Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Other Concert

In his Window on Eurasia blog, Paul Goble writes about a concert that was held in Tallinn, Estonia, last week to celebrate the anniversary of the restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991 and to declare solidarity with the people of Georgia in the face of Russian aggression:

Unlike the Tskhinvali event, what happened in the Estonian capital has attracted little attention. It deserves to be better known.

More than 120,000 people assembled in the Song Festival grounds on the outskirts of Tallinn, to listen to Estonian and Georgian music groups, to wave Estonian and Georgian flags, and to listen to and cheer an address by Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (rus.postimees.ee/200808/glavnaja/estonija/39344.php, including a link to video of the event).

The Georgian singers expressed their gratitude to the support Estonia has given Tbilisi – Ilves joined the presidents of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in travelling to Georgia following the Russian invasion – and the Estonians in the audience cheered the Georgians. But the most important part of the concert in terms of its message was Ilves’ speech.

Read it all.

No comments: