979, such aspirations seemed to many to be unattainably distant, but just 10 years later, the outline of the restoration of our independence began to take shape," he said.

Karis described the Baltic Way as testament to the ability of subjugated nations to break free from their chains if they have the hope, the courage, the determination and the conviction to do so, as well as their ability to recognize and make the most of windows of opportunity.

"Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all know what it means to rebuild our countries, to secure democracy and freedom and to escape a geopolitical no-man's land, and this is experience which we must share with others," he said.

The head of state recalled that his family -- he, his wife Sirje and their two sons -- joined the Baltic Way somewhere between Nuia and Lilli, because there were so many people in earlier stretches of the chain that there was simply no room for them there.

"I recall the sense of pride I felt that something big was happening and that we were part of it. We experience such things very rarely in our lives; perhaps only once," Karis said.