|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| COMMUNIST INDEPENDENCE IN CHISINAU (27.08.2007) |
| (2007-08-27) |
| Last updated: 2007-08-30 14:01 EET |
“A critical moment in Romania’s relations with the Republic of Moldova” – headline the newspapers issued in Bucharest on Monday, the day when the small, former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population celebrates 16 years since it proclaimed independence from Moscow. On August 27th 1991, Parliament in Chisinau unanimously passed a declaration ending half a century of Soviet occupation. Shortly after the failed neo-Bolshevik putsch in Moscow against President Mihail Gorbachev, Moldova abandoned its status of a member state to the Soviet Union, becoming a subject of international law and a member of the United Nations.
With a predominantly Romanian speaking population to this day, Romania’s new eastern neighbour was soon dubbed by Bucharest “the second Romanian state”. In fact, Romania was the first country to recognize Chisinau’s independence, saying Moldova had taken “a decisive step forward, in the effort to peacefully eliminate all consequences of a territorial theft, running counter to the interest and rights of the Romanian people.”
In the following years, the initial euphoria gradually vanished turned into lucidity and even into reciprocal hostility. The authority of the young Moldovan state was from the very beginning undermined by the virulent pro-Russian separatism manifested in the eastern region of Transdniester. Less than a year since Moldova proclaimed its independence, Transdniester de facto, escaped Chisinau’s control, following an armed conflict which ended with the intervention of the Russian army, on the side of Transdniester.
On the territory that they continued to administer, successive governments in Chisinau did not manage to promote a successful transition towards a market economy. Still depending on Moscow for energy, without having a market for its exports, mainly farm produce, and merely miming privatization, the Republic of Moldova ended up being Europe’s poorest country.
Exasperated by the democrats’ inefficiency, in 2001, what was left of the electorate after massive migration waves towards more prosperous countries brought back in power the pro-Moscow communists. Their leader and the current Moldovan head-of-state, communist Vladimir Voronin, continues to be daunted by the fear that any kind of Romanian solidarity is actually imperialism in disguise. He shows no hesitation in declaring his gratitude to the so-called liberating Red Army of the 1940s. He is also very reticent towards Bucharest, saying that in 1918 it forcedly annexed a Moldovan territory. And this, in the context in which the Romanian military had actually been called by their Moldovan kins to intervene, because of the chaos created by the Bolshevik revolution.
Exasperated that hundreds of thousands of Moldovan citizens have applied for Romanian citizenship, which they, their parents or grandparents lost during the Stalinist theft of the 1940s, the communist Moldovan leader systematically cut all bilateral communication channels. He has rejected Romania’s offer to support Moldova in getting closer to the EU. He withdrew his initial agreement on opening two new Romanian consulates, meant to reduce the number of Moldovan standing in line before the Romanian consulate in Chisinau. Additionally, the obedient police and mass-media have orchestrated a suspicious story about the consulate staff demanding bribe in exchange for granting visas.
On the verge of Moldova’s national holiday, the Romanian daily ZIUA writes, President Voronin has accused Bucharest of “paying certain people in the Republic of Moldova to promote the idea of Moldova’s union with Romania.” Analysing Moldova over the last 16 years, during its “transition from communism to communism”, the daily ROMANIA LIBERA asks a straightforward question: “what is there left to celebrate in Chisinau, when the future has died ?”
(Bogdan Matei)
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again