Radio România Internațional

Tag: Bessarabia

  • Restored Romanian monuments in Bessarabia

    Restored Romanian monuments in Bessarabia

     

    On March 27, 1918, Bessarabia, stretching between rivers Prut and Dniester, united with Romania after it had been annexed by Russia in 1812 following the Russo-Ottoman war. Thus, after more than 100 years, a territorial theft that had torn Bessarabia from its state tradition, was being repaired. The Russian occupation of Bessarabia meant, especially after 1830, a policy of promoting Russians in an area of ​​conflict with the Ottoman Empire. After 22 years, in June 1940, following the agreement between Hitler and Stalin in the summer of 1939, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. In 1941, Romania would liberate it and by 1944 the life of the Bessarabians would resume its natural course.

     

    But at the end of World War II, that started in 1944, the Soviet Union would reoccupy Bessarabia, as well as the entire Central and Eastern Europe, and would impose regimes copied after its own image. Between 1945 and 1989, Soviet brutality was unleashed on the inhabitants of Bessarabia in all imaginable forms: deportations to camps and prisons, population transfers, Stalinist education, other systematic violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The extensive process of sovietization meant the creation of the new Soviet man by forgetting one’s origins and erasing the memory of past deeds.

     

    Romania was the main enemy used in the sovietization process of Bessarabia. The phrase “Romanian fascists” was present in every reference to the area west of the Prut river. Among the first victims of sovietization were the public monuments that expressed the will and feelings of the Bessarabian population representing the adherence of most Bessarabian Romanians to their identity as citizens of the Kingdom of Greater Romania. Statues and symbols of personalities of the Romanian history and culture were demolished, destroyed and replaced with statues and symbols of the Soviet occupier. The Soviet monuments expressed strength and aggression to the highest degree, as were some monuments represented by tanks with guns pointing west, towards Romania.

     

    However, as of 1991, when the Soviet Union, a true evil empire as the American President Ronald Reagan called it, collapsed, the Republic of Moldova became independent. Since then, Bessarabians are searching for their origins and are trying to return to the forms of identity of their parents and grandparents. One of the steps taken in this regard is the removal of Soviet monuments and the relocation of monuments from the times when Bessarabia was part of Romania. An exhibition of 28 restored Romanian monuments of Romanian sovereigns, heroes, soldiers and clerics, but also of contemporary cultural personalities such as the singers Doina and Ion Aldea Teodorovici, was inaugurated in Bucharest. The exhibition was also attended by Iuliana Gorea-Costin, the ambassador of the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest.

     

    Iuliana Gorea-Costin: “On the left of the Prut River, the war between light and dark is quite intense and a permanent battle is actually under way for the affirmation of our identity. It is a battle for history, for the Romanian language and literature. The square of the Great National Assembly has been occupied even for months on end. Being at the crossroads of civilizations, we, those within the same nation, need to know each other better. And at the same time, we must join our efforts to survive in this space as wise people.”

     

    Ever since 1991, civic organizations from the Republic of Moldova have undertaken actions to replace the original Romanian monuments and monuments to tell the public about the atrocities committed during the Soviet barbarism. For example, a monument relocated and consecrated in 2016, a copy of the one from the interwar period, is the “Monument of the Three Martyrs” in the capital Chisinau. It is dedicated to fighters for national identity such as the priest and writer Alexei Mateevici (1888-1917), the lawyer, journalist and singer Simion Murafa (1887-1917) and the topographic engineer Andrei Hodorogea (1878-1917). The three died in the terrible year 1917, Mateevici, 29 years old, killed by typhus, and friends Murafa, 30, and Hodorogea, 39, killed by a gang of Bolshevik criminals.

     

    After the war, the Bessarabian politician Pantelimon Halippa established a committee to erect monuments to all Unionist fighters, the three being among them. In 1923, the monument erected in memory of Mateevici, Murafa and Hodorogea was inaugurated at the initiative of the “Tombs of Fallen Heroes” Society, attended also by the French general Henri Berthelot. The three-meter high monument was crowned with the coat of arms of Romania, between an oak and a laurel branch, made of bronze. The monument was 4.35 meters long and 1.92 meters wide at the base. On the eve of the annexation of Bessarabia, in June 1940, the Romanian army detached the bas-reliefs with the faces of Alexei Mateevici and Simon Murafa and sent them to Bucharest. In 1962, the rest of the monument and the bell tower in front of the “Nativity” cathedral where it was located were blown up by the Soviet army. (EE)

  • March 27, 2024

    March 27, 2024

    Visit – The National Bank supports and encourages initiatives aimed at the development of the capital market in the Republic of Moldova, and as an institution responsible for prudential supervision and the stability of the financial market, we want to facilitate the free movement of capital and financial services, the governor of the National Bank of Moldova, Anca Dragu, said on Wednesday in Bucharest. She emphasized that these are actually chapters of negotiation for Moldova’s accession to the European Union, “chapters in which the National Bank has a leading role, so that the Republic of Moldova should enjoy prosperity and economic stability”. Romania commits and continues to commit unconditionally to supporting the European path of the Republic of Moldova, said, in turn, the speaker of the Romanian Senate, Nicolae Ciucă. They participated, on Wednesday, together with the Moldovan Prime Minister, Dorin Recean, and the head of the Moldovan Parliament, Igor Grosu, in a forum organized by the Stock Exchange, an event that promotes solid economic cooperation and the interconnection of the capital markets between the Republic of Moldova and Romania.

     

    Bessarabia – Romania is among the staunch supporters of the European future of the Republic of Moldova, as its citizens wish, the Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a message on the occasion of the Day of Bessarabia’s Union with Romania. The Romanian Cultural Institute – ICR and its representations abroad are organizing a series of cultural events to mark 106 years since this historic moment. Today, at the National Art Museum of Romania, a painting exhibition is opened that includes 100 works by artists from the Republic of Moldova, and the National Theater in Bucharest will host performances in which Romanian and Moldovan actors will participate. On March 27, 1918, the Chisinau State Council voted in favor of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania, Bessarabia being a Romanian province annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, after the Russian-Turkish war (1806-1812). This historical act opened the process of the unification of Romania, completed on December 1, 1918, through the Union of all the Romanian provinces which were then under foreign rule. 22 years later, in the summer of 1940, following an ultimatum, Stalin’s Moscow annexed both Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, territories that currently belong to the former Soviet Republics of Moldova and Ukraine, respectively.

     

    Brancusi – The Pompidou Center in Paris hosts an exhibition-event dedicated to Constantin Brâncuşi, considered the father of modern sculpture, which can be visited until July 1. Hundreds of sculptures, photographs, sketches and archival images are on display in the exhibition which includes Brâncuşi’s Workshop, the place where the great Romanian artist created and lived, alongside works borrowed from major international museums. All of Constantin Brâncuşi’s works from the Romanian heritage are exhibited, sent by the National Art Museum of Romania and the Art Museum in Craiova (southern Romania). ‘Brâncuşi is an artist who was very little exposed during his life, as he preferred to invite his contemporaries to come to his workshop. He liked to control all dimensions of the presentation of his sculptures’, explains Ariane Coulondre, curator of the exhibition, in a press release. The Brâncusi Retrospective at the Pompidou Center, the first in the last almost 30 years and the largest ever organized event, is held with the support of the Romanian Embassy in France and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

     

    Deficit – Romania’s budget deficit reached, after the first two months of the year, almost 29 billion lei (about 6 billion Euros), accounting for 1.67% of the Gross Domestic Product, show data published by the Finance Ministry. The deficit is almost double compared to the same period of last year. The Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said, however, that it would observe the 5% threshold estimated for the end of the year. The economy is self-financing and we will have the largest economic growth in Europe, the Romanian PM also said.

