No piece of land, no square meter is conceded as blood was shed for each piece of land, for each square meter. The people fought for the ancestors’ land, but the situation in which we are now shows that not even the right side of the Nistru can reach the point we need, director of the Tiraspol Theoretical Lyceum “Lucian Blaga”, teacher Ion Iovchev stated in an interview for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that is quoted by IPN.

According to him, we should say it loudly that the left side of the Nistru is an occupation area and in that area things cannot be brought in order by Moldova’s laws. Most of the people in the region are elderly people, do not have Internet and are manipulated through the media. “The TV and radio stations permanently speak about independence, about the Transnistrian republic, about the fact that we will be soon recognized and will become part of the Russian Federation,” he stated, noting that the people are manipulated and they think that everything will be fine.

Ion Iovchev said that most of the locals obtain Russian citizenship and get Russian pension that is larger and this is another problem. He described the atmosphere in the region on March 2, 1992. “I associate March 2 with March 4 of the same year, 1992, as I also experienced terrible events that day. On March 4, I was invited by the head of the Tiraspol Education Division to take over School No. 20 (the then name of “Lucian Blaga” Lyceum) and was appointed that day. But I had then to accept at the school the bodies of those killed on March 2,” he related, saying the situation was very hard then.

Asked how much the education process was affected on the left side of the Nistru, Ion Iovchev sad education in the region remained at the level of the 1980s, of the Soviet Union and the mentality of the teachers working there is based on the old models. They are not aware of the changes made now in education.