President Maia Sandu said the deportations are a wound of our nation, which cannot be easily healed. In a message transmitted on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the deportations of June 12-13, the official said that strong opposition to such crimes against the right to life is the only way of honoring the memory of the victims of deportations, IPN reports.

“On the night of June 13, 1941, over 6,000 families of Moldovans lived the worst nightmare of their life, being deported. In total, about 20,000 people – priests, mayors, teachers, entrepreneurs from villages and towns – were taken away at gunpoint and transported in cattle wagons to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The wives and children were separated from their husbands and fathers. There was not enough water and only salted fish was often given to them as food,” stated Maia Sandu.

He noted that the most cultured people, the intellectuality of the nation, grandparents full of kindness, courage and love for the nation overnight became “enemies of the people”. The Stalinist regime was afraid of hardworking people, who defended the values of the nation, and violated the elementary rights of the people and human dignity.

“It is a wound of our nation, which cannot be easily healed. The past in which our grandparents or parents were taken to work by force or were killed for what they were, not for committing something, continues to cause pain to us. Strong opposition to such crimes against freedom and the right to life is the only way of honoring their memory,” said the official.

In her message, President Sandu also said that until recent, everyone believed that these tragedies remained in the past and history will not repeat for whole families to be killed or deported from their own homes. “But such crimes have been committed in Ukraine for over a year and the regime from the Kremlin attacked a free nation for the simple reason that this wants to decide its own destiny. The Republic of Moldova will continue helping our neighbors who flee from the war. We will continue being solidary with Ukraine as we learned this lesson from our grandparents – faith, kindness and love for freedom are our key values through which we will join together the family of civilized nations of Europe, the European Union, in the not-too-distant future,” noted the official. 

The first wave of Stalinist deportations in Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina occurred on the night of June 13, 1941. Two more waves happened later, in 1949 and 1951.