The political culture of Moldovans leaves to be desired owing to the historical inheritance of the Ottoman and then tsarist and Soviet occupations. The cultural and political influences of these empires deformed the European character of the collective mentality of the population in the Prut-Nistru area, but the European integration creates conditions for a national renaissance. The statements were made by Anatol Taranu, director of the Institute for Political Analysis and Consultancy “Politicon”, in the October 16, 2014 public debate “Political culture in the context of polarization of political options in Moldova. Pro-European option: change as a chance and remedies against fear of change”, staged by IPN Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.
“Our people is European by origin. We were born in a symbiosis of the Roman world with the Dacian barbarians. In fact, this was the historical evolution of all the European peoples: the Roman element, combined with the barbarian element, gave birth to the European culture. It’s true that the Roman influence in the eastern area was fueled mainly by the Byzantine tradition rather than the Roman Catholic one and this element already started to determine our particularities in history. But in the 16th century, we began to move on a way that was collateral to that followed by most of the European peoples. We started to deviate from the European culture. The Ottoman Empire, by its suzerainty, influenced us a lot. Mentality traditions started to take root here, which made us different from those in the western European area,” stated the analyst.
According to Anatol Taranu, this cultural deviation by Moldova from the European civilization was marked by the annexation of Bessarabia in 1812. “This area became a constituent element of not a non-European culture, but of a Eurasian culture and the implementation of the elements of this culture in the then collective mentality determined the contemporary mentality. Afterward, with the domination of the Soviet Union, the collective mentality and political culture were substantially deformed. The deformation of the political culture, by deviation from the norms and traditions of the European political culture, was so substantial that we continue to pay tribute owing to this deviation,” said the expert.
“The European choice for Moldova perfectly coincides with what national renaissance means. For us, national renaissance means overcoming of the past and the colonial inheritance as an element of the Russian Empire of the Soviet Union.”
The October 16 debate is the 34th of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates”. IPN Agency stages these debates the third consecutive year with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation and in cooperation with Radio Moldova.
