APPEAL - Estonia’s border treaty still in force
To:The President of the Republic of Estonia
To: The Government of the Republic of Estonia
To: The Parliament of the Republic of Estonia
The IX Annual Fallen Freedom Fighters Day Conference in memory of Jüri Kukk was held on March 25, 2005, in the auditorium of the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia.
The participants at the conference (numbering well over 100) have taken the position that Estonia does not require any new border agreement with Russia. Whatever new treaties may contemplated, it is purposeful to do so only with states that have completely and without reservation fulfilled the terms of treaties which have been entered into previously.
The state border between the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Federation is fixed by the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, which remains in force to the present date. At the time the treaty was signed, neither of the signatories had achieved international recognition of their statehood. However, on September 28, 1939, the Republic of Estonia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics entered into a mutual assistance pact which, inter alia, contained the following provisions:
The President of the Republic of Estonia, as the party of the first part, and the Presidium of the Council of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., as the party of the second part, guided by their goal to develop friendly relations, which have been memorialized in the Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, and founded upon the recognition of sovereign statehood and non-intervention in the internal affairs of the other parties to this treaty;
Recognizing that the Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, and the Non-Aggression and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes Treaty of May 4, 1932, remain as the firm foundation of their mutual relations and commitments; …
Therefore, without regard to the status of the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty at the time of its signing, the said treaty must be generally recognized as being valid and in force as of September 28, 1939. It was on that date that the Tartu Peace Treaty was reconfirmed by the signatures of the official representatives of the two states, which had, by that time, achieved international recognition.
In view of the above, the position of the undersigned is that the Republic of Estonia is a party to a border treaty with the Russian Federation which is valid and in force and that, therefore, further negotiations on this issue are meaningless.
Tartu, March 27, 2005
This appeal was approved unanimously by the participants of the present convention. There were no opposing or abstaining votes.
Presiding Chairmen of the Conference:
MÄRT KUNNUS
KALJU MÄTIK
REIN VANJA
Estonia’s border treaty still in force
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