     

    Handball – CS Dinamo Bucharest defeated the Danish team Bjerringbro Silkeborg, score 37-34, on Tuesday evening, at home, in the first leg of the play-off of the EHF European League men’s handball competition. The second leg will take place on April 2, in Silkeborg. Trained by the Spanidh Xavi Pascual, the Romanian champions start with the first chance in the return leg to qualify for the next stage. Afterwards, the winners of the quarterfinals will play in the Final Four Tournament (semifinals and finals). The German team Fuchse Berlin is the holder of the trophy. (LS)

  • June 27, 2020 UPDATE

    June 27, 2020 UPDATE

    Coronavirus RO — The Romanian authorities on Saturday announced only 325 new cases of coronavirus infection, a lower figure than that reported on Friday, namely 411. The Strategic Communication Group shows that only 10 new deaths have been registered, which takes the death toll to 1,589. The total number of cases of infection on Romania’s territory is 26,022. At present 199 patients are in intensive care. Of the contaminated people, more than 18,530 have recovered. In this context, the Liberal PM Ludovic Orban has asked the authorities to mobilize and undertake more checks. In another development, Romanian researchers say that people who have been contaminated and recovered from COVID-19 infection are quite unlikely to get infected again. They have reached this conclusion after having analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 virus identified in Romania and which was proved to originate in Wuhan, China. Most probably the spread of the virus in Romania occurred at community level, across the country’s regions.



    US-Romania relations — The American Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has conveyed to the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu a letter on the occasion of the anniversary, this month, of 140 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and the US. A Romanian Foreign Ministry communiqué issued on Saturday writes that the message of the US official focused on bilateral cooperation meant to promote the two countries’ common interests. Mike Pompeo considers that the longstanding relation between Romanian and the US has reached its highest level and he thanked Romania for being a stalwart ally and friend of the United States. In turn, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu says that the celebration of 140 years of diplomatic relations is a good opportunity to reconfirm the durable strategic relation between Romania and the US as well as the two countries’ will to respond together to the current challenges and threats.



    Annexation — Romania, the Republic of Moldova (with a majority Romanian-speaking population) and the Diaspora are commemorating on Sunday 80 years since the annexation of the Romanian eastern territories by the Soviet Union. On June 28, 1940, following an ultimatum, the Soviet troops occupied Bessarabia and the north of Bukovina, two Romanian provinces that measured about 55 thousand square kilometers and that were inhabited by a majority Romanian ethnic population. Hundreds of thousands of families then took refuge in ‘smaller Romania’ and tens of thousands of other families were deported by the occupying troops to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The territories annexed by Moscow currently belong to the former Soviet Republics of Moldova and Ukraine.



    Weather –— Hundreds of people have been evacuated and hundreds of households, plots of land and roads in the southwest of Romania have been flooded by the Jiu River which outburst its banks. In the northeast, on the Prut River, the high flood propagating from Ukraine is now subsiding, after having reached its maximum level on Friday. The weather in Romanian remains warm but unstable in the north, center and east. The highs of the day will range from 28 to 34 degrees C.



    Elections — Poland will see the first round of the presidential election on Sunday. Opinion surveys show that the incumbent president Andrzej Duda, supported by the Conservative Party Law and Justice (PiS) is seen as favorite with 41% of the votes. His main challenger, the mayor of Warsaw and a representative of the Liberal Civic Platform Rafal Trzaskowski comes 2nd with 26% of the votes. (tr. L. Simion)

  • Radio Bessarabia

    Radio Bessarabia

    Radio Romania has been a national project right from the start. It was part of the effort to educate and inform people that were to be part of the new Romanian society. Coverage of the entire territory was an integral part of the strategy to consolidate the Romanian state after territories with predominant Romanian population emerged from multinational empires and united with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. In addition to the central station in Bucharest, which was inaugurated on November 1, 1928, regional, or territorial, stations were created in Cluj, Iasi, and Chisinau, which was then part of Romania. The territorial station in Chisinau, the regional seat of Bessarabia, was meant to combat anti-Romanian propaganda carried out the Soviet station of Radio Tiraspol, over the Dnestr, which started broadcasting in 1930. Chisinau was the first territorial station for the Romanian Broadcasting Corporation, because reception was quite poor over there. Its schedule was similar to that of the central station, plus a few hours of local interest programming over the week. The Board of Administrators of the corporation, in its meeting on October 29, 1937, approved the creation of the Chisinau branch, dubbed Radio Bessarabia, which would broadcast in the 291.2 meter band, with a nominal power of 20 kW.

    In the 1930s, Gheorghe Crisbasanu was a technician with Radio Romania, and was working on assembling the broadcast equipment in Chisinau. In a 1997 interview with the Radio Romania Oral History Center, he recalled the work they were doing back then:

    “The 20 kW station was taken apart and carried to Chisinau. It was two days on the road for us. The first day we went to Bacau, then the second day we went to Iasi, where we stopped to get the equipment onto the trucks and wait for refueling. There were four ton trucks, International, Ford, Plymouth, and Dodge, because the RBC only had American vehicles. Then we went to Chisinau, we unloaded the equipment, and the lads got to assembling, the building was ready to have the antenna set on top. We were two to a truck, plus two sedans. In one of them we had General Director Lulu Ionescu and Technical Director Lohan. After we finished the assembly, they went to Bucharest and we, the technical crew, stayed behind to run things.”

    As work was going on, the October 1, 1938 issue of Radio Universe magazine announced: “Starting on January 1, 1939, radio listeners from Bessarabia will be able to hear Romanian language and song without needing bulky equipment, but easily affordable, small sized units. The Chisinau broadcast tower is ready, and it is a point of pride for the locals. Technical installation is almost done, as well as the studio in the center of Chisinau, on Pushkin Street.”

    Radio Bessarabia started broadcasting on October 8, 1939, and Radio Universe announced with pride on November 2, 1939: “Since the station went on the air in Chisinau, we have seen a sizable increase in the number of subscriptions in Bessarabia and Moldova. They are, of course, the portable size or the one or two lamp receiver owners that can now get Romanian broadcasts loud and clear on their minuscule receivers.”

