Transnistria conflict - Misplaced Pages

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Politics of Transnistria


Constitution
Executive President Vadim Krasnoselsky Prime Minister Aleksandr Martynov
LegislatureSupreme Council Speaker Alexander Korshunov Political parties
Elections Recent elections Presidential: 2016 2021 Parliamentary: 2015 2020 Referendums
Administrative divisions Five Raions One Municipality
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Vitaly Ignatyev Human rights in Transnistria Politics of Moldova Transnistria conflict Transnistria War Proposed Russian annexation of Transnistria Passport Visa requirements Visa policy Diplomatic missions of / in Transnistria
Other countries
v t e

The disputed status of Transnistria arose because of the Transnistrian declaration of independence on Sep. 2, 1990, which is not recognized by Moldova.

Moldova lost control of Transnistria in the 1990 breakup of the Moldavian SSR and the subsequent War of Transnistria, but never formally ceded the territory. Moreover, Transnistria has not been internationally recognised (except by other unrecognised states) and is generally considered to be a part Moldova.

Transnistria's two main political groups, Republic (Respublika) and Renewal (Obnovleniye) oppose any transfer of sovereignty to Moldova, and no major political party or pressure group in Transnistria supports union with Moldova. However, negotiations under OSCE auspices have been ongoing since 1997 based on the premise that better relations are desirable, and that the restrictions on communications, movement of people, and trade flows must be removed.

Historical status of Transnistria

Although ethnic Romanians have historically made up a large minority of the population, the area was never considered part of the traditional lands of Romanian settlement. The territory east of the Dniester river belonged to Kievan Rus' and the kingdom of Halych-Volhynia from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, passing to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and then into the hands of Russia in the eighteenth century. Even with the rise of Romanian nationalism in the nineteenth century, the far reaches of Transylvania were considered the western boundary of the Romanian lands while the Dniester formed the eastern. The national poet Mihai Eminescu, in his famous poem Doina, spoke of a Romania stretching only "from the Dniester to the Tisza" and not farther east.

In World War II, when Romania, aided by Nazi Germany, for the first time in history took control of Transnistria there was never any attempt to annex the occupied territory beyond the Dniester for it was generally considered merely a temporary buffer zone between Greater Romania and the Soviet front line. Transnistria had never been considered part of Bessarabia. Two preeminent political figures of the day, Iuliu Maniu and Constantin Bratianu declared that "the Romanian people will never consent to the continuation of the struggle beyond our national borders."

Position of the Transnistrian side

The territory to the East of the Dniester River never belonged neither to Romania, nor to its predecessors, such as the Principality of Moldavia. This territory was split off from Ukrainian SSR in a political maneuver of the USSR to become a seed of the Moldavian SSR. (A similar example of a Soviet expansionist maneuver was the Finnish Democratic Republic). Transnistria ceded itself from Moldavian SSR before the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. Since Moldova declared independence of the Soviet Union, all political arrangements made within the Soviet Union must be considered void.

Position of the Moldovan side

Ethnic Romanians have lived on the left side of the Dniester River for centuries, even though the region itslef was not always formally part of the Principality of Moldavia, the entire territory did not form a part of another greater political entity either before its incorporation into the Russian Empire in 1792. The fact that the Moldovan SSR received the territory from the Ukrainian SSR does not mean that Moldova has diminished rights to the territory as in the Soviet political reshuffeling Moldova also lost the Budjak, Northern Bukovina, and Hertsa regions, and after the breakup of the USSR Moldova and Ukraine have signed a treaty recognizing the current borders. The current Transnistrian separatist regime is completely illegitimate and cannot be viewed as the rightful representative of the region's populace. Transnistria cannot exist as an independent political entity but must be reintegrated into Moldova.