Paris, June 29, 2024 – Addressing the Free Iran 2024 World Summit in Paris, former President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid expressed solidarity with the Iranian people and condemned the world’s tyrants, who have been colliding and working together to suppress their own population. Kaljulaid highlighted the importance of isolating tyrants like the Iranian regime, who threaten global security.
The former Estonian President shared her personal experience growing up under occupation, empathizing with the struggles of Iranian children who are deprived of basic freedoms and dreams. She emphasized the importance of the Ten-Point Plan proposed by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) which calls for fundamental human and political rights, enabling the Iranian people to build a nation governed by the rule of law.
She acknowledged the unique challenges faced by the Iranian people, oppressed by an Iranian regime rather than external forces, and affirmed the international community’s support for their struggle. Kaljulaid stressed the need for Iranian children, especially girls, to have the freedom to dream and realize their aspirations in a country they can trust and love.
The full text of former President Kersti Kaljulaid’s speech follows:
Dear Maryam Rajavi, dear Iranian people here and elsewhere in the world. My country was occupied by a tyrant, by the beast who went by a civilian name Soviet Union. Now we know that beast better, Russia, Putin’s Russia. These tyrants need to stop, Putin has to be stopped in Ukraine, and that way he will not also be able to be a danger to the Iranian people. Because you know there are so many of these tyrants in the world but they stick together, they do stick together, they borrow each other rockets, they give each other drones and they kill their own people and they kill the people everywhere.
I think the rest of the world should actually do better to isolate those people. We should not talk to those heads of state. Appeasement indeed as has been said so many times today is one of the nastiest words in the English language. No, we should not appease those tyrants because that way they gang together on the free and democratic nations including the freedom and democracy-loving people of their own country.
.@KerstiKaljulaid: "What is the hope of the Iranian people? If you read the Ten-Point Plan, it is simple. They want human rights, a country they can love, rule of law set by the Iranian people."#MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024https://t.co/NKDC3CQduD
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 29, 2024
I know how today Iranian children growing up feel because I grew up under occupation. When you are two or three it doesn’t matter but already when you are five then you realize it’s not worth dreaming because these dreams can never be realized. Today, little girls in Iran cannot dream of dressing the way they want to dream. They cannot dream of being similar or if they want to be different from most of their friends. They cannot dream of studying and becoming who they really want to be. They cannot dream of contributing for their country, to their community, and to their family.
And that is why and I fully understand it, they stand up for their rights because even if they cannot even stand up for their dreams, they cannot stand up for their right to have hope. What is the hope of the Iranian people if we read the Ten Point Plan? It’s something very simple. The basic human rights, the basic political rights and why do people need the political rights? It is so obvious. They want to make their country what they so love. Not only the country they love but the country they can trust because there will be a rule of law.
Rule of law set by Iranian people. And my last words relate to the fact that it must be even harder for Iranian people than it is for nations occupied and I really cannot start to begin to feel the way you must feel when people of your own nation, your own culture, and your own religion, not outside of the process, do this to you. This is far harder.
We stand with free Iran. There was a pretty big Estonian parliament delegation already standing with all the other parliamentary delegations and we stand for the right for every child, for every girl in Iran to have their dreams, to realize their dreams, and to live in the country which they not only love but trust.
Thank you.