Romanian honor cemetery opens in Moldova in the presence of king Mihai I

A Romanian honor cemetery, where the remains of 1,000 Romanian soldiers are inhumed, fallen in battle in July 1941 on the bridge of Tsiganca, opened on Thursday, June 1, on the hill Iepureni-Tsiganca, Cantemir raion, in the presence of the Romanian ex-monarch king Mihai I. Thousands of persons – officials, ex-soldiers, pilgrims from Romania and inhabitants of the raion – participated at this event. The official ceremony of the first Romanian military cemetery rebuilt by the National Office for Romanian Heroes Cult on Moldova’s territory started with a mess of Romanian and Moldovan priests led by the Metropolitan Basarabian Bishop Petru, following the speeches of some Romanian officials, as well as of those from Chisinau, represented by the deputy minister of Culture Valeriu Tsurcanu and several MPs. The speakers considered the event as a “guarantee of respect on behalf of state authorities and Romanian civil society for the historic past”, “an everlasting not-to-forget so that the dramatic events of the summer of 1941 would never happen again”, and as well a “proof of regards that Romania and Moldova have for the Conventions of Geneva – document obliging each state to take care of war graves”. When the speeches got to an end, the officials laid flowers at the military graves and bowed down at the cross on the top of the hill. The former Romanian monarch, king Mihai I, making his first visit on the left bank of Prut after 64 years, was present as well at the opening ceremony of the cemetery in Tsiganca. The inhabitants greeted the king with applauses and acclamations. The last time, His Majesty visited Basarabia in 1942, and the cemetery of Tsiganca - in 1941. The visit of the Romanian sovereign was termed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of RM as a “private visit”, and political commentators of Chisinau considered it as an “invitation to reconciliation”, which unfortunately was not taken into consideration very seriously, as high-level official haven’t attended the event. Being launched in June 2005, when a cross was installed on the spot where graves were laying, devastated after 1944, the reconstruction of the cemetery lasted exactly 1 year, time in which there were rearranged 9 common graves, installed 143 Christian crosses paying homage to unidentified soldiers and set 11 marble rocks, with the names of Romanian identified heroes. 1,020 Romanian soldiers were buried in the cemetery of Tsiganca. According to Romanian archives, about 2,300 Romanian militaries were buried in the neighborhood.