Victims of deportation commemorated in Chisinau

Government officials and dozens of ordinary people Wednesday took part in a meeting to remember the victims of the second deportation wave. They laid flowers at the commemorative stone in the square of the Railway Terminal, attended a commemoration service and observed a minute of silence, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said he comes to the square to commemorate the deportees twice a year. He stated that July 6 is a tragic event for our nation and this truth should be said. “Not drawing conclusions from the horrors of 1941 and 1949 means not having minimum responsibility for the future of this land and our people,” said Dorin Chirtoaca. He also said that former and current Communist municipal councilors were invited to the meeting, but they did not come. “What should we think of this? That they do not recognize these crimes? That they accept these crimes? That they want more of such crimes?”, declared Dorin Chirtoaca. Prime Minister Vlad Filat told reporters that those tragic events will always remain in people's hearts. The prime minister also noted that the best and the most diligent men suffered as a result of the two waves of deportations. “It is our duty to remember and pay homage to those who suffered and who, in fact, gave us the possibility to preserve our greatest assets – our ideals and our nation”, said Vlad Filat. The former deportees who attended the event recalled with sorrow the moments they experienced then. Most of them were very young when they were deported just because their parents had households that were larger than others, and when they were allowed to return, they received nothing back and had to start their lives anew. Valentina Sturza, the head of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Detainees, noted that commemorative actions are held twice a year, on June 13 and on July 6, to remember the events when over 94,000 Moldovans were loaded onto cattle cars and deported to concentration camps in Siberia. Only about 8,600 of them are alive today.