Does Moldova face the risk of experiencing the Ukraine scenario – intervention by another state on the pretext of ‘protecting’ the speakers of Russian, Romanian or Moldovan, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Gagauz etc? What should we do for the country’s people to feel at home in Moldova? IPN Agency is producing a series of articles where politicians, experts and representatives of national minorities provide answers to these and other questions.
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The situation in Moldova is stable and a repeat of the Ukraine scenario is excluded. Even if there is no danger of separatism promotion in the country or in some of its regions, the authorities must adopt a series of documents to remove all the problems related to the national minorities, considers the head of the Union of Ukrainians of Moldova Svetlana Mislitsky.
According to her, the state makes effort to ensure harmony between the national minorities. The existence of the Interethnic Relations Bureau, which is the central authority promoting the state policy on interethnic relations, shows that the authorities take into account the opinions of the national minorities, which represent 30% of Moldova’s population.
As regards the Ukrainians in Moldova, Svetlana Mislitsky said they have enjoyed increased attention on behalf of the state in studying the mother tongue, for which money is allocated from the budget. In many settlements that are populated mainly by Ukrainians, the Ukrainian language is studied at school and this shows that the government devotes attention to the first language of the national minorities. The Ukrainian ethnics want the mother tongue to be taught in all the settlements where 50% of the inhabitants are Ukrainians.
The state authorities support the promotion of the culture of the national minorities, with the Ethnic-Cultural Festival held annually in September being an example. “I think that Moldova is the only state in the former Soviet area where there is such a cultural event, supported by the head of state. There are organized many activities and this allows us to say that the authorities pay increased attention to the promotion of culture and development of interethnic relations,” said the head of the Union of Ukrainians of Moldova.
According to Svetlana Mislitsky, despite the progress made, there are many things that are yet to be done. The Ukrainian ethnics lack teachers of Ukrainian because the Moldovan universities do not train such teachers. Thus, many young people go to study at universities in Ukraine and do not return. A solution is to open an additional specialty for young teachers who want to study the Ukrainian language at the Chisinau Teacher Training University.
Svetlana Mislitsky said the authorities must also educate the Moldovan citizens that they are citizens of one state, regardless of their ethnicity. Promotion of bilingualism would be welcome. “It seems to that Russian in the education institutions is no longer taught as earlier. Bilingualism ensures communication and maintains peace between the national minorities. Other states make effort during many years to reach such a state,” she added.
In conclusion, the head of the Union of Ukrainians of Moldova said the country’s citizens feel at home in Moldova and there are no cases of discrimination on grounds of ethnicity now. Moldova does not face the danger of separatism among the national ethnicities, while the Ukrainians who live on the right bank of the Nistru have a negative attitude to the promotion of separatism by the people from the Transnistrian region, where a large number of residents are Ukrainian ethnics.
Alina Marin, IPN
