Setos Protest Truncated Map of Estonia (3)

Published: 04.01.2011 11:04

Photo: ERR

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Ethnic Setos say they are not satisfied with the official outline of Estonia depicted on the euro coins as it leaves off the half of the southeastern region annexed by Stalin in the 1940s and never returned.

"It does not show the areas on the other side of the Narva River, most of the Seto region is missing," said Seto community leader Ahto Raudoja. "This is the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic border. If currency is a symbol that should introduce culture or history, it is currently incomplete." 

 
There is a cognitive dissonance at the tourism information centre in Värska, a Seto town: prices are in euros but some of the merchandise - such as a board game that "takes" visitors to eastern Seto villages - intimates a united region.
 
The complaints about the country's altered silhouette were first aired six years ago, long before the euro changeover or a new border treaty with Russia were on the horizon.
 
Winner of Estonia's euro coin design competition Lembit Lõhmus said he altered the initial design slightly, but that his intention was never to draw the post-Tartu peace treaty borders. 
 
In the Tartu Peace Treaty, Russia recognized the country's 1920 borders "for ever," but the new border treaty signed but not ratified by Russia recognizes the de facto boundary. 

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Comments (3)

  • Level-headed

    04.01.2011 11:34

    I'd say Ahto Raudoja's a few months too late in whining about this. The euro coin design with Estonia on it has only been publicly available for, well, a very long time. And at this point, not many people, if any at all, want that little tiny chunk of Estonia back from Russia anyhow. Raudoja's logic, like his construction sites, is currently incomplete.

  • happy new year

    04.01.2011 15:47

    not that i feel my input would have mattered, as I'm an outside estonian, but i personally was wondering myself (as a canadian-estonian) why they didn't put kalevipoeg or even the lions emblem such as on the estonia kroon, on the euro coin, because of border issues. feels a little weird using the coins, have to admit.

  • Kremlin bandits!

    08.01.2011 23:23

    Restore Estonia's legal borders! - We shall not rest until the Russian bandit who has so far grabbed land from each and every one of its neighbors (except China, of course) restores such lands.... - The most recent of such plunderings are Abkhasia and Southern Ossetia in Georgia and, of course, one-fifth of Azerbaijan territory in Ngoro-Garabakh, together with Armenian warlords in 1991. - END INTERNATIONAL PIRACY BY THE KREMLIN!