The national minorities didn’t plan special events for the national holiday Our Language Day. Even if they agree that the citizens of Moldova must know the official language, they admit that they prefer to speak the mother tongue in the community.
Contacted by IPN, Stepan Leadric, head of the Ukrainians’ community “Zapovit-Mostenire”, said that this year they do not think about celebrations. “We staged no events on the Independence Day of Ukraine either. Our relatives in Ukraine seek help from us and it is now important to support them,” he stated.
The head of the Association of Ukrainian Youth in Moldova Dmitri Lecartsev said the young people from the Ukrainian community organized nothing this year. “We didn’t have time. We had been away with diaspora responsibilities and there was no one who could deal with the preparations,” he said.
Ludmila Lashchinova, who heads the Russian community in Moldova, noted that every month she convenes a club to discuss topical subjects. “This time we will speak about Moldova’s independence and language. I think every citizen of Moldova must know the official language. In the community, we prefer to speak Russian and keep the traditions as we inherited them,” she said.
Victor Terzi, who heads the Association of Young Gagauz People of Moldova, said that they speak the Gagauz and Russian languages in southern Moldova. It’s harder to learn Romanian. There are not many teachers teaching the official language in schools, while the working teachers are elderly and do not make much effort to motivate the students to study the language. “I learned the official language in Chisinau. If I had remained in southern Moldova, I wouldn’t have spoken it probably,” he confessed.
Nicolae Terzi, chairman of the Community of Gagauz People in Moldova, said it is not right to blame the Gagauz people only for not knowing the official language. A special learning program is needed for the settlements with mixed population. There is will to study the Romanian language, but there are no possibilities and the authorities do not show interest.
According to the census taken this year, in Moldova there are almost 300,000 Ukrainians, 200,000 Russians and 150,000 Gagauz people. These are the largest communities of national minorities.
