Tiraspol Authorities urge Moldovan Parliament to officially recognize Transnistria

The administration from Tiraspol sent a letter to the Parliament of Moldova by means of which it solicits recognition of separatist region’s statehood. The so-called Supreme Soviet of the unrecognized region from the left bank of Nistru River sent letters to several international bodies and to the parliaments of several countries, by means of which it solicits recognizing “rmn” as sovereign and independent. The administration from Tiraspol presents as an argument the results of the so-called independence referendum organized in September. Letters were sent to the Parliament of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus as well as to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and to OSCE. The deputy speaker of the Parliament, Maria Postoico announced on November 16 at the sitting of the Moldovan Parliament that the letter arrived at the Parliament in the evening of November 15. In the letter addressed to the MPs from Chisinau is mentioned that “the Nistrenia Republic” is “a country with a real functioning state system and by not recognizing this fact the economic and social development of rmn is hampered”. As well, the letter mentions that the results of the referendum organized on September 17 proved that more than 90% of the population considers that it is impossible for rmn to remain in the composition of Moldova, and the international observers recognized the referendum as democratic. “Nistrenia has all the reasons for obtaining the statute of a recognized state”, the authors of the appeal underline. The Supreme Soviet also requests the Romanian Chamber of Deputies to initiate the procedure on recognizing rmn as a sovereign and independent state. The communist MP, Victor Stepaniuc declared that this political document has no legal grounds. He proposed to create a work group which will elaborate a declaration on this issue. The proposal of Stepaniuc was supported by the Christian-democrat faction. Iurie Rosca pleaded in favor of approving it at Thursday’s meeting, or at least on Friday. The MP Vlad Cubreacov declared that the parliament was obliged to take an attitude about the referendum after its organization. The social-liberal MP, Oleg Serebrian declared that this letter comes from private persons because the authorities from Tiraspol are not recognized; therefore it is not necessary to answer to each letter separately. He proposed the Parliament to ignore this appeal. Other opposition MPs as well considered that this issue should be first of all examined by the Standing Bureau. The proposal was supported after several debates. The authorities from Tiraspol organized on September 17 2006 the so-called independence referendum. Its results were not recognized by the international community, except for the State Duma of the Russian Federation.