Resolution
of the international conference
Small Peoples of Eastern Europe
at the End of the 2^nd Millennium

Otepää, Pühajärve, on October 13, 1996

The international conference held by the Tartu Coordination Centre of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the Pan-European Union of Estonia, having considered the general issues, supporting the principle of the Pan-European movement that "the borders of Europe lay where freedom comes to an end…", and being aware of the conditions of small peoples of Eastern Europe in political, social and ecological spheres, as well as in the areas of culture, information and language, believes that:

(1) development of democracy in Eastern Europe and realisation by the small peoples of their basic right to self-determination are inseparably linked;

(2) the UNPO, as well as other public and political structures of Europe, should actively promote the negotiations between the Chechen Republic Ichkeria and the Russian Federation, acting as the guarantor of their successful continuation and completion;

(3) the future of Europe in the beginning of the third millennium must represent the community of peoples possessing equal rights, with the right of small peoples to self-determination codified in the system of European and international law;

(4) the European (Eurasian) area must be formed on the multilingual, multicultural and multiconfessional basis; the variety of cultures is the all-European property;

(5) international non-governmental organisations and political structures in Europe can act more effectively to promote distribution of non-biased information on the problems of post-Soviet unrepresented peoples and to continue protecting the rights and freedoms, justified demands and interests of the Abkhazian, Bashkir, Chuvash, Circassian, Kumyk, Ruthenian, Seto, Uigur and other peoples, rendering them support in their aspiration to self-determination;

(6) the unrepresented peoples should search more actively for new forms of unity on the ethnic, regional and international basis, seeking to raise the level of national self-consciousness;

(7) the international solidarity is the major prerequisite of the process of subsequent decolonization and self-determination of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the guarantee of their prospects for the better future.