Once again, I will address Moldova. It is not possibly spectacular but significant. Moldova was 1 of those east Partnership countries, alongside Georgia and Ukraine, which the West has always considered as a viable candidate for inclusion in its integration structures. Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan or Belarus. And it is these first 3 countries that have become formally associated with the European Union.
However, while Georgians, erstwhile pro-Western primates, began to exercise their voices in the elections with uncertainty about further steps, the other side was the vector of Moldova's politics, which, after decades of hesitation, abolished the influence of pro-Western and pro-Russian parties, a "third way" – a klattocratic oligarchy with Vlad Plahotniuk at the head, She went on the road to the West. This happened with the takeover of full power by the Liberal organization Action and Solidarity (PAS), whose politicians took over the position of president (2020), the parliamentary majority and the government (2021).
Like Ukraine, Moldova is already an authoritative candidate for accession to the Union. This small, inhabited by 2.6-2.9 million people, a russian state created in its present form as a republic of the USSR, until late the poorest in Europe, may not be a spectacular topic, especially for so many of our debaters who have already drawn on phase the large geopolitics of Russia's decay, but very informative. Even for so many years it has been suspended on the periphery of the EU and NATO, as a test of the power, control and political initiative of the West.
A period ago I wrote about the most serious obstacle to the inclusion of Moldova in the Western bloc in the form of separatist Transnistria. Not many Poles know that beyond this unrecognized republic, There is another region in Moldova that now recognizes the power of Chisinau, it has experience of separatism, it has the readiness to repeat this experience. It's Gagauzia. He takes the name from the main ethnos of his resident – the Gagauz. A tiny but very interesting nation. discipline has not yet resolved the issue of their origin and the time of their appearance on the Dniester, but their specificity states that they are a Turkospeaking and Orthodox people.
The pre-war Romanian Gagauz remembers as badly as possible as a country persecuting them. However, under the authority of Moscow, a tiny nation suffered a severe famine in the first years after planet War II. After all, the memory of Brezhnevskaya's stableness prevails in the people of Gagauzia over reflections on the threat of Stalinism. Undoubtedly, the times of the USSR were the first period of major infrastructure investments or public service organisation in the area, which was inactive a steppe in the 18th century, after which the Tatar orda of the Śwodacka rocked.
Today, Gagauzia has a clear nostalgia of the USSR and a sympathy for Russia. Today, Gagauzia sees a masonry infrastructure of roads, offices, schools, and hospitals, which reminds us that after the collapse of the russian Empire independent Moldova was incapable to add much there. Even more marked by the process of gaining independency by the republic. As with the Slavic inhabitants of Transnistrian nationalist and pan-Romanian opposition sentiments of the Moldovan People's Movement, which were captured by the ruling elites in Chisinau and expressed in a language bill establishing a monopoly of Romanian language, besides concerns about possible absorption by Romania, led the Gagauzes to proclaim a separatist republic in 1990 announced under the influence of the Gagauz Halki-Lud Gaguaski movement. It was not pacified, despite the Chisinau “marsz na Gagauzia” organized after the support of the Gagauzes by the Transnistrian militants and a division of the USSR's Interior Army, acting in rule against Gorbachev's authoritative orders, prohibiting the Transnistrian and Gagastrian separatist movements. Unlike in Transnistria, only a fewer people died during the confrontation. This, too, most likely made a possible fast compromise.
In 1994, Gagauzia, which, unlike Transnistria, was and remains an agricultural region without an industrial base, has signed an agreement with the Moldovan authorities pursuant to which it has subordination to the authority of Chisinau on the rights of the Autonomous Territory - What's his name now.
I decided to take this historical picture, due to the fact that last year Gagausia became a "hero" of 1 of the popular Polish travel vlogs and many of its viewers, did not full realize the sources of attitude of its inhabitants. The 1994 Gagauzia Statute assumes that, unlike in the remainder of Moldova, It has 3 authoritative languages: Gagaus, Russian and Moldovan.In everyday life, the second is most frequently usedbut education in the region is truly multilingual. due to the fact that Gagausia is not only Gaguazi, but besides cultural Bulgarians, Moldovans, Russians, Ukrainians and even a tiny community of Poles, organized in Komrat in a vital association.
