Dozens picket President’s Office protesting against ‘Transnistrianization’

Several tens of members and supporters of the Civic Association for Liquidation of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s Consequences picketed on Friday the President’s Office building. Although the protesters’ initial intention was to crowd in front of the presidential building, the police wouldn’t let them, despite a valid authorisation from the City Hall, arguing that the law forbids gatherings within a 50 metre range from the building. Their start spoiled, the protesters remained resolute and moved the rally a couple of metres away to a nearby sidewalk, where they eventually began, with posters reading “Bessarabia Is Romanian Land”, “Awaken Thee, Romanian!”, “Down with the Border on the Prut”, and other pro-Romanian slogans. “We are here to protest because, under the pretext of re-establishing territorial integrity, President Vladimir Voronin wants to ‘Transnistrianize’ the Republic of Moldova”, said Iacob Golovca, the leader of the Association. “Voronin intends to bring here his reserve players from Transnistria, all those Smirnovs and Maracutsas, to seat them in the Parliament and the Government so that they can change the Constitution, liquidate the Republic of Moldova as a state and Transnistrianize it… “We cannot remain indifferent to the crime committed by the Moldovan president when he said that our tricolour is a fascist flag. For that, he belongs behind bars and not in the presidential office”, Golovca exclaimed. Ilie Bratu, the association’s secretary, stated that all the problems in Moldova stem from the authorities’ denial of the Romanian national identity. He wished to remind President Voronin that the ethnonym Moldovan derives from the name of the Moldova River, just like Oltean comes from the Olt River, and Muresan from the Mures. In such case, as the Moldova River doesn’t cross our republic, Bratu suggested the president to declare himself a Nistrian to better correspond to the place where he was born (Voronin was born in Corjova, a village on the Nistru), or Bican, after the name of the small river crossing Chisinau (Bic). In March 2007, the Civic Association for Liquidation of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s Consequences requested the Chisinau City Hall for an authorisation to picket the President’s Office following the refusal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open two Romanian consulates in the cities of Cahul and Balti. The then caretaker mayor Veaceslav Iordan refused the Association, claiming the latter’s intention conflicted with its statute. Later, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the City Hall to authorise the rally and awarded the plaintiffs 1,000 lei for non-pecuniary damage.