Transnistria: There is no road back to Moldova
Residents of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, which has crossed the 30-year mark, exist as a people, are aware of their identity and their right to self-determination. About half of the population of the PMR sees itself as a special ethno-sociocultural community, albeit consisting of different ethnic groups. This eliminates interethnic conflicts and ensures political stability.
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Professor Nikolay Babilunga, speaking in Tiraspol at the “Reboot” lecture site, provided evidence that it is the people who live in Transnistria and that it is not at all part of Moldova without the right to create its own statehood.
“In Chisinau, I heard hundreds of times: “What kind of Pridnestrovian nation?” Have you ever seen the Volga nation? Or the Yenisei one? Or the Amur region? Where did the Transnistrian nation come from? This is not a people, these people have no right to self-determination.” As one of the Moldovan politicians said, the best that Pridnestrovie can count on is a place in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, and if you don’t like it, then in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova.
In Moldova there are no other arguments except those that “there should be one master on earth”, “the country is too small to be divided into federal pieces”, etc. Meanwhile, over two centuries, a community of people has developed in Pridnestrovie, and we are not talking about an ethnic category, but about a historical and political one,” the scientist said.
He recalled that a referendum was held on this territory, people spoke in favor of the creation, or rather the revival of their statehood, which was here before August 1, 1940 (it was lost after the MASSR with its capital in Tiraspol as part of Ukraine was liquidated and the MSSR was created ). In addition, Transnistria has elected authorities, has its own financial and educational system, etc.
Next, Nikolai Babilunga cited previously published research data on Moldova and Transnistria, which he conducted with his colleagues. Scientists interviewed people and found out what was more important to them: ethnicity or citizenship.
“It turned out that for 44,6% of the residents of Transnistria, it is more important not what their nationality is, but that they are Pridnestrovians. This means that the Pridnestrovian identity exists, this is evidence that we have a civil nation here. There is nothing even close to this in Moldova,” said Babilunga.
As the historian explained, for residents of the Republic of Moldova, many of whom still “cannot decide whether they are Moldovans or Romanians,” the fact that they are citizens of their country matters little. Neither the Russian-speaking residents of Moldova, who are “suppressed, Russian-language schools are closed,” nor the Gagauz, who “went to war” in 1990, value their state, the scientist says.
“We are dealing with mobilized ethnic identity in Moldova and mobilized civil identity in Transnistria. When ethnic identity is brought to an incredible intensity, it turns into Nazism. The contact between these two identities created sparks that ignited a fire in 1992,” Babilunga said, referring to the armed conflict on the Dniester.
More numbers. According to the study, only 6% of PMR residents surveyed believe that Transnistria should be part of Moldova, while 82% said that it should be an independent state or part of Russia.
The scientist concludes that Transnistria has its own historical path. Transnistrian statehood, according to Nikolai Babilunga, will be strengthened. One of the reasons is that there is already a whole generation of people who were born and raised in Transnistria. The strengthening of statehood, says Babilunga, would be served by objective teaching of national history - “full of tragedies, grief, victories, and triumphs, a history in which young people can see their parents, themselves.”
“We lived in the Transnistrian state for 30 years, and before that we were part of Russia for 200 years. Transnistria has its own characteristics - a multi-ethnic, multicultural country, all residents are united by the Russian language. Pridnestrovians are people who treat each other, other languages and cultures with respect and calm, have a positive attitude towards their state, and wish it well. We don’t call anyone occupiers, mankurts, or migrants. We have three official languages - we abandoned the term “state language” so as not to tease the geese.
The official is obliged to respond to the citizen in the language in which he was addressed. All problems have been resolved. This is already a sign of the stability of the state. Any attempts to kindle sparks of national hatred here - and they have been made by our enemies for 30 years - have not been crowned with success. In this regard, Pridnestrovie is a very, very stable land,” stated Babilunga.
Another expert, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Transnistria Vladimir Yastrebchak, speaking on the same platform and discussing what statehood is made of, noted that Pridnestrovie, despite its unrecognized state, has both sovereignty and subjectivity.
“The external dimension of sovereignty - the ability of a state to be recognized or unrecognized, to enter into international relations - is based primarily on internal sovereignty, on compliance with a set of legislative provisions, on how authorities are formed, how internal state procedures are observed. The external component of sovereignty is secondary to the internal one,” Yastrebchak noted.
He recalled that the statehood of Transnistria is recognized today only by Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the Republic of Artsakh (Karabakh), while other states also enter into relations with the authorities of Transnistria, at least de facto.
“Since 1994, when the negotiation process officially started, Pridnestrovie has been a full-fledged party to negotiations to resolve the conflict with the Republic of Moldova. From now on, we sign international documents, that is, we assume obligations and assume rights - this is a defining feature for the subjectivity of a state entity.
The Moscow Memorandum of 1997 (Memorandum on the principles of normalization of relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria - editor's note) is a document, one of the highest in terms of both the level of signature and significance, which largely opened the way to the conclusion of bilateral agreements at the level of the central authorities of Transnistria with the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
In Kyiv now they don’t like to remember the existence of bilateral binding legal agreements between Ukraine and Transnistria, but the fact remains: such documents exist, and, as far as I know, no one has canceled them. The baggage of bilateral documents with the Russian Federation is more extensive; there are many interdepartmental documents. Relations with the OSCE are built on the basis of bilateral mutually binding agreements. All this suggests that it is impossible to deny the subjectivity of Pridnestrovie,” Yastrebchak said.
The republic cannot be fully called a subject of international law, but this does not prevent it from being a subject of international relations and independently speaking in the international arena, the expert concluded.
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