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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Victoria Bucataru, program director at the Foreign Police Association (APE), said that judging by the perceptions of society, the ethnical situation in Moldova can be described as uncertain. Disagreements continue to exist between different categories of ethnic minorities, the spoken language and the history being subjects for dispute among the people.
“We didn’t manage to overcome this moment and to create a favorable environment for all the ethnic communities for a number of reasons. Not much effort was made to integrate the minorities into society and to implement open and friendly policies that would attract the speakers of Russian, Ukrainian, Gagauz and Bulgarian to the environment where Romanian is spoken,” said the APE program director. Victoria Bucataru considers that clear Romanian language textbooks are needed and the teachers teaching Romanian must be well-trained, while the language should be widely spoken in schools.
The expert believes the risk of separatism promotion in Moldova or in some of its regions exists, even if it may derive not directly from the national minorities. “The problem is different. The national minorities represent Moldova’s weakness because different foreign players promote their interests through them, interfering thus in the internal and external policy of the state,” stated Victoria Bucataru.
As to the situation in Ukraine, namely the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the expert said such a step was taken on the pretext of protecting the Russian minorities in Ukraine. Moldova also faces such a danger and it is very important to pursue policies to integrate the national minorities so that they first feel citizens of the country and afterward have geopolitical and strategic preferences.
An IPN article published earlier said a scenario similar to that in Ukraine may be implemented in Moldova by Russia or Romania. Victoria Bucataru said that comparing Romania and the Russian Federation, we see that they have different approaches to Moldova.
The expert underlined that Romania forms part of the European Union, which does not pursue geopolitical goals. The EU focuses more on democratization aspects, the purpose being to create stable neighborhood and good cooperation partners. It counts on instruments aimed at developing the institutions, creating a favorable investment climate and ensuring the security of states so that it borders stable countries and avoids crisis areas. Russia acts in a different way, based on its geopolitical interests. It wants to regain its influence in the post-Soviet area. Now that Ukraine and Moldova make progress in the dialogue with the EU, Russia considers that it is losing this area. It found no other way out and intervened militarily.
According to Victoria Bucataru, Moldova must learn the lesson taught in Ukraine and be more attentive when addressing more sensitive subjects for the internal situation and the foreign partners. In Ukraine, a role was played by the law on the languages spoken by the minorities in regions. The law providing for the institution of two official languages in the regions where the national minorities represent more than 10% of the population has been abrogated this February. “This must be a negative example for us. We must think about our citizens who should enjoy decent living conditions in Moldova, regardless of their ethnicity,” she stated.
The APE program director noted that Moldova is a neutral state, though the aspects of the neutrality status haven’t been widely discussed in society. Given that foreign troops exist on the country’s territory, Moldova’s neutrality is in question. “But we must not give up. We must discuss and seek guarantees for the country’s security and neutrality. This status wasn’t discussed, but is necessary. When we saw that we face a crisis, we established that we cannot defend ourselves,” said Victoria Bucataru.
She also spoke about possible solutions for overcoming certain risks, saying it is not only about Moldova’s policies as regards the minorities. It is also about people’s education. When a Moldovan citizen goes abroad, they first of all learn the language of the country to which they go so as to be able to live there. In our country, they don’t cultivate this thing in children. In this respect, parents should educate their children so that they can coexist in a multiethnic environment. Romanian is the official language and it must be known by everyone. But this does not mean that Russian or other languages of the ethnic minorities should not be studied in schools.
Mariana Galben, IPN
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IPN note: In this series of articles, IPN also presented the opinions of Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, head of the International Relations and Politology Department of the Free International University of Moldova Mihai Cernencu, politologist Vitalie Andrievschi, who manages a network of information-analytical portals in Moldova and Ukraine (ava.md, apn.md, and avaukr.com), and head of the Union of Ukrainians of Moldova Svetlana Mislitsky. The Agency’s questions started also to be answered by the Bashkan of Gagauzia Mihail Formuzal, MP Alla Mironic, specialist in education economy Andrei Munteanu, who is a member of the Mediation Council of Moldova, head of the National Roma Center Nicolae Radita and others.