Former deportees, children and grandchildren commemorate those that did not come back

On the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the first wave of Stalinist deportations, dozens of repression victims and their children and grandchildren gathered in the square of the Railway Terminal in Chisinau on Saturday to commemorate their parents and grandparents, Info-Prim Neo reports. ”For my family, 1941 was a year of mourning,” said Valentina Sturza, president of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Detainees of Moldova. “At midnight, we were waken up and taken to Tiraspol and then separated from our father and sent to Kazahstan. We found out later that our father was taken to Sverdlovsk region in a gulag. We lost everything then – the family, property, dignity, the country. We were named people‘s enemies for the simple reason that we were intellectuals, teachers, mayors. Unfortunately, the Communists’ attitude towards us remained the same. We continue to be named people‘s enemies, but we consider ourselves Bessarabians as we speak Romanian,” Valentina Sturza said. The MP of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Hotineanu, who was present at the event, was born while in deportation on October 1, 1950 in Kazakhstan. ”I’m a victim of the Stalinist repressions. My father was a mayor and wanted only to teach the children, but was punished with death for this,” the MP said. “After many years, I went to the place where I was born, but did not find even the crosses in the former deportees’ cemetery. The young generation is obliged to remember the repressed Bessarabians because the current government does not do it. At yesterday’s sitting of the Parliament, I proposed keeping a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Stalinist repressions, but only the Opposition and the diplomatic corpse did it. The Communists refused to stand up. Such an attitude speaks for itself.” The Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca also rendered homage to the deportation victims. He confirmed the local public authorities’ intention to erect a monument to the victims of the Communist repressions in the square of the Railway Terminal. The necessary money was already earmarked. The contest to select the best design will end the coming days. “The Chisinau Municipal Council should only approve the project and the works will start,” the mayor said. Different problems faced by the deportees were addressed during the commemoration activities, including the returning of apartments and the compensations for publish utilities, which were recently annulled. Today, it is 68 years of the deportations of 1941, when over 20,000 people were forced to leave their homes. On July 6, it is 60 years of the second wave of deportations, when over 40,000 people were deported.