    Unfortunately, Radio Bessarabia would be suddenly silenced right the following year. After the ultimatum given to Romania in June 1940, the USSR occupied Bessarabia, the Romanian territory between the Prut and the Dnestr. The losses that Romania incurred then were the radio station and its crew. 90,000 subscribers were lost, and 150 million lei of the total budget of 300 million lei, a 50% loss. In June 1941, Romania took Bessarabia back. The NKVDs so-called destruction battalions had the mission to raze to the ground several major buildings, which could not be evacuated. On 25 June 1941, Radio Bessarabias building became one of them. To top it all off, the Soviets shot the crew there without a trial, deeming them traitors and agents of Romanian imperialism. Their bodies were later found in an abandoned well. Gheorghe Crisbasanu recalls what he found when he went back to Radio Bessarabia after the 1941 liberation:

    “When the war broke out, I was in the 1st Armored Division, A company, and we occupied Chisinau. After we finished that, the next day I took two riflemen with me and went to the radio station. We could see one of the pylons, the other one had been blown up, and a single pylon was left, which we could see from the hill where we were. I left on foot to get there, and we found the station had been blown up, but not entirely. I sent word to the director general of RBC by a motorcycle courier who was going to Bucharest, to General Quarters, to come with cars and get back whatever was left. About four days later we went to see what was going on. The Director General, Ionescu, had come with four trucks and two cars with all the people he needed. I went back to my barracks and after that left in pursuit of the Russians, to Odessa.”

    After 1941, Radio Bessarabia could not be restored, and its mission was taken over by Radio Iasi. After December 2011, RBC is represented in Bessarabia by Radio Chisinau.

  • April 25, 2018 UPDATE

    April 25, 2018 UPDATE

    VISIT Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday hailed the decision to launch in Bucharest a series of debates over the relocation of Romania’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Netanyahu has made the statement during the meeting he had with his Romanian counterpart Viorica Dancila who is currently paying a visit to Israel. The two heads of government have mentioned the traditional friendship relations between their countries highlighting the excellent level of the bilateral relations. The Romanian Prime Minister has voiced satisfaction over the interest shown by the Israeli side in the conclusion of a partnership in the field of new technologies, which will allow for new joint projects that may whet the interest of the two business communities. Aspects related to cooperation in the military, strategic and cyber-security fields have also been tackled. The Romanian Prime Minister’s agenda on Wednesday also included a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem and a meeting with the leftist opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog. On Thursday the Romanian Prime Minister is to be received by Israeli president Reuven Rivlin and is expected to meet the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. According to Romanian government sources, Dancila’s visit to Israel is part of a series of political-diplomatic contracts destined to mark the anniversary of 70 years since the foundation of Israel, 70 years of uninterrupted bilateral relations and 100 years since the foundation of modern Romania.




    BANK Both the government and Romania’s Central Bank should avoid any competition-type approaches — Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday at the end of his meeting with Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu and with first deputy governor Florin Georgescu. The president underlined the Bank’s independence in decision-making regarding the monetary policy was essential at the same time pleading for the coordination of economic policies so that measures taken by the authorities may not be subordinated to certain interests. The president is to meet Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici on Friday. He earlier said he would try to mediate between the government and the Central Bank after representatives of the PSD-ALDE executive had criticized some statements made by Bank officials.




    POLL A recent poll in Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova, reveals that 55% of Moldovans want to unite with Romania. 80,000 people participated in the research. March 27th was the 100th anniversary of the union of Bessarabia and Romania. Bessarabia was a Czarist Empire province with a majority Romanian population, later annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940, creating on its territory the present Republic of Moldova.



    translated by bill


  • The Republic of Moldova, between the union and the grey area

    The Republic of Moldova, between the union and the grey area

    On the centenary of the union of Bessarabia with Romania, a recent poll carried out by the Association of Sociologists and Demographers shows that almost half of Moldovan voters support the Socialists Party led by the country’s pro-Russian president Igor Dodon.



    Also, the number of people in favour of European integration, namely 36%, is now lower than of those in favour of closer ties with the Euroasian Union, that is 41%. In the event of early elections, only four political parties would make it into Parliament, the poll also suggests.



    Almost half of respondents would vote for the Socialists Party, 19% for the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, 11% for the ruling Democratic Party, and 9% for the Dignity and Truth Platform Party. According to the poll, the pro-Russian president Igor Dodon is the most trusted politician in Moldova, with a confidence rating of 50%, followed by the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party Maia Sandu, with 22%, and, much further behind, by the communist ex-president Vladimir Voronin, the prime minister Pavel Filip and the leader of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc. More than half of respondents have no trust in any politician.



    Against this backdrop, public consultations have begun in Chisinau in the run-up to a possible referendum on the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania. The participants have to choose between two options, Yes or No, by the 14th of April. The survey is conducted by the European Social-Political Centre. 100,000 of the 300,000 voters in Chisinau will be canvassed, explains sociology expert PhD Andrei Dumbraveanu, who says the number of unionists has grown compared with 20 or 30 years ago.



    Andrei Dumbraveanu: “We have a generation of people who know the historical truth and who have studied in the West. We must also note the big influence exerted by the media, which are in favour of maintaining Russia’s influence in these parts, so many people aren’t yet sure which way to go.”



    500 canvassers will conduct door-to-door surveys, but electronic voting may also be an option.

  • 100 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania

    100 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania

    On March 27th 1918, the Country Council, the legislative body of the Moldovan Republic or of Bessarabia as it is also known, that had been annexed by tsarist Russia in 1812, voted in favour of its union with Romania. A historic injustice that took place 106 years before had thus been repaired. In the wake of the catastrophic situation caused by three years of war in Russia, which was also dealing with social unrest due to the failed reforms and incomplete modernization, the successive revolutions of 1917 – those in February-March and October-November – rekindled the hope for a new beginning.



    Against this backdrop of social, political and economic instability, Russia’s political map suffered mutations. It saw the reemergence of older states, such as Poland, while some countries reaffirmed their new political identity or preferred to unite with neighboring states. Bessarabia was part of the last category, as it united with Romania. This move was masterminded by the country’s elites.



    Historian Ioan Scurtu explains how these elites had formed: “Bessarabia’s political elite was mainly formed after 1900, especially after the Russian revolution of 1905, which was followed by a certain degree of tolerance for the peoples in the empire. That tolerance had materialized in a series of reforms that included the young people’s access to education and culture, of course not Romanian. Young Moldovans were now allowed to complete their studies in Russia. An elite was thus formed that played a major role in the process of developing the Romanians’ national conscience. Coming back to Bessarabia, the intellectuals started writing and printing various publications, which circulated illegally. A Bessarabian leader, Constantin Stere, who had served some time in a prison camp in Siberia for his nationalistic activity, made it back to Romania where he began promoting the idea of bringing young people from Bessarabia to study at the University of Iasi so that they may get a solid Romanian culture.”



