[ - How independent is, in your opinion, Moldova now and how has the Independence evolved in years? You have lived in other states, how would you compare the things?] - I think there is no doubt that Moldova is an independent state today, recognized by international bodies, a member of the Council of Europe and of other international organizations. Moldova has a democratic system of electing its leadership bodies, has a Parliament also passing through the elections' filter. So, from this point of view, the Republic of Moldova is an independent state. It became independent from the huge will of this people and the people's will was accomplished. That is why we consider that the day when the independence was declared is a national holiday. When we talk about Moldova's independence, we should think of how every citizen of this country realizes he lives in an independent state. There are some answering plainly this question. There are others, who consider that, although formally it is independent , still there are certain links restricting the independence. For centuries, given its geographical situation, Moldova stood at the crossroads of three civilizations: at the eastern boundary of the Roman civilization, at the western border of the Slav empire and at the northern border of the former Ottoman Empire, to whom it was a vassal. So these things undoubtedly have left some consequences still felt today. Remembering that other events also occurred meanwhile. Our history is divided into the epoch when there were some independent principalities, but with certain genetic links which cannot be denied. Then following the victory in a war, the state formed, which is called sincerely by some and ironically by others – Great Romania. Then, the Soviet ultimatum followed, and the area between the Prut and the Nistru was attached to the Soviet Union. The former Crown Council accepted that ultimatum then. It became a legal act, no matter if we want it or not. In Great Romania, Moldova was an area with certain Moldavian peculiarities, including in terms of language and customs. It was a province. In the USSR, only a part of Moldova entered, half of it, divided by the Prut, which joined the other Soviet republics. Under those circumstances, the Republic of Moldova had a status of a subject to the dictatorial regime. From the evolution viewpoint, the USSR's policy was oriented to erase the boundaries distinguishing the republics. The final goal was to form a state of a new type, with a new nation that would encompass all the territory. But it was not to be so... In the last century, when Moldova declared its independence, it returned to a situation partially known. This holiday, in my opinion, should be marked as a process of acquiring some rights not existing in the USSR. It was the first step towards europeanization. [ - During the independence period, how would you appreciate the relationships between ethnicities in general, and the situation of your ethnicity, in particular?] - The inter-ethnic relationships here are regulated by a concept adopted by the Parliament, declaring the equality in rights and, respectively, in duties for all ethnicities. Considering the real situation, certainly this process cannot unfold ideally only by adopting a concept. It's necessary to educate whole generations, especially the youths. There is a Bureau for Inter-Ethnic Relations,which works in this respect, in terms of educating this egalitarian spirit among the nations living together. There is also legislation forbidding the denigration actions of an ethnicity on another. From the viewpoint of the Jews, we cannot say and we are confident there is no antisemitism promoted by the state. There is no political party or NGO having in its arsenal of public activity any antisemitic article or trait. We have not had terror acts, although the terrorism has become a problem not envisaging some state or another, but a series of states affected by this scourge of our era. Thanks God, we have not had such cases in Moldova. But, we cannot say there is no antisemitism, because there are influences from abroad. It's the Internet admitting unnatural and abnormal ideas denigrating some ethnicity or other: the Jews, the Roma, the Muslims, etc. We should be aware of this influence, especially because the Jews from this area had to suffer very much because of anti-humane, barbaric concepts. There were entire periods, now known as the Holocaust, when it was enough to be a Jew to be considered that you do not have the right to live, regardless of the fact that you may be a newborn, or a powerless old man, a pregnant woman, a minor, a professor with merits before the whole country. [ - To what degree were the representatives of the Jewish ethnicity involved in the processes resulting in declaring the Independence?] T.M. I have not dealt with statistics, but I remember well how the Independence was declared. There was no opposition then. I know no man to have said then he was against the Independence. The Jews have no merit, but neither any guilt for this situation. They were not against. Tens of thousands of people came to Chisinau. I was on the Great National Assembly Square when people used to come from villages, from towns, thousands of them – in wagons and walking... There were then hundreds of thousands of people claiming one thing: Independence. That was a general demand and one of the rarest periods when there were no misunderstandings between Moldovans and Russians or among Moldovans. No. Everybody stood for Independence. That event stuck in my memory. Unfortunately, that spiritual state is not any longer. Unfortunately we are divided because of trifles and unjustified interests. [Info-Prim Neo's note:] The full version of the interview with Teodor Magder, containing his appreciations to Moldova's language-related situation, will be published on Friday, August 29.