Movement for unification of Romania and Moldova

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map of a unified Romanian-Moldovan state as advocated by the Unionist Movement.

A movement for the unification of Romania and Moldova began in both countries in early 1990s, after Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1 Early history
2 Independence of Moldova
3 The current situation
4 Possible results of unification
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early history

Following the Soviet Union's occupation of the former Romanian region of Bessarabia during World War II, the Soviets began a campaign to create a Moldovan ethnic identity different from that of the Romanians, whom they described as "capitalist oppressors".^[1]

Soviet official policy also stated that Romanian and Moldovan were two different languages and, to emphasize the distinction, Moldovan was written using a special Cyrillic alphabet (the Moldovan alphabet) derived from the Russian alphabet – unlike Romanian, written with its own version of the Latin alphabet. ^[2]

In September 1989, with the liberalization in the Soviet Union, the Moldavian SSR Parliament declared Moldovan to be the official language and asserted the real existence of a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity".^[3]

On 6 May 1990, Romania and the Moldavian SSR lifted restrictions on travel between the two territories, and hundreds of thousands of people crossed the Prut River which marked their common border.^[4]

[edit] Independence of Moldova

In his address to the Romanian parliament, in February 1991, Mircea Snegur, the Moldovan president, spoke of a common identity of Moldovans and Romanians, referring to the "Romanians of both sides of the Prut River" and "Sacred Romanian lands occupied by the Soviets".

In 1989, Romanian became the official language of Moldova and following independence in 1991 the Romanian tricolor, with a Moldovan coat-of-arms, was adopted as the national flag. In addition, Deşteaptă-te, române!, the Romanian national anthem, also became that of Moldova. At the time, it was widely expected in both countries that they would soon be united. ^[5]

However, this initial enthusiasm in Moldova was tempered and from 1993 Moldova started distancing itself from Romania. The constitution adopted in 1994 used the term "Moldovan language" instead of "Romanian" and changed the national anthem to Limba noastră. The 1996 attempt by Moldovan president Mircea Snegur to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as "promoting Romanian expansionism".

[edit] The current situation

Until recently, a union between Romania and Moldova was deemed unlikely, owing to a lack of interest in both countries. In Romania, while most political parties give mild support to the concept, at least in theory, unification would most probably be a burden on the Romanian economy, considering that Moldova is currently the poorest country in Europe. Additionally, Romania is expected to join the European Union in 2007, and while the country has recently supported Moldova in its foreign policy, many political analysts question Moldova's political preparedness and whether it has made sufficient progress for unification.

By political necessity, any Moldovan unification with Romania could only include the part of Moldova which extends to the Dniester river. On the other side of the river, Transnistria would not agree to be part of any union with Romania. However, statements from Transnistrian officials support unification of Romania and Moldova as long as Transnistria is not included.

In Moldova, apart from the newly created Unionist Movement of the Republic of Moldova, only the Christian-Democratic People's Party actively supports unification.

Map of a proposed unified Romanian-Moldovan state: the so-called "Belkovski proposal" (a Romanian-Moldovan political union excluding Transnistria).

Nevertheless, discussions concerning the unification are on the increase as can be seen in different newspapers and forums from both countries.

In 2004, the Romanian newspaper Ziua published a series of articles claiming that a senior Russian diplomat proposed to the Romanian government a plan that he claimed "came from president Putin himself", which would leave the west bank of Moldova in Romania in exchange for a Romanian recognition of Transnistrian independence. Russian president Putin has never confirmed nor denied the statements of the Romanian newspaper. Nevertheless, Romanian journalists and scholars immediately dismissed the plan since it would not address the question of the city of Tighina which is under Transnistrian control yet in Moldova proper, nor would this address the question of how Russia would manage to convince Moldova, a sovereign and independent state, to join a political union with Romania.

In January 2006, the Romanian president, Traian Băsescu declared that he strongly supports the Moldovan bid for joining the European Union and that "Romania's minimal policy is that the unification of the Romanian nation would be done within the EU". Interpretations of the word "minimal policy" have led some to believe that the current Romanian administration also has a maximal policy to formally unite the two countries.

According to a March 2006 poll in Romania, 51% of Romanians support a union with Moldova, 27% are against, and another 10% declined to answer[1]. Also, of those supporting the union, 28% support a union with Moldova, including Transnistria, while the rest of 16% support a union without Transnistria.^[6]

In July 2006, the Romanian president, Traian Băsescu, said that he had made a proposal of union to the Moldovan president, Vladimir Voronin, enabling Romania and Moldova to join the EU together. The offer, however, had been refused and Băsescu said that he would respect this decision and that Romania would help Moldova find its own way to integrate with the EU. ^[7]

In the Fall of 2006, the Unionist movement has gained some momentum as the subject was more regularly discussed in prominent Romanian language newspapers and as up to 100.000 Moldovans have applied for Romanian passports in August and September of 2006, alone[2]. An October Cotidianu article [3], putting the cost of union at 30-35 bil. USD has caused much negative response from Romanian newspaper Ziua [4] as well as two prominent Moldovan newspapers Timpul [5] as well as Jurnal de Chisinau [6], which in essence blamed the original Cotidianu editors for exaggerating the cost itself as well as superficially limiting the cost of union to a material dimension.

[edit] Possible results of unification

The economic consequences of unification are not insignificant. Arithmetically, the possible results of unification are:

Country	Population^[8]	Area	Density	GDP^[9]	GDP/capita
Romania	21,698,181	237,500 km²	94	$186.7 B	$8,400
Moldova	3,938,832	33,843 km²	132	$9.4 B	$2,100
Romania/Moldova Union	25,637,013	271,343 km²	99	$196.1 B	$7,321

[edit] Notes

^ Mackinlay, pg. 135
^ Mackinlay, pg. 140
^ Legea cu privire la funcţionarea limbilor vorbite pe teritoriul RSS Moldoveneşti Nr. 3465-XI din 01.09.89, published in Veştile nr.9/217, 1989 (Law regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova)
^ România Liberă. "Podul de flori peste Prut. Punţi de simţire românească", 8 May 1990.
^ Mackinlay, pg. 139
^ Cotidianul. "Unirea cu Moldova", 23 January 2006
^ Evenimentul Zilei. "Băsescu şi-a dezvăluit planul unionist secret" 3 July 2006
^ July 2005 est. CIA Factbook
^ Based on purchasing power parity, 2005 est. CIA Factbook

[edit] References

Grenoble, Lenore A (2003) Language Policy in the Soviet Union, Springer, ISBN 1-4020-1298-5
John Mackinlay, Peter Cross (2003) Regional Peacekeepers. United Nations University Press ISBN 92-808-1079-0