    However, great political transformations were carried out not only by intellectuals, but also by well-structured and disciplined entities like the country’s armed forces. Here is historian Ioan Scurtu again: “When the Russian revolution broke out in 1917, there had already been a Bessarabian intellectual elite. Adding to it was also the military. A war was being fought at that time, which Russia joined in July 1914. Of course, the young Bessarabians had been integrated into the Russian army. The revolution broke out in Petrograd in 1917 and a provisional government led by Prince Lvov came to power. Prince Lvov made two major decisions for the army. The first one was to give soldiers the right not to salute their superiors. That was quite an exceptional thing for a structure built above all on hierarchy and discipline. Consequently, servicemen started to set up the so-called soldiers’ committees, elect commanders from among their members and deny top brass authority, thus throwing the armed forces into complete disarray. The second measure was that troops in the Russian army could be organized on national criteria allowing troopers to leave the army barracks and form their own detachments and units, on national grounds. The Moldovan soldiers did exactly that thus becoming the extremely dynamic and active factor in the national movement because the provisional social-democratic government recognized the autonomous organization of the Russian territories on national grounds. So, the national movement emerged everywhere, in Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, and of course, Bessarabia.”



    On March 27th Bessarabia’s legislative body voted in favor of the union with Romania. Out of its 135 members, 86 voted in favor, 3 voted against and 36 abstained. Some hinted that Romania had allegedly attempted to influence the voting.



    Here is historian Ioan Scurtu debunking this myth: ”These legends are just that, as the documents clearly show the general state of mind at the time. In July 1917 an army congress decided the setting up of a Parliament structure, which they named The Country Council, and elections were held aimed at rendering the province autonomous with a view to its union with Romania. The voting process was held on categories of professionals, such as teachers, craftsmen, priests, students and servicemen who included in their programmes the province’s autonomy and its union with Romania. When the Country Council convened on November 21st 1917 the objective was already clear. The idea that someone had rigged the ballot is out of the question because the legislature was a pretty complicated structure, which made bribing very unlikely. Also worth noting was that the Country Council’s sessions unfolded in a positive manner of respect and understanding. One might also ask about the relatively large number of abstentions. Those who abstained were representatives of the national minorities but they didn’t actually stand against the union. Their representatives said they were sent to vote for the autonomy but that no consultations had been held regarding the union.”



    March 27th 1918, the moment when Bessarabia united with the Romanian Kingdom, was the first in a series that gained momentum on December 1st 1918 when Greater Romania was formed after Transylvania, another Romanian territory, also joined in.

  • March 27, 2018 UPDATE

    March 27, 2018 UPDATE

    CELEBRATION – The two chambers of the Romanian Parliament have gathered in solemn session to mark 100 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania. In the presence of Romanian officials and other figures such as Princess Margaret, Custodian of the Crown, the Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and the President of the Moldovan Parliament Andrian Candu, the Romanian deputies and senators adopted a solemn declaration which pays homage to the authors of the historic act carried out 100 years ago. A province with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population within the Tsarist Empire, Bessarabia joined Romania at the end of WWI, on March 27, 1918. Years later, in June 1940, the Soviet Union re-annexed the province under an ultimatum, and the present-day Republic of Moldova was created on part of that territory. On Sunday, at a meeting organized in Moldova’s capital Chisinau, dozens of thousands of citizens of the two Romanian states called for the re-unification between Romania and the Republic of Moldova.



    DEFENCE – Romanian Defence Minister Mihai Fifor met in Zagreb on Tuesday with his Croatian counterpart, Damir Krsticevic. The focal points on the agenda of talks were ways to boost bilateral cooperation in the field. The Romanian official said the two sides would start talks on technology transfer and would start cooperating at industrial level. Minister Fifor was accompanied by representatives of the Romanian defence industry.



    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Superior Council of Magistracy on Tuesday decided to send a letter to the European Commission, asking for clarifications on several requests for information made by the European body to the Romanian authorities regarding several corruption cases. Last week, Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă sent a similar letter to the EC President, Jean-Claude Juncker. Both letters were written after the publication by the national press of a EC document issued in October 2012, calling on the Romanian Justice Ministry to provide details from the files of well known politicians and business people. The Prime Minister underlined that the Justice Ministry confirmed that the commission made similar requests in the 2012 – 2018 period. Such pieces of information are not in line with the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), Dancila also added. We recall that by the CVM, the Commission has been monitoring the evolution of justice in Romania, since the countrys joining the community bloc, back in 2007.



    INTEGRITY – The legal committee with the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday rejected the request filed by the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, to re-examine the draft law under which the interdictions imposed to MPs by the National Integrity Agency prior to 2013 cease to exist. In his request, the countrys president said the draft includes a clemency measure granted to MPs, which affects integrity standards and questions Romanias compliance with the commitments it has made as a EU member state. According to the draft, adopted in December 2017, the interdictions imposed on Deputies and Senators based on evaluation reports made by the National Integrity Agency and which took note of violations of the legal provisions regarding the conflict of interest in the 2007- 2013 period cease to exist. The Chamber of Deputies is the first notified chamber. The request for re-examination will now be submitted for debate in a plenary session and then to the Senate, which is decision-making body in this case.



    RUSSIA – NATO has decided to expel seven diplomats of the Russian mission to the Alliance over the nerve agent attack in the UK, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday. “This sends a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for its unacceptable and dangerous pattern of behaviour, Stoltenberg said. Over 23 countries, including Romania and the US, decided, as of Monday, to expel some 120 Russian diplomats, in a coordinated western measure. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has notified the Russian Embassy in Bucharest that one of its diplomats would be declared persona non-grata and forced to leave the Romanian soil. Romanias decision might be “the expression of collective political insanity, says the Russian Embassy in Bucharest.



    PROTESTS – Trade unionists from the Romanian health-care sector on Tuesday picketed the headquarters of the line ministry in Bucharest and on Thursday they will protest in front of the Labour Ministry. The are demanding, among other things, pay rises as of March 1, for the entire healthcare and welfare staff, the elimination of the 30% cap for bonuses and the recovery of income losses following the implementation of the latest salary regulations, as of January 1. For years, against the background of a severe under financing of the health-care sector in Romania, Romanian health specialists have left abroad in large numbers, in search for better-paid jobs. Since last year, the net incomes of the health-care personnel have grown significantly. However, they are still unhappy with their salaries and bonuses and have threatened with protests that might culminate in an all-out strike. The current minister Sorina Pintea, however, has stated that they have no reason to protest.(Translated by D. Vijeu and M. Ignatescu)

  • March 27, 2018

    March 27, 2018


    CELEBRATION – The two chambers of the Romanian Parliament have today gathered in solemn session to mark 100 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania. In the presence of Romanian officials and other figures such as Princess Margaret, Custodian of the Crown, the Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and the President of the Moldovan Parliament Andrian Candu, the Romanian deputies and senators adopted a solemn declaration which pays homage to the authors of the historic act carried out 100 years ago. A province with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population within the Tsarist empire, Bessarabia joined Romania at the end of WWI, on March 27th, 1918. Years later, in June 1940, the Soviet Union re-annexed the province under an ultimatum, and the present-day Republic of Moldova was created on part of that territory. On Sunday, at a meeting organized in Moldovas capital Chisinau, dozens of thousands of citizens of the two Romanian states called for the re-unification between Romania and the Republic of Moldova.



