SPEECH
BY PRESIDENT MARTTI AHTISAARI AT A MEETING IN
JYVÄSKYLÄ TO COMMEMORATE THE END OF THE COLD WAR,
8.11.1999
Ten years ago the
walls came down. The symbols of a divided Europe were
relinquished to the scrap heap of history. An era
which had strained all the nations of Europe and
deprived some of their independence came to an end.
The change was
dramatic but was also proof that we should never lose
faith in justice. Poland and the Poles never got used
to their Cold War straitjacket, so they were also
among the first to cast it off. The people of the
Baltic states were able to preserve their strong
sense of nationality in spite of occupation. With its
help they managed to reestablish the independence
which they had lost half a century before.
Looking back we can be
grateful that changes in fact took place quite
peacefully in these countries. Subsequent development
in Europe has shown that worse things could have
happened.
***
I am glad that the
heads of our neighbouring countries in the Baltic
region, Presidents Meri, Kwasniewski, Adamkus and
Vike-Freiberga, have accepted Jyväskylä's
invitation and are here among us.
President Lennart Meri
of Estonia had a colourful and varied life before he
became the head of state. Few presidents' profiles
can say that their subject began his career as a
lumberman and also worked as a professional potato
peeler. I doubt that these experiences were key in
leading Lennart Meri to become the head of state. But
they were in any case part of his life experiences.
Considering his father's diplomatic career, the fact
that his family was exiled to Siberia and his own
work in the theatre and as a writer, Lennart Meri
combines in his own person two periods of Estonian
independence and the Soviet period which came between
them.
Of the five of us,
President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland is the
only one who was born after the Second World War, in
1954. He is also the only one of us who has lived his
whole life in his home country. President Kwasniewski
is likewise the only one of us who has participated
in politics for practically all of his adult life. He
has not only followed the development which began
with detente in the late 1960s and early 1970s and
which gradually led to the break-up of the socialist
camp, but has himself taken part in the changes of
the last decades, since 1995 as the President of
Poland.
As a youth, President
Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania took part in the struggle
to preserve his country's independence during the
Second World War. He finished school in Germany after
the war and then moved to the United States with his
family in the late 1940s. He performed his life work
in the United States in significant environmental
administration tasks, up to 1997. During the decades
which he spent in the United States President Adamkus
actively participated in Lithuanian cultural and
political organizations. In this way he did not allow
the five decades spent outside his home country to
estrange him from his own language and culture.
Europe's rugged
journey in this century is also exemplified by the
life of President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia.
Born just before the Second World War, she spent her
childhood in refugee camps in Germany, went to school
in French Morocco and completed her university
studies in Canada. At the University of Montreal she
served as a professor of psychology up to last year.
After retiring from this job she returned to Latvia
and was elected President in June of this year.
President Vike-Freiberga has had to spend practically
her whole life outside the country where she was
born. Her connection with Latvia was never broken,
however. This is also demonstrated by her extensive
written works, in which Latvian folk songs play an
important part.
Finland's fate in this
century's upheavals differs somewhat from the stages
experienced by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
We have been able to preserve our independence and
freedom since independence was declared in 1917. Our
Constitution and political system have remained in
force without interruption for over eight decades.
Nowadays this national property is taken for granted
to such an extent that we do not always appreciate
its priceless value.
The end of the Cold
War also changed Finland's position, however. We are
no longer on the dividing line but in the middle of
Europe. Our citizens can build links with their
friends in the south, north, east and west. As a
nation we can also perform work in the European Union
for the development of the entire continent.
Ten years after the
fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe is still in a state
of upheaval. The Cold War division of Europe is a
thing of the past. The bills left by the Cold War -
economic, political, environmental and human - will
still have to be paid for a long time, however. In
building a new Europe there are few areas in which we
can start with a clean slate, without the burdens of
the past.
In my opinion one of
the most unfortunate and toughest relics of the Cold
War is the way of thinking which was spawned by the
post-war period. The point of departure was largely
the splitting of Europe and the view that one half
could only prosper at the expense of the other. This
wary attitude towards one's neighbours and the
feeling that their gain was one's own loss did not
provide the right basis for building the future. It
was a millstone tying us down in the past.
It is quite human for
Europeans, like other people, to act on the basis of
models from the past. We know the past but have only
an inkling of the future. We should nevertheless
strive to see that out actions are not motivated out
of past fears and suspicions but out of faith in the
future and confidence in our own opportunities.
Finland, Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are united today by
participation in multiform European cooperation. In
each country we wish to ensure our own possibilities
to share in the benefits of integrating Europe's
prosperity and security.
One of the most
visible signs of the end of the Cold War has been the
opening of borders, the fall of the Iron Curtain. The
process which led to the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe also helped create the
preconditions for this development. Its effects were
not direct but were far-reaching over the long term.
Our mutual interaction in Europe is presently
facilitated by the fact that we do not need to shout
to one another over ideological fences.
The significance of
the opening of borders can be seen concretely in
Helsinki, including the harbour outside the
presidential palace. Nowadays numerous ferries leave
that harbour daily on their way to Tallinn. Millions
of passengers cross the Gulf of Finland each year.
This tourist traffic is one of the factors uniting
Europe. I hope that in the future we will have
similar services to all the countries in the Baltic
region.
The opening of borders
also brings with it negative phenomena such as the
spread of crime from one country to another. We do
not wish to erect new walls in any direction,
however, but to increase cooperation, including the
prevention of crime. The European Union's external
border is and will continue to be an area of
cooperation. When the EU enlarges, the sphere of EU
cooperation will likewise be expanded.
In addition to the
Baltic, the countries which are represented here
today are linked by a common neighbour, Russia. -
Even Poland and Lithuania have Kaliningrad as a
neighbour.
Finland will soon have
five years of experience of sharing a border with
Russia as a member of the EU. Dealings between the
Union and Russia have received established forms. We
have been able to conduct a dialogue even on the most
difficult political issues, with Kosovo and Chechnya
as the most recent examples. Through its partnership
and cooperation agreement and the Union's common
strategy towards Russia - the first of its kind - the
EU has demonstrated its desire to develop mutual
relations with Russia. The initiative concerning the
EU's northern dimension also concerns the future
development of relations between the Union and
Russia. With all that has been accomplished and
planned, the EU is strengthening its relation to
Russia while preparing for enlargement.
***
One of the beliefs of
the Cold War was that the world or at least Europe
had received more or less its final form after the
Second World War. People began to regard the division
of Europe and Germany as a natural and permanent
state of affairs. Security was maintained with
unchanging structures. That security was based on
power politics. Now we understand that security
cannot be achieved by limiting someone else's
freedom.
The pace of change has
been fast in the past decade. The renewal of economic
and social structures has not always proceeded
painlessly. For this reason it is not surprising that
not everyone is satisfied with the way the world has
changed at such a pace. The world and Europe now seem
quite unfinished compared with the fixed and
seemingly permanent structures of the Cold War.
The countries in the
Baltic region still have good reason to be pleased
with the change which has been taking place. The
future for which we are working is based on states'
freedom of choice and cooperation. Now that we can
develop our own conditions and Europe on this basis,
I believe that ten years from now the end of the Cold
War will be celebrated in an even happier spirit.
