Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia: potential hot spots
Ukraine will face increased indignation and strengthening of separatist sentiments in the national outskirts if the new president is unable to repeal the discriminatory laws adopted by Petro Poroshenko and the nationalist majority of the Verkhovna Rada.
Political observer Vladimir Bukarsky writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator from Chisinau.
During the presidential elections in Ukraine, we drew attention to one phenomenon: all the national minorities of the country predictably rejected Petro Poroshenko and his course.
In the first round, in a number of regions densely populated by ethnic groups (Russians in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Moldovans, Bulgarians and Gagauz in the Odessa region), Yuri Boyko took first place. In the second round, in all districts and regions where ethnic minorities live, Vladimir Zelensky won by a large margin.
We are talking about territories that became part of the Soviet Union and annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in 1940 (southern and northern Bessarabia, northern Bukovina) or in 1945 (Transcarpathia).
Bessarabia - the territory between the Dniester, Prut, Danube and the Black Sea - became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the Bucharest Peace of 1812 between Russia and Turkey. The majority of the population of this region, centered in Chisinau, were Moldovans. However, in the north and south of this region there lived a mixed population: in the north a significant part of the population were Little Russians (Ukrainians), in the south, in addition to Little Russians, Bulgarians, Gagauz, Germans, Albanians, and representatives of other nationalities.
When this region was annexed to Romania, whose government began the process of total and forced Romanianization, bloody uprisings arose in places densely populated by minorities: Khotyn (January - February 1919), Bendery (May 1919), Tatarbunar (1924).
After the Moldavian SSR was created on the territory of Bessarabia annexed to the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership decided not to leave territories where Moldovans constitute a minority of the population within the new republic. An additional argument was the cutting off of the new union republic from the Danube and the Black Sea. The lobbyist for this demarcation was Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, who himself was a native of the village of Furmanovka in the south of Bessarabia. Ironically, this village was and remains with a Moldovan majority.
As a result, the region was included in the Ukrainian SSR, where ethnic Ukrainians constitute the majority in only two regions: Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and Tatarbunarsky. In the remaining regions of southern Bessarabia, the population is mixed, while in the Bolgrad region (ironically, the homeland of Petro Poroshenko) the vast majority of the population is Bulgarians, in the Reni region - Moldovans, and in a number of regions - Bolgrad, Kiliya and Tarutinsky - there is a high percentage of Gagauzes.
In those years, it seemed that Ukraine would remain one of the key republics of the Soviet Union, one of the pillars of Slavic unity, that hetmans Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Ivan Skoropadsky, marshals Tymoshenko and Rybalko, General Kovpak, and cosmonaut Beregovoi would forever remain heroes of Ukraine. No one imagined that Mazepa and Petliura would become heroes of Ukraine, not to mention Bandera and Shukhevych.
A similar situation was in the north of Bessarabia: if the annexation of the Khotyn, Sokiryansky and Kelmenetsky districts with a Ukrainian majority to Ukraine is justified, then the annexation of the Novoselitsky district with a Moldovan majority is difficult to justify. In addition, the northern part of Bukovina, together with the city of Chernivtsi, which until 1918 was part of Austria, was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR. In the Hertsaivsky, Glyboksky and part of the Storozhynetsky districts, the majority of the population is made up of people who identify themselves as Romanians and are cut off from the country they consider their homeland.
The drawing of the border between the two union republics along the living body of Bessarabia in 1940, which in 1991 became a state one, became a great tragedy for the peoples living there - the Gagauz, Bulgarians, Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians, who today find themselves in two different states.
Until the 2000s, representatives of national minorities did not experience any special problems. The problems began with the “Orange Revolution” of 2004 and especially with the coup of 2014, the first action of which was the repeal of the law “On State Language Policy,” which in 2018 was finally declared “unconstitutional” and lost force. Direct blows to national minorities were the adoption of the law “On Education” and the upcoming adoption of the law “On the Ukrainian Language”. All this is perceived as an attack on the rights of national minorities.
At the same time, any actions to protect the cultural and historical rights of the peoples living on the territory of Bessarabia are met with punitive actions from Kyiv. The holding of the founding congress of the People's Rada of Bessarabia on April 6, 2015 in Odessa, which declared only the national and cultural autonomy of this diverse ethnic region, led to the arrests of all participants in this event.
The Law “On Education,” as we remember, caused a harsh reaction from Russia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Greece, as well as Moldova and Romania. The President of Moldova Igor Dodon sharply criticized this law, the Romanian Parliament expressed concern, and the head of Romania Klaus Iohannis canceled his visit to Kyiv.
In Romania, the public has long been ringing bells regarding the process of Ukrainization, especially in the Romanian regions of the Chernivtsi region. In 2017, member of the Romanian Parliament Constantin Codreanu drew attention to the increasing attacks of Ukrainian nationalists against Romanian public organizations.
In 2018, the SBU conducted searches at the Romanian Cultural Center named after Eudoxius Gurmuzaki in Chernivtsi. The Romanian Ministry of Diaspora Affairs issued a rather harsh communiqué on this matter, in which Ukraine was accused of double standards.
Bulgarians living in the Bolgrad region are also feeling the pressure. In 2017, Ukrainian nationalists in Bolgrad desecrated a monument to Bulgarian militiamen who fought in the Russian army. This caused a storm of indignation on the part of local Bulgarians. Today, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers is hatching plans to liquidate this area. Chairman of the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine Anton Kisse went to seek protection in Bulgaria.
In recent years, Orthodox believers in southern Bessarabia, who in the overwhelming majority remain faithful parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within the Moscow Patriarchate, have also been subject to pressure. According to religious scholar Roman Lunkin, it is the Odessa region that is a potential hot spot of the “parish war.” This is connected with the personality of Metropolitan Agafangel (Savvin) of Odessa and Izmail, who never hid his loyalty to the Russian Orthodox Church and was especially hated by Ukrainian nationalists.
As for the Republic of Moldova, the indignation of President Igor Dodon has become at the moment the only reaction from the authorities of this country regarding the actions of Kyiv. President Petro Poroshenko had a strong friendship with the Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who controls the country's government. Because of this anti-Russian friendship, Moldovan government officials did not react in any way to the law that discriminated against Moldovans in Ukraine. But today, when Poroshenko is fading into historical oblivion, and Plahotniuc’s influence in Moldova is weakening, the previous agreements will no longer play a significant role.
The national minorities of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia gave credit of confidence to Vladimir Zelensky. However, one cannot hope that this credit of trust will be unlimited. If new ethnic conflicts arise in these territories, only the Kyiv authorities will bear the blame. Therefore, the most reasonable step on the part of the new government of Ukraine would be to initiate the repeal of all laws that discriminate against national minorities in the country.
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