The 100th anniversary of Bessarabia’s union with Romania (March 27, 1918) was celebrated by a Great Centenary Assembly in the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau. At the rally, thousands of people from both sides of the Prut River voted for Moldova’s union with Romania and requested the Parliaments of Moldova and Romania to accept delegations of the Great Centenary Assembly to attend the March 27 solemn meeting, calling on the Romanian legislature to adopt a decision by which to become involved and contribute to the national reunification, IPN reports.
By the adopted declaration, the people who took part in the Assembly undertook to take part in the public consultation that will be held in Chisinau municipality during April 1-14 and to vote for the union. They also committed themselves to convoke the National Reunification Congress in Moldova’s old capital Iasi during August 24-26, to continue the union events during September 1-2 and to disseminate the union wish in Brussels during September 24-26, in an international conference in the European Parliament.
Head of the Association “UNIREA – ODIP” Vlad Biletski said the presence of a large number of people in the central square of Chisinau shows to the whole world that Bessarabia wants the union. “Regrettably, the propaganda and Soviet manipulation still persist in the Republic of Moldova and we should make effort to fight what hatred of unionism and Romania means. It is our duty to obtain a unionist majority in the centenary year, both on the street and in Parliament,” he stated.
“I look at this crowd and understand that during 27 years we have been lied to as we were lied to that we are few in number and weak and we don’t know what we want and how we can do it. There are 130 communities that already voted for their union with Romania. They make up 20% of the Republic of Moldova. So, 20% already united with Romania,” stated the leader of the Civic Movement “Tinerii Moldovei” Anatol Ursu.
Head of the National Unity Bloc “BUN” Ion Leashchenko said that if the state will not ensure the union, the villages will do it. “Travelling through Moldova’s villages, I saw how important the union is for them. The disappointed villages and the people need to live in a better country, in a great Romania. We should not forget that the union with Romania is our greatest ideal,” he noted.
George Simion, chairman of the unionist platform “Actiunea 2012”, said the people now go through uncertain times and need strength. “During these days, we must break the border on the Prut once and for all. Down with the border on the Prut! We came all here to make us heard by the Parliaments in Chisinau and Bucharest,” he stated.
Victor Grebenshchikov, a member of the People’s Council 2, who said that he lived in Siberia for a period, addressed the representatives of the ethnic minorities in Russian. “Let’s think together. When the Russians say they want to live in a united Russia, everyone says it is their right to want so. When the Ukrainians say they want a sovereign Ukraine, everyone agrees that this is something normal. That’s why I think the ethnic minorities should respect the right of the Romanian-language speakers to live in a unitary national state, when they actually represent 82% of Moldova’s population,” he stated.
Representatives of political parties of Moldova and Romania, people of culture and mayors of communities that signed symbolic statements on Moldova’s union with Romania also gave speeches in the Great National Assembly Square. Petru Frunza, mayor of Puhoi village of Ialoveni district, said their village want the union because they know that Romania ensures welfare and equitable justice for its people. Vladimir Susarenco, mayor of Sadova, Calarasi, said he cannot understand how one can reject the union with Romania when we speak the same language and have the same culture, when Romania provides scholarships or when the local kindergarten is repaired with Romanian funds.
Ex-President of Romania Traian Basescu said that hundreds of thousands of people in Moldova struggled in the central square of Chisinau in 1989 for the Romanian language and the same place is now used to demand that the Parliaments in Bucharest and Chisinau should vote the union in honor of the union centenary. “We now have the obligation to ensure the union as we are the only country that still exists by the wish of Stalin and Hitler. The country’s reunification is a matter of national dignity. The union is now needed both by Moldova and by Romania,” stated Traian Basescu.
Ex-mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said the Moldovans should follow the example of the inhabitants of Berlin, who removed the Berlin Wall, and should remove the wall on the Prut. “We want the union not only for higher pensions and for a shorter road to the EU or a better life. The union is and will be our ideal, which is the holiest one after the Christian faith. The union is the icon of the Romanian nation,” stated Dorin Chirtoaca.
The leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu was also present in the Great National Assembly Square. In a posting on a social networking site later, she wrote that “the responsibility of taking a decision and of working together for the people’s welfare is now to be borne by the descendants, as 100 years ago. It is now the duty of the current generations to act for the people’s benefit and, united, to emerge victorious.”
According to the police, 21 young people equipped with medical masks, anti-gas masks, knifes and cudgels, who headed for the Great National Assembly Square and tried to enter the crowd, were arrested on March 25. These were taken to the Buiucani police inspectorate for determining all the circumstances.
The police said the event involved about 7,000 people. Other sources reported figures of 17,000 or 20,000. Earlier, the organizers said they expected about 100,000 people to come to the rally.
