Estonia takes down a Soviet-era monument because of public safety
Estonia takes down a Soviet-era monument because of public safety
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Denmark: The Estonian government announced on Tuesday that it has decided to demolish a Soviet-era monument from a public area in a border town in the country's Russian-speaking region. According to the Prime Minister, the monument is a threat to public order and should be removed.

According to Prime Minister Kaza Kailas, the move was taken in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine because "no one wants our militant and hostile neighbor to see tension in our home." "We will not give Russia a chance to sabotage Estonia's peace by using the past."

According to Kailas, they did not want to give Russia a chance to "open old wounds".

A replica of a T-34 tank with a red Soviet star sits atop a monument in honor of Soviet soldiers who lost their lives trying to liberate Estonia from Nazi Germany outside Estonia's third largest city, Narva. A large Russian-speaking home community.

According to the Estonian broadcaster ERR, the Soviet tank replica will be brought to the Estonian War Museum in Vimsey, north of Tallinn.

The city, which has 57,500 inhabitants and mainly speaks Russian, is located about 210 kilometers (130 mi) east of Tallinn on the Russian border. The Narva River separates the city from the Russian city of Ivangorod.

On Tuesday the entire memorial was being taken down, and according to Interior Minister Laurie Lanemets, "the operation would be done in a dignified manner, for example, flowers and candles placed on the monuments would be taken to the cemetery, not thrown in the dustbin." Gave." According to Estonian broadcaster ERR, dismantling was in progress.

After the removal of flowers and candles from the monument, photos posted on the ERR website show Estonian military personnel and large machinery moving the structure.

According to Kailas, the Common Grave of World War II Victims in Narva will receive a neutral grave marker and will continue to serve as a respectable place for their memorial.

"Russia wanted to use monuments commemorating the criminal occupation regime to fuel tensions in Estonian society," Russian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu claimed in a government statement.

Crowds soon gathered around the monument to object to the removal plan after the Narva city council decided to take down the monument on 15 August.

In the same statement, Lenmets described the maintenance of public order for the city of Narva officials as "a great and complex issue" given the current circumstances.

The government announced on Tuesday that a total of seven Soviet-era monuments would also be removed.

Since gaining its independence in 1991, the 1.3 million-person former Soviet republic has been embroiled in conflicts over the treatment of Russians, most of whom immigrated to Estonia during the 50 years of Soviet rule.

Riots broke out in 2007, when another Soviet war memorial, the so-called bronze statue of Tallinn, was removed from a city park. According to Russian-speaking Estonians, the removal of the monument erased their history, resulting in one death and more than 1,000 arrests. Later, the statue was shifted to a cemetery for veterans.

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