Baltic prime ministers honor those who fought against oppression

Photo: Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued a joint statement Friday on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, reminding of the horrors of Nazism and Communism and honoring the people who fought against tyranny and oppression.

«On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin and the German Reich ruled by Adolf Hitler entered into a secret pact to divide and conquer Europe. The totalitarian regimes occupied freedom-loving European nations and a reign of terror was unleashed,» prime ministers Andrus Ansip of Estonia, Valdis Dombrovskis of Latvia and Algirdas Butkevicius of Lithuania said.

«Communism and Nazism took the lives of millions of people. In the Baltic States no families were left untouched by the violence of these malicious regimes. Misery affected all ethnic and social groups,» the statement reads.

«Today we remember the victims of totalitarian regimes and honor those who fought against tyranny and oppression. We also commemorate the most vivid expression of the Baltic nations' desire for freedom . On 23 August 1989 two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stood hand in hand in the Baltic Way from Vilnius through Riga to Tallinn in order to demand the restoration of their independence, which had been robbed by the Soviet regime. Our peaceful aspiration for freedom was stronger than Soviet might, because justice was on our side,» the three heads of government said.