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The Conflict in Transnistria: Origins, History and Prospects of Resolution 26 Marzo 2020 Leonid Gusev, Igor Seleznev, Vladlena Tihova

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The Conflict in Transnistria: Origins, History and Prospects of Resolution 26 Marzo 2020 Leonid Gusev, Igor Seleznev, Vladlena Tihova Tribunale Bologna 24.07.2007, n.7770 - ISSN 2239-7752 Direttore responsabile: Antonio Zama The Conflict in Transnistria: Origins, History and Prospects of Resolution 26 Marzo 2020 Leonid Gusev, Igor Seleznev, Vladlena Tihova Abstract The article provides an analysis of the Genesis, the unfolding, and the specificity of the flow of the Tra nsnistrianconflict, conclusions and forecasts on the situation in post-Soviet Moldova, with the use of securit y communities’political theory. Table of Contents: 1. Formulation of the problem 2. The specifics of the conflict: events and facts 3. Conclusion 1. Formulation of the problem The purpose of this work is to give an analysis of the genesis , unfolding and specificity of the course of the Transnistrian c onflict, to draw conclusions and predictions about the situation in the post-Soviet Moldova, usingmodern political science theory. According to some political analysts, the Transnistrian conflict within the overall range of the Balkan confli cts [1,2]. As a result of the frozen Transnistrian conflict, on the territory of the former Moldavian SSR, a state formation wasformed, including the Republic of Moldova and the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic. Using the terminology of politologist Karl Deutsch, the author of the concept of security communities in int ernational relations, this state-territorial entity can be described as an “amalgamic” security community. A ccording to K. Deutsch, the maincharacteristic of any security community is the mutual confidence of it s members that none of them will resort to force, no matter what disputes arise between them. And there are two types of security communities – “amalgamic” and “pluralistic”. Karl Deutsch emphasize s the essential difference between integration and amalgamation. Integration implies the formation of a full-fledged community, while amalgam primarily involves the creati on of aformal organization, the establishment of political institutions [3, 4]. Thus, a pluralistic association does not necessarily imply the existence of common formalized political insti tutions.The followers of K. Deutsch, Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, define the pluralistic associ ation as follows: «themember states of this community must be the bearers of the common basic va lues developed by social and politicalinstitutions; states should be ready and able to quickly and ade quately respond to changes in relationships, which isachieved through loyalty to each other and havin g a sense of community; besides this, the states should beintegrated with each other to the extent that they do not see any other way of developing relations other than peaceful» [5]. For Adler and Barnett, a security community based on the strong confidence of its members in the peacef uldevelopment of relationships cannot emerge if there is no mutual trust and common identity among it s members. K.Deutsch and his followers agree that a sense of community should first arise in people’s hea ds, and only then beembodied in one form or another in interstate relations. It is believed that this “sense of community” appears as a resultof close interaction between representatives of national societies, thanks to which they get to know each other betterand are penetrated by mutual trust [6]. Examples of “pluralistic” associations include the European Community/EuropeanUnion, ASEAN, Eurasian Economic Union. The amalgam community can exist without integration, without a sense ofcom munity, an example of which is the situation in post-Soviet Moldova with the Republic of Moldova andTra nsnistrian Moldavian Republic [7]. And it seems that a serious practical problem is that the Republi c of Moldovaand Transnistrian Moldavian Republic go on to forming a “pluralistic” security community. 2. The specifics of the conflict: events and facts In order to analyze the events in Transnistria, it is necessary to return to the second half of the 80s, since the sourcesof the conflict originate from there. First, you need to point out that the policy of «perestroika», proclaimed M. Gorbachev in the mid-1980s, led to anincrease in social activity of the population. In the national republics this was expressed in the creat ion and rapid growth of social movements uniting representatives of the titular nationality. In Moldova, the specificity of theideological orientation of the national movement consisted in the proclam ation of the thesis about the identity of theMoldovan and Romanian languages and in calls for the unificati on of Moldova and Romania (especially given thecomplex history of Bessarabia’s annexation to the USSR). A significant part of the national intelligentsia and the leadership of the Moldavian SSR supported na tionalist sentiments. In March 1988, at the congress of the Union of Writers of the USSR in Moscow, a proposal was made toim part state status to the languages of the ittular nations