<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Europa is a continent of cultures and nations created
\nby the Greek and Latin world and by Christianity afterwards. It is the most
\nwidely-accepted definition of Europe as it was laid out by most of those who
\nwrote about Europe, in a bid to decipher its secrets. In time, the
\naforementioned cultural values made it possible for the geographical distances
\nto shrink. Nations lying quite afar from one another or even at the farther end
\nof the map discovered themselves mutually and even came closer to one another,
\nwhenever historical circumstances allowed it. Even though they were part of the
\nsame Eastern European Soviet Bloc for 45 years, Romania and Estonia belong to
\ndifferent geo-cultural areas, to South-eastern and Northern Europe,
\nrespectively. Between 1500 and 1878, Romania was under the influence of the
\nOttoman Empire. In turn, Estonia, between 1560 and 1710 was part of Poland and
\nSweden, and part of Tsarist Russia, between 1710 and 1918. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Throughout the years, Romanians’ contacts with the
\nEstonians were scarce, and that for a good reason. Very few people travelled
\nfrom one place to another before the emergence of the railroad in the 19th
\ncentury. The privilege of traveling was for a limited number of professional
\ncategories. They were the merchants, the diplomats and the military. To that
\nend, the mutual knowledge of the nations was superficial or existed hardly at
\nall. A century of Romanian – Estonian diplomatic relations has been marked as of
\nlate. Doru Liciu is Head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s diplomatic archives. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Doru Liciu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As early as the mid-19th
\ncentury, Romanian travellers reached Estonia, while Estonian travellers reached
\nthe Romanian Principalities, via various organizations belonging to the former
\nRussian empire. Once the Russian Empire was dismantled, Estonia proclaimed its
\nindependence in 1918, an undertaking Romania acknowledged immediately
\nafterwards. In 1921, the diplomatic relations were decided, between the two
\ncountries. Contacts between the two countries dated from the previous
\nhistorical period, even earlier, from World War One, when part of the Russian
\ntroops that fought in Romania were made of soldiers and officers coming from
\nthe Baltic countries.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There was indeed a Romanian personality who, even
\nbefore World War One, had strong ties with Estonia. He was Mari Ion Pelivan
\n(1876 – 1954), a legal adviser, a columnist and a Bessarabian deputy with a
\nseat in the Parliament of then Greater Romania. Pelivan would graduate from the
\nUniversity of Tartu’s Law School in 1903. The post-World War One period, known
\nas the Inter-war period in Romania, brought the two nations closer to one
\nanother. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, the most significant binding element for the two
\nnations was the then Soviet Union’s aggressive presence. The newly-instated
\ncommunist power in Moscow never ceased to claim territories that were once part
\nof Tsarist Russia, but which the Soviet Union had relinquished, in the wake of
\nLenin’s decision whereby each nation on the Russian territory should have the
\nright to decide their own fate. Estonia,
\njust like the two other Baltic countries, Lithuania and Latvia, was at that
\ntime building bridges with everybody. One such bridge linked Estonia to
\nBucharest. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Doru Liciu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Subsequently, the two embassies were
\nopened and both were functioning, in the inter-war period, in the capitals of
\nthe two countries. For quite a long time, services as part of the Romanian
\nembassy in Estonia were provided by a resident minister in Warsaw, and from
\nthere, the most relevant pieces of information about Estonia were conveyed.
\nLater, embassies were opened, in Tallin but also in Bucharest. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Through the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact or the
\nHitler-Stalin pact signed on August 23, 1939, Eastern Europe was divided
\nbetween Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Ob June 16, then the USSR issued
\nEstonia an ultimatum, demanding its consent for the Soviet army to be deployed
\nthere, and for a Pro-Soviet government to be instated. The Estonian government
\nrejected the proposal and the following day, June 17, the USSR occupied the
\ncountry and instated the communist regime. On August 16, 1940, Estonia was
\nannexed to the USSR. In the same vein, nine days later, on June 26 and June 27,
\n1940, the Soviet Union issued two ultimatums to Romania, demanding the
\nretrocession of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Regimes of terror reigned
\nsupreme in those countries for the following 45 years. 1940 is the year when
\nthe Romanian-Estonian relations ceased. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Doru Liciu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately,
\nthe aftermath of all that was just as we know it, the Baltic States were
\nbrutally occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, the same year when Romania had
\nto cede part of its historical territory, which until 1812 had no connection
\nwhatsoever with, and was in no way part of then the Russian Empire. During the
\nSoviet regime, there was no state-level contact, Estonia, as a republic, became
\npart and parcel of the Soviet Union. We all know that from Estonia,
\nintellectuals would come to Romania, as well as traditional ensembles, fine
\nartists who had their works on display in the country. Likewise, in
\nEstonia, rather seldom, but somewhat regularly, Romanians were present, coming
\nfrom various walks of life.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once the communist regime was toppled in 1989 and once
\nEstonia gained its independence in 1991, Romania resumed it relations with
\nEstonia. Bilateral relations were enhanced especially when both states
\ngained their NATO and EU accession.<\/p>\n
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One hundred years of Romanian-Estonian relations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":90486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[32986,31270,45655,32644,29774],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-accession","tag-diplomacy","tag-geopolitics","tag-independence","tag-relations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n