Gagauzia PA broaches language, history related issues
The Popular Assembly (legislature) of Gagauzia has decided to make no appeal to the central Moldovan authorities, and thus will not demand to stop the romanization of the Moldovan language and history.
Shortly after the 7 April riots in Chisinau a group of Communist deputies in the autonomous region's parliament stood up with a proposal that the Gagauzia Popular Assembly must take effective measures to put an end to romanization in the sphere of language and history, first and foremost in Gagauzian schools. The Communists referred to Article 13 in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova saying that the country's official language is ‘the Moldovan language functioning on the basis of the Latin alphabet’. Accordingly, they believe that Gagauzia schools must teach the Moldovan language, not Romanian.
Gagauzia Bashkan (Governor) Mikhail Formuzal called on PA deputies to refrain from such actions, and to ‘avoid being nose-led by the Communists deputies, who seek to demonstrate their discipline and please their (Chisinau) bosses’. Formuzal presumes that if such a decision were passed by the Popular Assembly, it could well cause a very negative reaction in a large part of the Republic of Moldova populace with respect to the Gagauzian people.
‘We are a small nation, and we must wage a very well-weighted policy. We the Gagauzes should not indicate the Moldovan people how they should call the language they speak and their history. We must demonstrate precisely the same respectful attitude to the title majority nation, which was shown with respect to us in 1994. It's not in the Gagauzian people's interests to be in the vanguard of an anti-Romanian or any other new hysteria’, said the Gagauzia Bashkan.
He advised to focus rather on solving numerous economic and social problems the autonomous region is facing.
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