Gagauzia's People's Assembly at 100 days

The new structure of the Gagauz parliament turns 100 days, an occasion used by its speaker Anna Harlamenco to talk about the developments in the autonomy, on Friday, November 21, in the quarters of Info-Prim Neo News Agency. The new MPs started working on July 31, after 4 months of consultations among three parliamentary groups. On August 14 august, the People Assembly adopted a statement addressed to the Moldovan president and speaker in which it expressed their condolences to the relatives of the Ossetians killed in the Russian-Georgian conflict, in full swing then. According to Anna Harlamenco, the message targeted the citizens from the region first. “The Gagauz people felt themselves the hardships faced by a small people. It's in the Gagauz people's blood: if a small people is bullied, then one should stand for its defense,” the Parliamentarian said. “The Gagauzians are affected by separatism, they only have a strong desire to survive, to assert themselves,” she said. That statement of the Comrat legislature was not voted for by the Communists deputies. The labors of forming the parliamentary structures last summer and spring triggered multiple suits in courts, brought to a close by those three groupings by signing a memo. The Gagauz speaker says now the fights in courts are unleashed by the Local Public Administration Ministry. “The goal ({of the Legal Direction of this Ministry – e.n.}) is to work with mayors and councils, but first they aimed their efforts at the People's Assembly. It seems like it would have coercion powers: it sues any decision we adopt,” Anna Harlamenco states. The president of the People's Assembly presented a declaration concerning the religious conflict under way in Comrat now, after the bishop of Cahul and Comrat Anatolie had decided to remove the priest of the town, Iulian. Anna Harlamenco considers this conflict not lacking political subtext, but did not go into details. She says the bishop wants to punish the priest for not having met him with due honors. “A critical situation emerges in the society, more and more often calls are heard in the Gagauz villages to get out from the subordination of the Cahul bishopric and to create an own bishopric, or an autonomous church,” reads the statement signed by all the Gagauz MPs. It is addressed to bishop Anatolie's superiors, but also to the Moldovan president and speaker. On September 2 , 2008, the Gagauz legislature repeatedly decided to fire the supervisory board of the regional public broadcaster, but the decision was sued. Anna Harlamenco says she resolved, for a period, to let the things be solved by the court, and then the People's Assembly will announce a contest to appoint new members of the Observers Council of Teleradio-Gagauzia. According to the Gagauz speaker, there three groupings in the parliament, which avoid to call themselves factions. Of 32 MPs, 16 are Communists, 5 declare themselves supporters of Comrat's mayor Nikolai Dudoglu, and the rest are part of United Gagauzia Movement, backing Governor Mihail Formuzal. On November 23, the Gagauzians will elect three MPs. After saying the People's Assembly's vehicles are old, Anna Harlamenco took pride in specifying Vladimir Voronin promised her a brand-new state car.