    RUSSIA – Romanias decision to expel a Russian Federation diplomat, in response to the poisoning in Great Britain of the former Russian spy Serghei Skripal is “a manifestation of collective political madness” reads a message of the Russian Embassy in Romania. On Monday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry notified the embassy that one of its diplomats would be declared persona non-grata and forced to leave the Romanian soil. Romania thus joined other EU nations, which, just like the US and other countries such as Ukraine, Canada, Norway or Australia have been expelling Russian diplomats. The US alone will expel 60 Russian diplomats, in what has been dubbed “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.” Moscow has denied its involvement in the poisoning on March 4th of the former double-spy and his daughter, in the first known nerve agent attack in Europe after WWII and has announced similar responses to the measures taken in the countries that have expelled Russian diplomats.



    JUSTICE – On Monday, the Romanian Senate, the decision-making forum in this matter, adopted the controversial modifications of the justice laws, namely those concerning the status of the magistrates, judicial organization and the functioning of the Superior Council of the Magistracy. The majority made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, supported by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania have again stated that the changes, previously endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies, were formulated in keeping with the rulings of the Constitutional Court. The right-wing opposition, however, has criticized the modifications and stated there is ground for challenging them in court again. We recall that some of the changes initially brought to the justice laws triggered the largest street-protests in post-Communist Romania.



    PROTESTS – Trade unionists from the Romanian health-care sector are today picketing the headquarters of the line ministry in Bucharest and on Thursday they will protest in front of the Labour Ministry. The are demanding, among other things, pay rises as of March 1st, for the entire healthcare and welfare staff, the elimination of the 30% cap for bonuses and the recovery of income losses following the implementation of the latest salary regulations, as of January 1st. For years, against the background of a severe under financing of the health-care sector in Romania, Romanian health specialists have left abroad in large numbers, in search for better paid jobs. Since last year, the net incomes of the health-care personnel have grown significantly. However, they are still unhappy with their salaries and bonuses and have threatened with protests that might culminate in an all-out strike. The current minister Sorina Pintea, however, has stated that they have no reason to protest.



    GOPO AWARDS – Bucharest is today playing host to the Gopo Awards Gala, an event held every year, which celebrates the best cinema productions of the previous year. This year, “One Step Behind the Seraphim” by Daniel Sandu, boasts the largest number of nominations – 15 – , followed by “6.9 on the Richter Scale” by Nae Caranfil and “The Anniversary” by Dan Chisu. Other films on the galas shortlist are “Ana, mon amour” by Calin Peter Netzer, “Breaking News” by Iulia Rugina and “Fixeur” by Adrian Sitaru. The life achievement awards will be granted to actors George Mihaita and Vladimir Gaitan. The name of the festival is a homage paid to the Romanian film-maker Ion-Popescu Gopo, who years ago won the Palme dOr for best animated short.



    FOOTBALL – Romanias national football squad is today taking on in Craiova, southern Romania, the Swedish team, in a friendly game. This is the first meeting between the two teams since the game played in 1994, when the Romanians lost to the Swedish team, in a penalty shoot-out, in the quarter finals of the World Cup hosted by the US. On Saturday, also in a friendly game, Romania defeated Israel 2-1. In another move, also today, on home turf, Romanias Under 19 team is playing against Ukraine the decisive match for qualification to the European Championship due in Finland, in July. After the victories scored in the first two matches, against Serbia 4-nil and Sweden 2-1, the young Romanian footballers need at least a draw to win the preliminaries.




  • March 20, 2018 UPDATE

    March 20, 2018 UPDATE

    PARLIAMENT — The laws on the judiciary were endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday, and are to be submitted to the Senate for a final vote. Previously, a special parliamentary committee passed the bill on the magistrate profession and the one regulating the organisation of the Higher Council of Magistracy. On Monday, the same committee passed the 3rd law in this package, the one concerning the organisation of courts. The bills were brought in line with the decisions of the Constitutional Court, after the Opposition and the High Court of Cassation and Justice challenged the changes adopted by Parliament. These changes include by-passing the President of Romania in the procedure for appointing the chiefs of the Supreme Court, and transferring this role to the Higher Council of Magistracy. The National Liberal Party and Save Romania Union, in Opposition, announced that the new amendments give them reasons to bring the new justice laws before the Constitutional Court again. In fact, Save Romania MPs resorted to an unusual protest in the Chamber of Deputies, where they lined up wearing T-shirts that read “#NoCriminals”. Some of the changes originally operated on the justice laws have generated large-scale protests among civil society and magistrates.



    LA FRANCOPHONIE – On Tuesday, the Romanian Government hailed the celebration of the International Francophonie Day, and Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said that Romania was known as a beacon- state of Francophonie in Central and Eastern Europe. The Romanian Prime Minister stated that the group of francophone countries was among the first international structures that Romania joined after 1989. In 1991, Romania got the status of observer, and in 1993 it became a full member of the International Organisation of La Francophonie. In 2006 it played host to one of the organisation’s summits. Between December 2018 and July 2019, Bucharest and Paris will organise the Romania — France season, a large-scale joint project focusing on contemporary culture and creativity, as well as areas such as education, economy, sports and tourism.



    CRIMEA – The Romanian Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that Romania did not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, and therefore it did not recognize the organisation of elections on that territory. Romania’s stand is shared by the other members of the EU as well. In a communiqué, Romania reaffirms its support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighbouring Ukraine, within its legally acknowledged borders. Some 1.5 million voters were called to the polls in Crimea on Sunday to elect the president of Russia, exactly four years since the annexation of the peninsula.



    SECURITY – The activities carried out in 2017 by institutions with security responsibilities in Romania and the main objectives for 2018 were high on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting of the country’s Supreme Defence Council, headed by President Klaus Iohannis. The members of the council also analysed the activity of the structures responsible for cyber-security and other topics of interest with regard to national security. Seen as the umbrella of strategic ministries and enforcement institutions, the Supreme Defence Council gathered at the meeting top figures such as the Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, the ministers of internal affairs, external affairs, justice, economy and finance, the Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Eduard Hellvig, the Deputy Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Silviu Predoiu and the Chief of the Romanian Army’s General Staff, General Nicolae Ciuca.



    BREXIT — The European affairs ministers of the EU member states, including the Romanian Minister Victor Negrescu, discussed in Brussels on Tuesday the post-Brexit relations between the Union and the UK. On the occasion, the European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier presented the general principles for the transition period, i.e. March 2019 to December 2020. Previously, Barnier and London’s negotiator David Davis had announced having reached an agreement on these guidelines, which concern, among other things, the rights of the around 4.5 million European citizens living in the UK and the 1.2 million Britons in the EU. At the end of this week the text will be discussed by the EU leaders during a meeting of the European Council.



    PROTESTS — In Bucharest, the SANITAS trade union federation on Tuesday picketed the headquarters of the Ministry for Public Finances. Unionists demanded, among other things, the implementation of pay raises for all healthcare and social assistance personnel as of March 1, the scrapping of the ceiling on bonuses and the offsetting of the income decrease caused by the implementation of a new pay scheme on January 1. Also on Tuesday, representatives of the National Federation of Trade Unions in Industry picketed the Economy Ministry, against the backdrop of discontent with the law regulating the national defence industry. The union president, Ioan Neagu, said that at the beginning of the year the Government was supposed to issue a resolution to regulate the number of employees that this industrial sector may absorb per year.



