Military parade in honor of Independence Day was held in Estonia – RIA Novosti

TALLINN, February 24 – RIA Novosti, Nikolai Adashkevich. The main event of the celebration of the 97th anniversary of the independence of Estonia on February 24 was the last in Narva military parade, which was attended by more than 1.4 thousand servicemen and modern military equipment.

The festivities on the occasion of Independence Day, traditionally held alternately in different cities in Estonia. At this time the center of events was predominantly Russian-speaking city of Narva in the north-east of the country.

The parade took Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who led the parade commander of the Defence Forces of the country, General Riho Terras, who in his speech read out a passage in Russian from a poem about Narva Russian poet Igor Northerner, who lived and worked in Estonia. “The ancient city! Swedish town! Hardworking and easy! Captivity your child smile and your beard gray” – read Terrace.

In the parade was attended by defense forces, militias volunteer paramilitary organization “Kaiseliit” (Union Defense), Police Academy cadets accompanied by the orchestra of the Defence Forces and the Department of Police and Border Guard, as well as military units from the United States, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands.

The column of military equipment made armored vehicles Sisu XA-180 and XA-188, 122-millimeter howitzer 122H63 and 155-millimeter howitzer FH-70. The public has been demonstrated anti-aircraft missiles short range MISTRAL, which include rockets, radar, communications and control system anti MAPATS and MILAN 2. In addition, the parade was attended by foreign armored vehicles – Dutch CV90 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, American Stryker.

It was planned that in the conclusion of the parade over the area fly fighters Eurofighter Spanish Air Force, which currently protect the airspace of the Baltic countries and stationed at an air base near Tallinn Amari, but bad weather conditions did not allow the aircraft to take off .

In the evening on February 24 Ilves and his wife Evelin Ilves will receive guests in the Jõhvi Concert Hall on the Independence Day of Estonia.