Parliament of the region – The People's Assembly can constitute rights in the fields of: science, culture, education, local development, wellness protection, physical culture, sport, local budgetary and taxation issues, economy, ecology, work, social guarantees and organise its administration. It has the right to study the laws established by the Moldovan Parliament to the State Constitutional Court erstwhile it suspects that they are violating the competence of the Autonomous Territory. Its limits were set by the 1995 referendum – the Gagauzia group included those municipalities that most of the inhabitants wished for it.
determining its existence, alongside the statutes, The central law on the peculiar legal position of Gagauzia besides grants the region the right to secession in the event of a change in the position of Moldova as a sovereign state. The people of Gagauzia recognise that the possible integration of Moldova into the EU or NATO is simply a case allowing them to secession. erstwhile they organised a referendum not recognized by the state authorities in 2014, this option was supported by 98% of the voting population of Gagauzia, and 98.5% advocated the integration of Moldova into the then Customs Union of Russia of Belarus and Kazakhstan alternatively of the EU. However, it was only the coming to power in Chisinau of the pro-Western camp that led to the emergence of confrontation.
In May last year, Gaguasia elected the head of her autonomous authorities bearing the conventional Turkish sashken title. They were won by Evginija Gucul of the Sor party. It is simply a populist organization of businessman Ilan Sora, who escaped from Moldova, after being convicted for participating in the country's biggest financial scandal in 2014, erstwhile it was removed from the Moldovan banking strategy about a billion dollars. The country's main election committee long refused to accept the choice of Gucul. This sparked manifestations and rallies of the inhabitants and political elites of Gagauzia, akin to those of 1990. Gucul was yet approved, but president Maia Sandu has not so far nominated her as a associate of the central government, despite the fact that this place is owned by the former.
The operation of the liberal camp thus resembles the dilemmas of the current Polish governing coalition, which, under the slogans of restoring democracy, the regulation of law and the "return to the West" goes to activities that exceed the limits of articles of law to usage euphemism. In addition, the pro-Western course of the fresh Moldovan authorities caused controversy about Russian gas supplies and disputes with Gazprom – Moscow considers the gas tap to be a useful policy tool. As a result, the gas price for households has increased 5 times in Moldova since 2021. Meanwhile, the Sor organization was devolved.
In the autumn of last year, the central authorities blocked 15 million lei, which went to the peculiar account of the institution liable for coordinating pension payments, sent by a private contributor to pension allowances for Gagauzia pensioners, which Gucul promised. However, the central authorities considered it to be Ilan Sora's money, and thus from the crime.
Another step of Chisinau poses an even greater threat to the autonomous structures of Gagauzia. 5 October Moldovan parliament passed a revision of the taxation code, according to which Gagauzia is required to carry out the legal taxation refund for entrepreneurs, including VAT from its own regional budget, alternatively than from the state budget as has been the case so far. This means that the financial envelope of the Gagauzia authorities is depleted, which they have so far been eager to spend on expensive, multilingual and multiethnic regions, education and social policy. The law was challenged to the Constitutional Court, which will set a fresh framework for the relation and possible confrontation between Chishinov and Komrat.
It is amazing that Gagauzia is not offered by the Western patrons of the Moldovan authorities. Unfortunately, as I have noticed, the second are moving on the border of law, and their actions may odor like political revenge to the people of Gagauzia. The governing PAS had the lowest electoral support in 2021 in this autonomous region – 4.14%, compared to 52.8 percent national support. Liberals had lower support in Gagauzia than among the separatist Transnistrians who decided to vote in the Moldovan parliamentary elections. A year earlier, the presidential candidate Sandu in Gagauzia received only 5.41% of the vote. The remainder fell on her main rival.
The cost of distancing from Russia, measurable, due to the fact that determined by problems with Russian gas supply or inexpensive electricity from Transnistria, is mainly borne by average citizens, which has already affected the decline in popularity of PAS. It is besides a component of skepticism in Gagauzia. The West should come up with an offer if it is believed that they are playing a geopolitical game seriously. Gagauzia is only 130 000 inhabitants. Unless the line of marginalization, majorization and marginalization prevails. It's cheaper. This happened between 2013 and 2014 in Ukraine with supporters of the organization of the Regions... with tragic effect.
GAGAUSIA — MOLDOVA PROBLEM
Once again, I will address Moldova. It is not possibly spectacular but significant. Moldova was 1 of those east Partnership countries, alongside Georgia and Ukraine, which the West has always considered as a viable candidate for inclusion in its... pic.twitter.com/xuVRLiMT0c