    MOLDOVA – The pro-Russia socialist president of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon claims that Romania might become Moldova’s number one enemy, if it continues to support unionist movements. The former Moldovan ambassador to Bucharest Iurie Renita has termed the statement hysterical, and by no means reflecting the view of the majority population in Moldova. Dodon has accused Romania before of having tried to interfere with the republic’s internal affairs and has insisted that unionist organisations and manifestations be banned. In the past two months, in more than 120 communes and towns in the Republic of Moldova, mayors and local councils have adopted symbolic declarations of unification with Romania and on Sunday the capital Chisinau will host an event celebrating 100 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania. A province with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population in the tsarist empire, Bessarabia united with Romania at the end of the first world war, on March 27th, 1918. Following an ultimatum, the Soviet Union re-annexed Bessarabia in 1940, and the Republic of Moldova was created on part of that territory.



    MEETING – On Tuesday, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church Daniel received the Israeli Ambassador to Bucharest Tamar Samash. On the occasion, Daniel stressed the good relations that the Patriarchy has with the Jewish community in Romania. According to a press release, Daniel has stated that in the past years, thanks to pilgrimages to Israel, many Romanian orthodox believers have had the possibility to pray at the holy sites and to learn more about biblical tradition, and about common spiritual values. In turn the Israeli ambassador has stated that all joint projects help strengthen the relations between the two peoples and are proof of the Judeo — Christian heritage that laid the foundation of European culture.



    HANDBALL – On Wednesday, Romania’s national women’s handball team will take on the Russian squad, away from home, in Togliatti, in the third game of the Euro 2018 preliminary group. The return game will take place in Cluj, north-western Romania, on Sunday. With two victories from the previous games, the Romanian players, trained by the Spanish Ambros Martin, are leaders of the group with 4 points, followed by Russia and Austria with 2 points each and Portugal with no points. The teams ranking first and second will qualify for the final tournament, due to take place in France in December.

  • Russian Projects in Bessarabia

    Russian Projects in Bessarabia

    This was the beginning of a 200-year long rivalry which, alongside the issue of the Romanian treasure, has shaped the relations between Romania and Russia for a long while.



    In 1812, with Europe burdened by the Napoleonic wars, Russia was advancing towards the Danube. In its battles against France and the Ottoman Empire, Russia was seeking access to the straits between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and its line of attack was towards present-day Romania. Following the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812, which ended with the Treaty of Bucharest, Russia occupied half of Moldova, known at that time under the name of Bessarabia.



    And looking in retrospect, the question of Moldova’s status as an autonomous state appears today to be defined by the competition between the French, Ottoman and Russian empires over this region, which was a periphery, or in fact the overlapping of several peripheries.



    Historian Andrei Cusco of the University of Chisinau sees the agitation in Europe in the first 2 decades of the 19th Century as a factor in the emergence of Bessarabia on the map of Europe: “The annexation of Bessarabia by the Russian Empire in 1812 is mostly seen in a narrow and sometimes uninteresting manner. More precisely, it is seen as a sort of diplomatic-military deal, and without doubt this is part of what it was. On the other hand, however, in 1812, when Russia was advancing towards Lower Danube, there was fierce competition between Napoleonic France and the Russian Empire. So from the very beginning the Bessarabian issue, although not directly tied to the Napoleonic wars, emerges in the context of a clash between empires and in the context of the Russian Army’s retreating to Bessarabia. Given that the Romanian Principalities were not annexed, Bessarabia was the rest of what was supposed to become the Russian Empire. In other words, from the Russian point of view, they were actually not advancing, but retreating.”



    Bessarabia, as a political entity, was created out of nothing, in the sense that there was no precedent to give it legitimacy. It was an artificial entity, and proof in this respect was the confused conduct of the Russian bureaucrats who came to this region and were at a loss as to what they were supposed to do here.



    Andrei Cusco says the Russian administration came up with 3 projects for the new territory: “There were three successive outlooks on this region. The first one was outlined shortly after the Treaty of Bucharest was signed, and according to it Bessarabia was supposed to become a propaganda platform, a model for the Balkan nations. Bessarabia was subordinated to the Greek project, as it was shaping in the early 19th Century, and the actual goal was the region south of the Danube. This first view of Bessarabia placed this province in the Ottoman and trans-Danube context.”



    The creation of Bessarabia was part of a more complex process that took into account the ideas of the time regarding the state, administrative organisation, the role undertaken by Russia and its experimenting with modern values.



    Andrei Cusco says this second Russian strategy for Bessarabia was inspired by Western models: “The other 2 views are a lot more interesting. One of them consists in the Russian administration linking Bessarabia to the Western peripheries of the empire, such as Poland, Finland, the Baltic states. Those peripheries had strong elites, a well defined historic tradition and a privileged status in the period of Russian administrative experiments under Alexander I. In 1818, the Bessarabian autonomy experiment was initiated. But because the Russian administration had trouble finding in Bessarabia local nobility to act as intermediaries between the locals and the Russian authorities, as it was the case in Poland and Finland, the project was abandoned after less than a decade. This is what I call the duality of the Bessarabian region, because it is a period when we cannot talk about a coherently structured region. During these first decades, Bessarabia was a fluid region, in a process of crystallisation, at least until 1834 when the border on the River Prut becomes less permeable. The true border was still the Dniester.”



    The third Russian approach to the integration of Bessarabia was eventually implemented in the 19th Century, and reinforced in the 20th Century with the annexation of the province by the former Soviet Union.



    Andrei Cusco: “The third administrative approach to the integration of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire is the one that actually prevailed. This plan consisted in associating Bessarabia with its eastern neighbour, Novorossyia. It happened shortly after the abolishment of the region’s autonomy in 1828, when Bessarabia was increasingly regarded as an area for colonisation, a place to bring foreign settlers. For the Russian authorities, an autonomy experiment like the 1818 one was no longer profitable or imaginable. But the danger in analysing these plans is that of seeing consistency where there was none. The impulses and models followed by the Russians were not as rational as today’s historians would have us believe. We should not forget that until the 1830s Bessarabia was not even identified on Russian maps as separated from the rest of the Romanian territory. It was simply a region inhabited by Romanians, just like Wallachia and Moldova, and was perceived in Russia as such. The Russians had a problem identifying the specific characteristics of this region not only in relation to the Russian Empire, but also in relation to the Romanian territories.”



    Turned into a Russian governorate at the periphery of the Russian state, but mostly inhabited by Romanians to this day, Bessarabia is a region whose history was primarily defined by the interests of the Russian Empire.

  • Bessarabia 205

    Bessarabia 205

    The first Russian-Turkish war of the 19th century, one of the long series of conflicts between the two empires, started in 1806, and lasted for 6 years, ending in 1812. It ended up having a tragic outcome for the Romanians of Moldavia. The country was split in two when Russia annexed its eastern side, the territory between the rivers Prut and Dniestr, which came to be called Bessarabia. The old Russian-Turkish rivalry, and the plans that the French army had for moving through Eastern Europe, came to complicate European relations in the region. Napoleon I agreed, in the 1807 treaty of Tilsit, for Russia to occupy the Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia if it prevailed over the Ottomans.



