Language Research

European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (November 5, 1992)

Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities signed on February 1, 1995, enacted on February 1, 1998.

European Convention on Nationality (November 6, 1997 Strasbourg)

Updated (June 2005)

SETU PEOPLE AGAINST A NEW ESTONIAN-RUSSIAN BORDER TREATY

On May 18, 2005, Estonia and Russia signed a border treaty in Moscow. The border between the two countries was not fully agreed upon for years. In 1940, Estonia was annexed to the Soviet Union, while the previous Estonian-Russian border was defined by the 1920 Tartu peace treaty.

According to the new treaty, the border between Estonia and Russia remains the same as it was in the Soviet times. It means that the historic region East Setumaa, or the Pechori Region in Russian, the land inhabited by the Setu ethnic group, becomes part of Russia. In the period between 1920 and 1940, this area was a part of the Estonian Republic. The Estonian Setu require that all Setu lands should be in Estonia as it was under the Tartu treaty.

The Setu people speak a unique dialect of Estonian, which has been influenced by Russian. Unlike Estonians, they are mostly Orthodox. Currently they live on both sides of the border, but mostly on the Estonian territory. Only around 200 to 400 families live in the Russian Pechori Region. Many Estonian Setu have made claims for their ancestors' farms in East Setumaa and demanded their restoration under the terms of the Tartu peace treaty.

On May 9 the Setu Congress organized a picket near the Estonian parliament (Riigikogu), protesting against the new border treaty. They handed over a petition with 7,000 signatures where they pointed out that the Setu language and culture are in danger in Russia. However, it is interesting that the protest came from the Setu who live in Estonia and not from those living in Russia.

Source: Eurolang News, Tallinn, May 17, 2005, Alexander Shegedin, http://www.eurolang.net/

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Updated (July 2005)

SETU PEOPLE AT THE CENTER OF AN ESTONIAN-RUSSIAN BORDER DEBATE

At the end of June Russia decided to revoke its signature to the agreements signed in Moscow in May and thus suddenly the Setu people have been caught in the middle of ongoing controversy over the Estonian-Russian border.

At present the Setu are divided by the existing border, which exists 'de facto' and has to be confirmed 'de jure' by a new border treaty. However, Russia has voided the new treaty because of the Estonian reference to the Tartu Peace Treaty (1920). According to that treaty, all Setu territory was part of Estonia. In 1945, after delineating the border between the Estonian and Russian Soviet Republic, Estonia lost 5 percent of its territory to Russia.

The Setu Congress, founded in Estonia, is against the recent border treaty. In May and June the Setu held several protests in Tallinn and handed over to the Estonian parliament speaker, Ene Ergma, a petition with 12,000 signatures against treaty ratification.

In 2007, a special project on Setu territory is planned to be launched under the aegis of UNESCO. Modest Kolerov, the Head of President Putin's Directorate for Interregional Relations and Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries, said that the Russian Federation supports the cultural-linguistic identity of the Setu people (a Setu-medium school in Pechori (Pskov Region) will be set up in September and there are Orthodox Setu-medium churches and a private museum of Setu culture). Kolerov underlined that the cultural and linguistic rights of Setu must be guaranteed in Estonia as well as in Russia.

Recently, the Setu issue has also provoked a conflict between the acting President of Estonia, Arnold Ruutel and his predecessor from 1992, Lennart Meri, who was accused of a failed opportunity to conclude a more favorable treaty with Russia. Ruutel claims that he met with the then Russian President Yeltsin and obtained an agreement that the border could lie more to the east, leaving almost all Setu villages under the Estonian rule; however, the former President Meri and the Prime Minister, Mart Laar, declined to negotiate. Based on this oral Ruutel-Yeltsin agreement all fourteen Setu villages, which are now part of the Russian Pskov Region, should be in Estonia.

Source: Eurolang News, Tallinn, July 4, 2005, by Alexander Shegedin, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=5083

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