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Veterans Day will be celebrated for the first time across Estonia next Tuesday, April 23.
Veterans Day to be marked for the first time in Estonia next week
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Ahead of the day an exhibition dedicated to veterans and missions of the defense forces will be opened at the Estonian War Museum.
Veterans Day is a designated flag day.
Events to celebrate the day will start with veterans' shooting contest on Tuesday morning. At noon a service officiated by the chief chaplain of the defense forces, Taavi Laanepere, and archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Andres Poder will be held in the memorial church of Estonian soldiers in Tori at which the defense minister, chief of defense and a representative of foreign veterans will speak. A plaque commemorating British soldiers killed in the War of Independence will be unveiled in the church.
At the same time military units across the country will hold luncheons in honor of veterans.
A concert titled Veterans Rock and featuring Singer Vinger, Terminaator, Ultima Thule and Tõnis Magi, as well as the Estonia boys' choir and the Tallinn chamber orchestra, is scheduled to begin on Tallinn's Vabaduse (Freedom) Square at 6:30 p.m. Speeches will be given by veterans, the commander of the defense forces and defense minister. At the event prizes will be presented to winners of the shooting contest and the results of the contest for a symbol of support for veterans will be announced.
Since 1995 Estonia has dispatched 2,300 defense personnel on missions abroad. They have served in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, Macedonia, Israel and Syria, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Mali, the Gulf of Aden and the Mediterranean. In addition, members of the defense forces have been injured during service duty or military training in Estonia. In December 2012 the government approved the veterans policy of the defense forces and Kaitseliit (Defense League), which will increase the support given to almost 2,500 veterans and their families.