The national flag on the building of the Chisinau City Hall as well as the three flags put up at the entrance to the building – of Chisinau, of the European Union and the state flag – were flown at half mast on May 16, IPN reports.

According to a communiqué from the City Hall, this way it is commemorated 201 years of the annexation of Bessarabia by the Tsarist Empire. The municipality called on other public institutions to also fly the flags at half mast so as to commemorate the day of May 16, 1812.

On this day, there was signed the Russian-Turkish peace treaty by which Moldova from the left side of the Prut River was annexed by the Russian Empire.