of all republics of the Soviet Union. Part of the Moldovanintelligentsia attracted the possibility of obtaining ethnic preferences. In the volume#4/1988 of th e “Nistru” magazine,which was published by the MSSR Writers’ Union, a program was published with de mands to recognize the identity of the Moldovan and Romanian languages and to translate the Moldavian language into Latin script. In September 1988, “The Letter 66” was published, in which Moldovan writers demanded recognition of the state language onlyMoldovan on the basis of Latin script. In the autumn, a series of demonstrations we re held, at which more and moreradical slogans sounded: “Moldavia for Moldovans”, “Suitcase-Station- Russia”, “The Russians – beyond the Dniester, the Jews – into the Dniester” [8]. In 1988-89 in the wake of perestroika, numerous nationalist organizations appeared in Moldova, acting und er anti-Soviet and anti-Russian slogans. At the end of 1988, the formation of the Popular Front of Moldova began. The unionists, who, under the slogan “One language, one nation!” called upon to join Romania, beca me more active. Since 1991, the two main Moldovan newspapers began to appear under the epigraph on th e first page (above the title) “Weare Romanians – and that’s it!” [9]. On February 16, 1989, on behalf of the Writers’ Union of Moldova, the draft law “On the Functioning of L anguageson the Territory of the Moldavian SSR” was published. According to this project, parents were d eprived of the right tochoose the language of instruction of children, and for using a language other than the state (and the state language meant, in fact, Romanian) for official communication, administrative a nd, in some cases, criminal [10]. On March 30, 1989, the draft law “On the State Language” was published, prepared by a working group of theSupreme Council of the MSSR, in which Moldovan was proclaimed the only state langua ge. In Transnistria (this territory, where Moldovans did not constitute most of the population, was artificiall y united with Bessarabia after itsaccession to the USSR) both of these bills were perceived as discriminator y, which led to the emergence of a spontaneous social movement that favored the introduction of two offici al state languages in Moldova: Moldovan and Russian. It should be noted that not only the Russian, but the numerous Ukrainian populations of Transnistria opposed the introduction of Moldovan (Romanian) lang uage as the only statelanguage. Some Moldovans from Transnistria also opposed the translation of Moldova n writing into Latin [9]. In May 1989, the “Popular Front of Moldova” was created, uniting a number of nationalist organizations. I nopposition to it, “Interdvizhenie” (The International Movement) appeared in Transnistria, later called “ Unitate-Unity”[11]. On May 23, 1989, the Tiraspol City Council appealed to the Presidium of the MSSR Supreme Council to a dopt alaw on the functioning of two state languages in the republic – Moldovan and Russian, and also to e xtend the timeframe for discussing draft laws to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU on inter ethnic relations and hold anational referendum [9]. On August 2, 1989, on the day of the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the founding of the MSSR, a bout a hundred people from the “Vatra” informal association gathered in the town of Bender in the “Oktya brsky” park.They put on mourning bandages, attached black bows to their clothes, opened “tricolors” (Romanian national flags) and arranged an unauthorized procession through the streets of the city. They call ed the arrived police officers’ “occupiers” and“Stalinists”. Police detained 14 protesters, among whom we re residents of Tiraspol, Causen and Ialoven. Theadministrative organizers of the procession N. Rakovita, I . Nikolaev and A. Mirzu were brought to administrativeresponsibility [12]. On August 10, 1989, it became known that at the upcoming 13th session of the Supreme Council of the M SSR, noteven the draft law of March 30, 1989 would be discussed, but it’s even more rigid version, which e nvisaged conductingoffice work exclusively in Moldovan. In response, on August 11, 1989 in Tiraspol, the Joint Council of Labour Collectives (OSTK) was created, o pposing this bill, which, according to the founders and leaders of the OSTK, could lead to discrimination ba sed on nationality in the exercise of the right to work [11]. On August 16, 1989, by a decision of the OSTK, a precautionary strike was held with the demand to postpone thesession of the Supreme Soviet. More than 30 thousand people took part in the strike. MSSR lea dership did notrespond to the demands of the strikers and confirmed the decision to hold a session at which it was planned to discuss the law on the official state language. Thiswas the impetus for a large-scale politi cal strike that began on August 21. It covered many enterprises, institutions and organizations of Tiraspol, B ender and Rybnitsa. By August 29, 1989, when the session of the Supreme Councilopened, the OSTK was transformed into the Republican Strike Committee, and 170 enterprises participated in the strike, including the Mezon, the Sch etmash, the Alpha, the Electropribor and other Chisinau factories.
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