Moldova or Moldavia
Country in E central Europe, bounded N, S, and E by Ukraine, and W
by Romania.
Government
The 1994 constitution provides for a president and a 104-member national
assembly, both elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term.
The president appoints a prime minister from the assembly membership,
and a council of ministers on the prime minister's advice.
History
Formerly a principality in Eastern Europe, occupying an area divided
today between the republic of Moldova and modern Romania, the
region was independent from the 14th to the 16th century, when
it became part of the Ottoman Empire. Its eastern part, Bessarabia,
was ruled by Russia 1812-1918, but then transferred to Romania.
Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia June 1940 and it was joined
with part of the Soviet-controlled Autonomous Moldavian Republic
to form the Moldavian Socialist Republic Aug 1940.
Nationalist revival
Before and after World War II the republic was brutally `sovietized´.
Collectivization in agriculture and seizure of private enterprises
coincided with the infiltration of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians
into the area. The republic witnessed significant urban and industrial
growth from the 1950s. Glasnost brought a resurgence of Moldavian
nationalism from the late 1980s, and there was pressure for language
reform and reversion from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet.
In 1988 a Moldavian Movement in Support of Perestroika was formed
and a year later, in May 1989, the Moldavian Popular Front (MPF)
was established. In Aug 1989 the MPF persuaded the republic's
government, led since July 1989 by the sympathetic communist president
Mircea Snegur, to make Romanian the state language and reinstate
the Latin script. This provoked demonstrations and strikes by
the republic's Russian speakers and led the Turkish-speaking Gagauz
minority, concentrated in the SW, to campaign for autonomy. In
Nov 1989, after MPF radicals had staged a petrol bomb assault
on the Interior Ministry headquarters in Chisinau, the Moldavian
Communist Party's (MCP) conservative leader, Semyon Grossu, was
dismissed and replaced by the more conciliatory Pyotr Luchinsky.
Towards independence
In the wake of the Chisinau riots, a temporary state of emergency was
imposed and a ban placed on public meetings. This restricted campaigning
for the Feb 1990 supreme soviet elections, in which, nevertheless,
the MPF polled strongly. The movement towards independence gathered
momentum, and a `sovereignty´ declaration was made June 1990.
In Oct 1990, both the Trans-Dniester region (centred around Tiraspol)
and the Gagauz-inhabited region in SW Moldova formed unofficial
breakaway republics. Soon afterwards states of emergency were
imposed in both areas.
A new state
In March 1991 the republic boycotted the USSR referendum on preservation
of the Union. During the Aug 1991 attempted anti-Gorbachev coup
in Moscow, which was denounced by President Snegur but supported
by the Trans-Dniester and Gagauz-inhabited regions, there were
large prodemocracy demonstrations in Chisinau. After the coup
attempt failed, MCP activity was banned in workplaces and on 27
Aug 1991 the republic formally declared its independence. Immediate
recognition was accorded by Romania. In Dec 1991 the republic
joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Snegur
was directly elected president, unopposed. In March 1992 Moldova
was admitted into the United Nations and US diplomatic recognition
was granted.
Trans-Dniester and Gagauz conflict
Following pro-unification border rallies, the Moldavian and Romanian
presidents met early 1992 to discuss the possibility of union.
President Snegur, who had been directly elected president in
an unopposed contest Dec 1991, favoured a gradual approach towards
unification. In March 1992 a state of emergency was re-imposed
in Trans- Dniester region following an upsurge of fighting between
Moldavian security forces and ethnic Russians and Ukrainians,
fearful of the proposed merger. Between May and July hundreds
died in the fighting, with Russian troops present in the republic
accused of assisting the Slav separatists. A Russian peacekeeping
force was later deployed in the troubled region, and cease-fires
agreed there and in Gagauz.
Reunification rejected
Lack of popular support for reunification and a weak economy led to
the fall of the MFP-led government July 1992. Andrei Sangheli
took over as prime minister, heading a `government of national
accord´ that drew much of its support from the Agrarian Democratic
Party (ADP). The new administration launched a privatization programme
Oct 1993 and the following month introduced a new currency, the
leu, to replace the Russian rouble. Meanwhile, President Snegur,
having abandoned his earlier policy of seeking closer ties with
Romania, attempted to improve relations with Russia and strengthen
Moldovan statehood. This change of policy proved popular and in
parliamentary elections Feb 1994 the ADP won the largest number
of seats. In a March referendum, voters rejected demands for a
merger with Romania and prospects of reunification receded, with
Moldova dependent on Russia for its fuel supplies and fearful
that such a move might provoke a full-scale civil war. Cease-fires
remained effective in both Trans-Dniester and Gagauz regions and
relations with Moscow had improved by mid-1994. A new constitution,
adopted July 1994, sought to guarantee political pluralism and
free ethnic and linguistic expression. It also barred the stationing
of foreign troops on Moldovan soil, establishing the republic's
`permanent neutrality´, and granted special autonomous status
to the Gagauz and Dnestr regions. Russia subsequently agreed to
withdraw its troops from the Dnestr region by 1997.
In Dec 1996, in the second round of the presidential election,
Petru Lucinschi, formerly the highest ranking Moldovan in the
now defunct Communist Party of the Soviet Union and now the chair
of the Parlamentul (Moldovan legislature), defeated Snegur, capturing
54% of the vote. The pro-Russian Lucinschi, advocating closer
ties with Russia and the CIS, was supported by leftist parties,
including the ruling Agrarian Democratic Party. In the breakaway
Dnestr region, elections Dec 1996 resulted in the re-election
of President Igor Smirnov.
Lucinschi formally became president Jan 1997 and appointed Ion
Cebuc, chairman of the State Accounting Chamber, as prime minister
and announced that he planned to grant special status to the Dnestr
region. In Feb 1997 a new centrist political party, the Movement
for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova, was formed in support
of President Lucinschi.
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