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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
The Republic of Moldova considers itself the rightful successor state to the Moldavian SSR. It considers the current Transnistrian government to be illegitimate and not the rightful representative of the region's populace. It insists that Transnistria cannot exist as an independent political entity but must be reintegrated into Moldova.
See also
External links
Transnistrian side
Moldovan side
- EuroJournal.org's Transnistria category
- Trilateral Plan for Solving the Transnistrian Issue (developed by Moldova-Ukraine-Romania expert group)
Others
International organizations
- OSCE Mission to Moldova: Conflict resolution and negotiation category
- Marius Vahl and Michael Emerson, "Moldova and the Transnistrian Conflict" (pdf) in "Europeanization and Conflict Resolution: Case Studies from the European Periphery", JEMIE - Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 1/2004, Ghent, Belgium