    The treaty was signed on May 28, 1812 in Bucharest, in the famous inn owned by Armenian merchant Manuc, and it provided that Bessarabia would be annexed by Russia. We asked historian Andrei Cusco with the Chisinau University about the European context, which made 1812 a major turn in the history of Moldavian Romanians:


    We are talking about the break-up of the Principality of Moldavia. It is important to underline that this annexation occurred at a critical moment for the Russian empire, the preparation for Napoleon’s invasion. For this reason, the 6-year Russian-Turkish war, which had lasted for 6 years, starting in 1806, had to be settled post haste. That is the priority that explains the unfolding of events. In fact, the Russian empire had started off with a much more ambitious plan, that of annexing both Romanian principalities. These were some of the stakes that Czar Alexander I was playing for in his pre-1812 negotiations with Napoleon. Later on it was agreed that Moldavia would go to Russia. In the spring of 1812, the Russians were on the brink of conceding the fight, considering that events were coming to a head, and to annex Moldavia, but only to the Siret.



    From the height of its pre-conflict claim, that of swallowing up the Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, the Russians settled for Moldavia, and, as events unfolded, they reduced to the east of the principality. Here is Andrei Cusco:


    So why did the river Prut end up being the border? Because of instructions issued by Czar Alexander I to his plenipotentiaries, first future Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who managed a defeat against Napoleon, then Admiral Chichagov, who came to Bucharest after the peace was signed. Their instructions explicitly stated that the Prut River was the last territorial delineation that the Russians would agree to. On May 28, 1812, as a result of the peace signed in Bucharest, a new region emerged, which was not yet called Bessarabia. In the first year of Russian rule, it was simply called ‘Moldavia beyond the Dnestr’, from a Russian perspective, obviously, and it had no precedent, whether historical, geographical or territorial. As it is well known, Bessarabia had been the name of only the southern region, also known as Bujak, which had been Tatar territory until the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812.



    Some historians say, based on documents, that the loss of Bessarabia can be blamed on the lack of negotiating skills on the part of the Ottomans. If they had dragged on the negotiations, the Russians likely would not have annexed even Bessarabia. We asked Andrei Cusco if this is a credible theory:


    It has been said many times that if the Ottoman sultan would have waited a few months, until Napoleon’s invasion, the breaking up of Moldavia could have been avoided. I want to say that there can be no direct answer to this issue; I can only say that there are multiple alternatives. I have already said that the initial intention of the czar was to annex all of Moldavia. We can thus speculate, considering these alternatives, what would have happened if the Russian had done that. It is not out of the question that the entire Romanian national project would not have the form it does now.



    Russia was in full expansion in all directions, and could not be stopped. Andrei Cusco says that, in spite of the great changes that followed for Romanian Bessarabians, we can see a good side to that terrible situation caused by the peace signed in Bucharest and the annexation of Bessarabia:


    It is quite unlikely for the Russians to have stopped at the Dnestr, they had already reached it as early as 1792. This version of events caused a dilemma for the elites, and less so for the population of that territory. From then on, the rest of Moldavia went the direction of union with Wallachia, precisely as a counterweight to Russia. In some way, the 1812 annexation speeded up the project to unite Moldavia and Wallachia, and this is a positive consequence. Obviously, from the point of view of Bessarabians, this version of events created new and more difficult complications.



    The Russian annexation of Bessarabia separated it from the history of Romanians west of the Prut River. Even though Bessarabia enjoyed autonomy until 1828, and in the 1830s ties continued to exist between the territories flanking the river, by 1848 Bessarabia was fully integrated with Russia.


  • The Union of Bessarabia with Romania

    The Union of Bessarabia with Romania

    In the unstable context of WWI, that was considered a reparation gesture after the occupation of 1812, and it proved to be the best political solution.



    Left alone on the eastern front after the withdrawal of Russia from the war, Romania had asked for peace and it had to cope with the occupation of the Central Powers on the one hand, and with the evacuation of the Russian army that was in the grip of the revolutionary fever, on the other hand. Doctor of medicine Daniel Ciugureanu was one of the most fervent supporters of the union of Bessarabia with Romania. His son, Gheorghe Ciugureanu, gave an interview to the Oral History Centre of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation in 1993, in which he talked about his father. Born into an old family of Moldavian boyars from the region of Hotin, Ciugureanu obtained the title of doctor of medicine at the Kiev University. During his student years he set up a cultural society entitled “The Awakening together with historian Ştefan Ciobanu, writer Alexe Mateevici, engineer Nicolae Codreanu and other nationalists.



    In 1993 Gheorghe Ciugureanu recollected what his father had told him about the political membership of Bessarabia’s Council which had a decisive role in Bessarabia’s union with Romania: “In 1917 he participated in the setting up of the Country’s Council, that is the Parliament of the former Moldovan Republic, which sat for the first session on November 25, 1917. In the session of November 27, 1917 they proclaimed the autonomy of the Democratic Moldovan Republic which however remained a part of the Russian Empire. The Country’s Council was made up of two main political factions, besides several other less significant factions based on ethnicity such as the Union of Germans, the Union of Gagauz People, the Union of Jews, of Ukrainians and Poles. The two main factions were the so-called Peasants’ Group led by Ion Inculet who was helped by Pantelimon Erhan and Pantelimon Halippa, and the Moldovan Bloc, the other faction that militated for the autonomy of Bessarabia, which however, remained part of the Russian Empire. The Moldovan Bloc was headed by Daniel Ciugureanu who was helped by Buzdugan, Anton Crihan, Stefan Holban, Dimitrie Bogoz and many others.



    The union was not an easy process, although many people of Bessarabia were animated by nationalist convictions. The period of anarchy that followed the coming to power of the Soviet army in Petrograd caused a lot of trouble.



    Gheorghe Ciugureanu: “In a first phase, the power was in the hands of the Peasants’ faction, Ion Inculet was elected president of the Country’s Council, the parliament, while the government was headed by Pantelimon Erhan whose actions were somehow coordinated by the central government in Petrograd. This first phase lasted from the first session of November 25, 1917 until January 14, 1918. During this period, and before the Country Council was established, the number of Russian defectors from the Moldovan front increased substantially, as a result of the Revolution that had started in Russia. On their way to the country, these defecting soldiers crossed Bessarabia, plundering and killing people, not without help from the local thugs. The situation had become intolerable, because these groups were manipulated by the peoples commissars into hunting down the leaders of the Romanian patriotic movement. This is how my Godfather Simion Gurafa was murdered. He was killed on the estate of Hodorogea, another high-profile Romanian patriot, by a gang of defecting soldiers. My father had to go into hiding at that point, because otherwise he would have been one of the first victims, without doubt.



    Facing the evident threat of total destruction, the leaders of the Bessarabian movement requested the support of the Romanian Army to restore order. However, the actions of the Romanian Army were not met without protests.



