Thousands of people went to the Great National Assembly Square on Wednesday evening to light a candle in memory of the victims of the Russian and Soviet occupation. The commemoration meeting was organized by the Liberal Party, which forms part of the ruling alliance, on the occasion of 200 years of the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire. The participants wrote “1812 – 200 years of Russian occupation” with the help of candles, which were later left at the commemorative stone in memory of the victims of the Soviet occupation that was put up in front of the Government Building. Those attending the event observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the occupation, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Liberal Party’s leader Mihai Ghimpu said the candles were lit in memory of those who died as patriots of this land. According to him, these 200 years were years of suffering and humiliation, during which somebody else decided Moldova’s fate. “We fight for our freedom even now. A relevant example is the murder of Vadim Pisari by a Russian peacekeeper at the start of this year. It is a crime to forget the sufferings of your people even after 200 years. Some people have not realized during these 200 years that freedom is won, not begged,” said Mihai Ghimpu. The first deputy chairman of the Liberal Party, Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said that two empires decided the fate of this land 200 years ago. “Since ten, this piece of land has been in a difficult situation. During 200 years, we did not have many occasions for telling the truth. But a people that does not know the past, does not have a future,” he stated. The meeting involved participants and members of the Union Council that pleads for Moldova’s union with Romania. Before the meeting, they staged a march with torches and candles in memory of those who defended the Romanian nation from the former head office of the People’s Council to the Great National Assembly Square. Nicolae Dabija, co-chairman of the Union Council, said that May 16 is the saddest date in Moldova’s history. “All the evil comes from then. We organized a meeting to honor those who sacrificed their lives for language and freedom,” he stated. On May 16, 1812, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire signed in Bucharest a Peace Treaty, whereby a part of the territory of historical Moldova, which was later called Bessarabia, was ceded to the Tsarist Empire. In 1940, as a result of the signing of the Ribbentrop – Molotov Pact, the territory of Bessarabia was fragmented and incorporated into different republics of the former USSR. Another part of the political class and the population of Moldova consider the years 1812 and 1940 as liberation years.