The Speaker of the Estonian Parliament and member of the Conservative People’s Party EKRE Henn Põlluaas said that Russia had annexed about 5% of Estonia’s territory, DW reports.
“The annexation of Estonian territories is no different from the occupation and annexation of Crimea,” Henn Põlluaas wrote on Facebook, adding that “Estonia has no territorial claims to Russia,” but wants “our” territories back.
The Estonian parliament speaker was outraged by an interview with Sergei Belyayev, Director of the Second European Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published on RIA Novosti’s website. In this interview Belyayev called the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 “inoperative” several times.
“Non-recognition of the Tartu Peace Treaty essentially means non-recognition of the Republic of Estonia. This is the birth certificate of our country and one of the most important foundations of our statehood,” wrote Henn Põlluaas.
According to the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty, signed by the RSFSR and independent Estonia, a part of the territories that are now part of Russia is transferred to Estonia. These are parts of the Kingisepp and Slantsevo districts of the Leningrad region, as well as the Pechora region.
In 1940, the USSR annexed Estonia. In 1944, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR transferred part of the territory of the Estonian SSR to the RSFSR. In 1957, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR again corrected the borders of the RSFSR and the Estonian SSR — this time on the basis of a small mutual exchange of territories.
Due to the disputes over the final borders of the two countries, the Russian-Estonian border treaty has not yet been signed.
“In 2005, a package of border treaties was already signed, and Russia’s signature under these treaties had to be revoked due to the fact that the Estonian parliament introduced a number of political formulations in the text of the law on ratification, referring to the Tartu Peace Treaty, which is not in force and which actually presupposes territorial claims to the Russian Federation,” said in a recent interview Sergei Belyayev, representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
