Protesters demand cancellation of integrated history course

3000 persons, according to the organizers, participated on Wednesday, October 11 in a protest manifestation against the introduction of the integrated history course and textbooks. Police claim a figure of 500 participants. Historians, politicians, students, teachers and parents participated in the protest that lasted about 3 hours. The participants displayed anticommunist slogans and pleaded against the integrated history. Several young mpeople posted messages criticizing the integrated history and demanding reintroduction of the Romanians’ History and of the Universal History. Historian Anatol Petrencu declared at the protest action that the present communist government is insistently, authoritative and undemocratically promoting the history course called “integrated”. According to him, the history textbooks were written secretly by anonymous authors, according to Marxist-Leninist concept, having an anti-European message and including xenophobe and anti-Romanian notions. “The imposed history is humiliating us, and the undertaken actions intend in fact to eliminate everything that is Romanian in Basarabia”, Petrencu declared. The Chairman of the Association of Historians, Gheorghe Paladi, said that according to some information, the government tried to hinder participation in the protest action. According to him, a day before the Ministry of Education and Youth (MET) forwarded to the schools a special order through which it obliged the education institutions to prohibit participation in the meeting. At the same time, the education departments organize “seminars” in raions, aiming at stopping teachers from participating in protests. Many students and teachers, representatives of the civil society and of the political parties pleaded as well against the introduction of the integrated history course. The organizers announced after the protests that they will continue to protest until MET will exclude the textbooks and the integrated history course from schools. The integrated history course was introduced in the education program on September 1, 2006. This decision generated the disapproval of some teachers, students, NGOs and political parties, being considered by many scientists as a historic fake and an attempt to politicize pre-higher education.