Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:38:51.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Territorial Autonomy in Gagauzia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Jeff Chinn  and
Steven D. Roper
Jeff Chinn
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar, Missouri, USA
Steven D. Roper
Affiliation:
Pace University, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The year 1995 was momentous for the Gagauz people located primarily in the towns and villages of southern Moldova in the area known as Gagauzia. The Gagauz leadership in Comrat and the Moldovan government in Chişinău reached agreement in December 1994 on autonomy for Gagauzia, ending a five-year secessionist movement involving both a war of words and sporadic conflict. For Chişinău, this agreement settled the lesser, but nonetheless important, of two secessionist movements that threatened the Moldovan state's viability. For Gagauzia, the agreement set the terms for extensive cultural, political, and social autonomy within Moldova. For Europe, this agreement broke new ground in granting a small nation control of its affairs within a larger state.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 87 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

* The authors wish to thank Hülya Demirdirek, Michael Hamm, Pål Kølsto, and Stuart Kaufman for their helpful suggestions on the first draft of this article, the Moldovan Central Election Commission and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems for making observation of the June 1995 Gagauz election possible, and Charles King and Trevor R. W. Waters for facilitating the 1996 research.Google Scholar

1. Kuroglu, Stepan, Chairman of the Gagauz Research Department, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, personal interview, Chişinău, 30 May 1995.Google Scholar

2. Radova, Olga, “To the Problem of the Gagauz Ethno-demographic Development in the 19th Century,” unpublished paper, Institute of Ethnography and Folklore, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, 1995.Google Scholar

3. Demirdirek, Hülya, personal interview, July 1995; Radova, , ibid.; Zelenciuc, Valentin, “Populaţia dintre Prut şi Nistru: Probleme de identitiate etnica,” Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, Vol. 38 (Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Romǎne, 1993), pp. 1–2; “Gagauzi: Issledovaniya i materiali,” Rossiiskii etnograf, Vol. 17 (Moskva: Rossiiskaya Akademia Nauk, 1993).Google Scholar

4. Dimitrov, G., “Potekloto I proiskhozhdenieto na dumata,” Izvestiya na Varnensko arkheologichkhoto druzhzhestvo, No. 2, 1909, pp. 15–25, cited by Radova, 1.Google Scholar

5. See Zelenciuc, Valentin, “Populaţia dintre Prut şi Nistru: Probleme de identitiate etnica,” Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, Vol. 38 (Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Romǎne, 1993), pp. 1–2; “Gagauzi: Issledovaniya i materiali,” Rossiiskii etnograf, Vol. 17 (Moskva: Rossiiskaya Akademia Nauk, 1993).Google Scholar

6. Kuroglu, , personal interview, Chişinău, 30 May 1995.Google Scholar

7. See Hennayake, Shantha K, “Interactive Ethnonationalism: An Alternative Explanation of Minority Ethnonationalism,” Political Geography, Vol. 11, No. 6, November 1992, pp. 526–549; Chinn, Jeff and Kaiser, Robert, Russians as the New Minority (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996); Chinn, Jeff and Roper, Steven D., “Ethnic Mobilization and Reactive Nationalism: The Case of Moldova,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 23, No. 2, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Zelenchuk, V. S., Naselenie Bessarabii i Podnestr'ia v XIX v, pp. 158, 197.Google Scholar

9. The southern region of Bessarabia (Bugeac), today occupied by Gagauz and Bulgarian villages, was under Romanian rule from 1859–1878. During this same time the northern part of Bessarabia was ruled from Moscow, as well as the 1918–1940 and 1941–1944 periods when all of Bessarabia was ruled from Bucharest.Google Scholar

10. Kuroglu, personal interview, Chişinău, 30 May 1995.Google Scholar

11. Socor, Vladimir, “Gagauz in Moldavia Demand Separate Republic,” Radio Liberty, Report on the USSR, Vol. 2, No. 36, 7 September 1990, p. 8.Google Scholar

12. Chebanov, Dmitri Fyodorovich, prefect (appointed by the Baskan) of the Comrat district, personal interview, Comrat, 1 July 1996.Google Scholar

13. Gaidargi, Gavril, Deputy Director, Institute of National Minorities, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, personal interview, Chişinău, 30 July 1996.Google Scholar

14. The state language in Moldova, according to the Constitution and the state language law, is “Moldovan,” in spite of the belief of some that it should more properly be called “Romanian.” This chapter conforms to the official terminology.Google Scholar

15. Demirdirek, Hülya, social anthropologist, University of Oslo, personal interviews, Chişinău, June/July 1995.Google Scholar

16. Departamentul de Stat pentru Statistica al Republicii Moldova, Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Moldova, 1992 (Chişinău: Universitas, 1994), pp. 64–65.Google Scholar

17. Kuroglu, , personal interview, Chişinău, 30 May 1995.Google Scholar

18. Ciorba, Evgenia Perovna, Gagauz Minister of Education and Culture, personal interview, Comrat, 1 July 1996.Google Scholar

19. Ibid.Google Scholar

20. Gaidargi, Gavril, personal interview, Chişinău, 30 July 1996.Google Scholar

21. Kulak, Dimitri, journalist, personal interview, Taraclia, 26 June 1995.Google Scholar

22. Ibid.Google Scholar

23. Socor, Vladimir, “Gagauz in Moldavia Demand Separate Republic,” Radio Liberty, Report on the USSR, Vol. 2, No. 36, 7 September 1990, p. 9.Google Scholar

24. Socor, Vladimir, “Popular Front Founded in Moldavia,” Radio Liberty, Report on the USSR, No. 23, 1989, pp. 23–26.Google Scholar

25. For an extensive review of this period see Cavanaugh, Cassandra, “Conflict in Moldova: The Gagauz Factor,” RFE/RL Research Report, 14 August 1992, pp. 11–17.Google Scholar

26. Moldova Suverana, Chişinău, 22 August 1990.Google Scholar

27. Moldova Suverana, Chişinău, 21 August 1990.Google Scholar

28. Cavanaugh, , p. 13.Google Scholar

29. Cavanaugh, , p. 14.Google Scholar

30. Cavanaugh, , p. 15.Google Scholar

31. RFE/RL Daily Report, No. 143, 29 July 1994.Google Scholar

32. Cavanaugh, , p. 14.Google Scholar

33. Radev, Branimir, Acting Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, personal interview, Chişinău, July 1996.Google Scholar

34. Constitutia Republicii Moldova (Chişinău: Moldpres, 1994).Google Scholar

35. Andronic, Nicolae, personal interview, Chişinău, June 1995. Andronic, a close ally of Snegur and chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Legal Affairs, together with Mihai Cotorobai, chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Local Government, and Presidential Counselor for Minority Affairs Viktor Grebenshchikov did the negotiating for Chişinău.Google Scholar

36. “Lege privind statatul juridic special al Găgăuziei (Gagauz-Yeri),” Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova, Vol. II, Nos 3–4, 14 January 1995. The law was approved by Parliament on 23 December 1994. Reference to articles of the law in the discussion that follows are based on the text and format from the Monitorul Oficial.Google Scholar

37. King, Charles, “Gagauz Yeri and the Dilemmas of Self-Determination,” Transition, Vol. 1, No. 19, 20 October 1995, pp. 24–25.Google Scholar

38. Uzun, Vasilie, personal interview, Comrat, 8 July 1996.Google Scholar