Estonian MP opposes ban on Estonian Orthodox Church

Estonian Member of the European Parliament from the EKRE party Mart Helme criticized the policy of the republic’s government towards the Estonian Orthodox Church. Helme believes that the amendments to the Law on Churches and Parishes, which are planned to restrict and actually ban the activities of the EPC, do not comply with the norms of European legislation and directly threaten the national security of Estonia. He said this during a briefing in Riigikogu, according to Uute Uudiste.

“In my opinion, the adoption of this bill in this chamber — and even worse, if it is adopted — will be the most direct threat to Estonia’s security, because it will enable the Russian side to stir up its numerous and well-organized fifth column against the Estonian state, to bring it to the streets and to question the territorial integrity of the Estonian state, because there is no doubt, as Putin has clearly said, that Narva is a Russian city and should belong to Russia. Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said six months ago that the Baltic states had exhausted their sovereignty and that Russia should build its relations with them on this basis. And if we now imagine that such a very important and civilizationally fundamental issue for the Russian people as the Russian Orthodox Church is essentially banned here by the Estonian authorities, this can have — and I’m not saying it will have — very, very serious consequences for our security, up to the point where we lose Ida-Viru County,” — the deputy said.

He added that the Estonian Orthodox Church cannot be held responsible for the personal position of Patriarch Kirill, which is what the GOC is accused of. He recalled that those who are going to ban the Estonian Church today, on the contrary, in the 90s, helped the Russian Church to establish its position in Estonia.

“I would ask you to answer this question, what is your position, and not to come here with this demagoguery that Patriarch Kirill approved the aggression in Ukraine. Yes, we know all this. But Kirill does not live in Estonia, Kirill does not act in Estonia, and these unfortunate nuns — it is extremely inconvenient that the Speaker of the Riigikogu did not find a minute to receive them, to accept their petition and to draw attention to such a — I repeat — very important security issue. I am aware of all this! And I will, of course, remind you that you and some of your coalition partners contributed to — and, in fact, our colleagues from the opposition in Izam also participated in — a situation where we have the Russian Orthodox Church, we have the Pyukhtitsa and Nevsky cathedrals, which are church institutions that are directly subordinate to the patriarch, the patriarch of Moscow. This happened at a time — and I remember this story, I think, better than you do — when, under the leadership of Mr. Ilves, we pursued a policy of positive inclusion of Russia. And then we thought that since Patriarch Alexy is an Estonian, we could give him this so that he would not do us any harm. But people are mortal. And now, oh, miraculously, there is a new patriarch, and he is going to do evil,” — Helme added.

Earlier, we reported that the Estonian government again refused to register the new legal name of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Despite the fact that, at the request of the authorities, the EOC changed its name for the second time by submitting the relevant documents to the registration authorities, this was not enough for the republic’s authorities. The state is not satisfied with the fact that the new name “Estonian Christian Orthodox Church” allegedly “misleads as to the purpose and scope of its activities, as it creates a false impression that it is a Church that unites all Orthodox believers in Estonia.”