Russian Party Hits Back at Occupation Denial Claim
The Russian Party in Estonia (RPE) has issued a statement saying that its leaders, Stanislav Tsherepanov and Gennadi Afanasjev, had not denied the fact of the Soviet occupation and had not given an assessment of it.
The statement comes after IRL MP Andres Herkel posted an article on his blog accusing the two men of calling for a moratorium on the discussion of the issue and paraphrasing an opinion purportedly expressed by Afanasjev that the occupation was a question of belief and not a documented fact.
Herkel has called on the Social Democratic Party, which is on the verge of a merger with the RPE, to clarify its stance on the occupation issue.
In their statement, the RPE leaders said that any evaluation of Estonia's past should be undertaken in accordance with Parliament's 2002 declaration, which states that the crimes of Germany's Nazi regime had been condemned by international authorities, but that the similar crimes of the Soviet Union had not.
“We believe that the basis for judgment of the communist regime of the USSR could be put into force by a court ruling analogous to that which was carried out in relation to the German National Socialist regime. Evaluation of these crimes should not stem from the interpretations of various politicians, especially if they connect the communist regime to the Russian people. This cannot be a matter of opinion. [Ethnic] Russian people are not and cannot be occupiers or descendants of occupiers,” the statement said.
Tsherepanov, who is to be the Social Democratic Party's vice chairman, said that his underlying message was that the past shouldn't be used for political infighting.
“We can talk about tragic historical events, but they should not be used for dividing the society and pitting various nationalities against one another,” he said.
Steve Roman