Word: estonians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...leaders of the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also pressed ahead with their challenge to Gorbachev, possibly hoping to make their case an issue at the summit. The presidents of the three republics met on May 12 in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, to form a united front by reviving the Baltic Council, a policy-coordinating body that dates from before World War II. They sent a letter to Gorbachev asking for joint negotiations on independence. Gorbachev responded last week with two decrees that said the Baltic states were violating the Soviet constitution...
Ruutel had a ready response: Estonian law. Displeased, Gorbachev called the decision "improper" and summoned the Estonian President to Moscow immediately to explain himself. When Ruutel declined, the Soviet leader turned tough. If the declaration was not rescinded, Gorbachev warned, Moscow would impose the same "regimen" there as in rebellious Lithuania. Ruutel replied that Estonians understood the consequences of their actions...
...Some Estonians have concerns about the brash way in which Lithuania declared outright independence, but sympathy with the decision is widespread. Says Enn- Arno Sillari, First Secretary of the independent Estonian Communist Party: "I'd like to think the Lithuanians are paving the way for us." The Estonians prefer to take more measured steps toward sovereignty. Instead of a complete break with Moscow, the Supreme Soviet two weeks ago called for an unspecified transition period leading to "the formation of the constitutional institutions of the Republic of Estonia...
...Estonians contend that, technically speaking, they are not seceding. They are simply restoring the sovereignty that Moscow guaranteed them "unconditionally and for all time" in 1920 -- then violated under the terms of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which led to Stalin's annexation of the Baltics. Estonian legislators want the issue of independence placed on the agenda for a Helsinki conference that Gorbachev has proposed to lay the foundation for his much touted "common European home." Legalists in Tallinn cite the Austrian State Treaty of 1955, which guaranteed the country's neutrality in exchange for the withdrawal of Soviet troops...
Like the Lithuanians, the Estonians are bracing for a showdown over the issue of military conscription. The Estonian parliament has approved a law on alternative military service, and plans to dismantle local draft boards. Local movements like Geneva-49, a citizens' action group opposed to the draft, have denounced service in the Soviet army as a violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions barring citizens of occupied states from having to serve in the occupation forces...