Word: narva
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...elderly couple, ethnic Russians afraid to identify themselves beyond their first names Ivan and Natalya, walk slowly across the bridge that links the Estonian city of Narva to the Russian community of Ivan-Gorod. They used to make the trip easily, before the break-up of the Soviet Union turned the Narva River into the official boundary between two independent countries. Above the huge medieval fortress that guards the west bank flies the Estonian flag. On the eastern shore, a rugged rampart displays the Russian tricolor. On the bridge below, lines of pedestrians and cars move slowly between customs posts...
Reaction to the aliens act has been swift and shrill. In the northeast border region around Narva, where ethnic Russians constitute 95% of the population, local Russians plan to hold a plebiscite this week on the question of regional autonomy -- a move the Estonians have denounced as "unconstitutional." Western governments have voiced concern about growing discrimination against minorities. But the harshest rebuke has come from Moscow, where Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev denounced the law as "quiet apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing in white gloves...
...Lennart Meri consulted with European legal experts. On their advice, Meri refused to sign the aliens act into law and last week called the Estonian parliament back into an emergency session, where more fuel was added to the fire when legislators proposed holding an emergency session to discuss suspending Narva's city council. Should this happen, tensions could get out of hand. As Vladimir Khomyakov, a Narva city-council member, brusquely put it, "This is our homeland; we have no other. The only way out now is autonomy. Otherwise, there will...