    Gheorghe Ciugureanu: “The crisis was at its peak. In early January 1918, volunteers from Transylvania, who had come to Bessarabia to help the locals fight those gangs, were massacred in the Chisinau rail station. As a result, a secret meeting was organised by the leaders of the Moldovan Bloc, which was in Opposition at that time. The meeting was held in the house of engineer Nicolae Codreanu and chaired by my father. A decision was made at that meeting to send envoys to Iasi, where the Government of Romania was temporarily headquartered, and to request the help of the Romanian Army in order to put an end to the killings and plundering. The envoys of the Moldovan Bloc reached Iasi, handed their request for a unit of the Romanian Army, and the result was immediate. The very next day, although with great sacrifice, a unit of the Romanian Army, which had been fighting on the Carpathian line, was deployed to Bessarabia under the command of General Ernest Brosteanu. The troops reached Bessarabia around January 9, so it actually crossed the River Prut in three days and headed for Chisinau. This is when a completely unexpected thing happened. The Country Council, which was the government of Bessarabia at that time, sent a protest telegram to the Government of Romania in Iasi. The telegram was signed by Ion Inculet and countersigned by Pantelimon Erhan, the head of government, and it protested in rather vigorous terms the entry of the Romanian Army into Bessarabia.



    Although not seen with a friendly eye by all Bessarabians at first, it was the union with Romania of March 1918 which brought peace to this territory after 4 years of bloodshed. (Translated by L. Simion and AM Popescu)

  • March 27, 2017

    March 27, 2017

    ALDE – Daniel Constantin, co-president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), has lost the political support of his party for the positions of deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister, which he was holding in the leftist government in Bucharest led by Sorin Grindeanu. Gratiela Gavrilescu has been proposed to replace Daniel Constantin. The decision was made after Constantin had contested a decision by some party colleagues that an extraordinary congress be staged next month, the other ALDE co-president Calin Popescu Tariceanu explained. He has also criticized Constantin for his latest political moves. Constantin has rejected the allegations adding the decision runs against the partys status. At present Gavrilescu is minister for the relation with Parliament but ALDE proposed this portfolio be taken over by Viorel Ilie. Social-Democratic Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu on Monday said upon the latest PSD-ALDE session that it would forward the proposals to president Klaus Iohannis.



    CALL – The European Union has called on Moscow to release immediately the several hundred protesters the authorities arrested during the peaceful anti-graft rallies in Russia on Sunday. Famous anti-Putin campaigner Aleksei Navalny is reportedly among those arrested. Tens of thousands protesters all over the country have chanted anti-government slogans asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Medvedev whom they accuse of corruption. Navalny, who is a lawyer, has been denouncing high-level corruption in Russia for years now and has made public his intention to run in the presidential election in 2018.




    CELEBRATION – Bucharest and other big cities across Romania are today hosting events aimed at celebrating 99 years since the union of Bessarabia with Romania, an event recently declared a national holiday by the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest. On Sunday in Chisinau, hundreds of people attended a rally in support of the national flag, where they unfolded a 100-meter long flag chanting unionist slogans. On March 27th 1918, after the dismantling of the Czarist Empire, the countrys legislative body, which convened in solemn session, ruled with an absolute majority the union of Bessarabia with the Romanian kingdom after 106 years of Russian occupation. Through an ultimatum in 1940, Soviet Moscow annexed both Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, territories today belonging to the former soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine.




    TALKS – A new round of talks is taking place in Bucharest between the authorities and representatives of the policemen discontented with their low salaries. Interior Minister Carmen Dan said she would try to identify solutions together with trade unionists so that policemen may benefit from bonuses of 40% and 100% if they work during the weekends and other legal holidays. The minister of Public Consultations and Social Dialogue, Gabriel Petrea has explained that pay differences and other flaws in the system cannot be settled without affecting the budget. The policemen claim a 20% pay rise as well as bonuses for difficult work conditions, night shifts, for working on weekends and other legal holidays.



    GAME Romanias national eleven ended in a draw their home fixture on Sunday against the Danish side in qualifying group E for the next years World Cup in Russia. Also on Sunday Montenegro conceded a 1-2 defeat to Poland and Armenia outperformed Kazahstan 2-0. The qualifyiers next leg is due on June 10th when Romania will be up against Poland in an away match. On the same date Kazahstan will be playing Denmark and Montenegro takes on Armenia. Poland tops the groups table with 13 points followed by Montenegro and Denmark both with 7, Romania and Armenia each with 6 and Kazahstan with 2 points. We recall the Romanian national side is for the first time in its history led by a foreign selector, German Cristoph Daum, who came to the helm in autumn upon the teams lackluster play at Euro 2016 in France.




    TENNIS The worlds fifth tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, today takes on Australian Samantha Stosur (WTA19) in the round of sixteen of the tournament in Miami, Florida, a competition with 6.9 million dollars in prize money. In the third round on Sunday the Romanian secured a two-set win 6-3, 6-0 against Estonian Anett Kontaveit. Another Romanian playing in Miami Patricia Tig has conceded a two-set defeat, 6-3, 6-0, to Venus Williams of the USA.

    (translated by: Daniel Bilt)

  • Bessarabia’s Unification with Romania

    Bessarabia’s Unification with Romania


    99 years have passed since March 27, 1918, when, at the end of the Great War, following the collapse of Tzarist Russia, the Country Council, the legislative body of Bessarabia at the time, voted for the unification of this province with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population with the mother country Romania. It was the first underlying act for the establishment of Greater Romania, a process that would end with Bukovina, Transylvania, Banat, Maramures and Crisana provinces joining later that year.



    Every year, the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Romanian communities in the Diaspora mark the event, not without some nostalgia though, as the union was short-lived. 22 years later, in 1940, following an ultimatum, Stalins Russia annexed both Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, territories that are today part of the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine. Thousands of Bessarabians then fled to Romania, other tens of thousands were deported to Siberia or Kazakhstan and replaced with Soviet settlers brought over from all the corners of the empire.



    The Moldovan Ambassador to Bucharest Mihai Gribnicea has stated that “todays Moldova is not the Bessarabia of 1918, neither in terms of its population paradigm nor in terms of territory and borders”. “The Republic of Moldova is more divided politically, administratively, ethnically, linguistically and religiously than the Bessarabia of 1918”, Mihai Gribnicea has also said. The Moldovan official has warned that half a century of Soviet occupation has left its mark on the local mindset, although Chisinau proclaimed its independence in 1991. Forced to cooperate, the Pro-West Prime Minister Pavel Filip and the Pro-Russia Socialist President Igor Dodon are telling of the political, geo-political and identity divide in Moldovan society.



    The former visited Romania last week, defining the two states as “twin hearts”, while the latter has already paid his second visit to Moscow within three months of being sworn in. In recent years, both Bucharest and Chisinau have seen large-scale unionist rallies, with tens of thousands of people calling for the unification of the two states. Participants believe that to the Republic of Moldova, commonly seen as the poorest European state, currently having a deeply corrupt political class and weakened by pro-Russian separatism in Transdniestr, the unification with Romania is the only solution, given the countrys EU and NATO membership and its GDP, which experts say its 20 times larger than Moldovas. Meanwhile, Bucharest remains the most vocal supporter of Moldovas sovereignty and integrity and its efforts to join the European Union.