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Vets want "Moldavian" dropped from PMR's constitutional name
The "M" in PMR stands for Moldavian. Veterans of the 1992 war for independence now propose to drop that. Historically, the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic has never been part of Moldova.
"PMR" written in Cyrillic on a sign in Tiraspol. Now, surviving war veterans say it is time to quietly drop the "M"TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - We are not part of Moldova, so we don't want their name as part of our constitutional country name. That is the message from a group of veterans who propose that the Pridnestrovie's drops the M-word from its full and official title.
According to Pridnestrovie's Constitution, the full official name of the republic is the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. This is abbreviated PMR (or ПМР in Cyrillic) and translated to English as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Two veterans organizations - The Council of War, Labour and Armed Forces Veterans and the Union of Officers of Pridnestrovie - have sent an open letter to President Igor Smirnov and Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk in which they propose renaming the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR). They want PMR to get a simpler, shorter name: the Republic of Pridnestrovie.
" - Pridnestrovie's statehood was proclaimed and defended to the same extent by people of three nationalities: Russians, Ukrainians and Moldovans. Preference being given to one of these nationalities is not in line with the international spirit of our people", the open letter says.
- Moldovans a minority
Pridnestrovie is majority Slavic, with approximately two-thirds of the 550,000 population composed of Slavs; mostly Russians and Ukrainians. In contrast, Moldovans make up less than a third of the population and it is unfair - believe the vets - that Moldovans should be singled out as the titular nationality of PMR when they're far from being a majority. Pridnestrovie is traditionally Ukrainian and Russian land. Although Moldovans also live in Pridnestrovie, they have never been a majority at any time in history.
According to the authors of the document, the name "Moldovan republic, even if the word Pridnestrovie is also mentioned, is linked to Moldova and implies that the republic is its constituent part. Therefore, PMR's current full name represents an obstacle on the path to international recognition of Pridnestrovie's independence", the letter says.
In reality, Pridnestrovie is 'de facto' independent and its population voted overwhelmingly against being part of Moldova. On this basis, it is confusing and even misleading to use the name "Moldova" in the constititional full long-form name of the republic, believe the authors of the letter.
The veterans have requested that the President and the Speaker of Parliament put forward a legislative initiative on changing the name of the state. Parliament is currently in recess, with Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk spending most of his time in the northern city of Rybnitsa, his home town.
- Moldova denounced union with Pridnestrovie as illegal
Historically, the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic has never been part of Moldova. Pridnestrovie was an autonomous republic in the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1940, with Tiraspol as its capital. Moldova was part of Romania. Moldova (then known as Bessarabia) was forced into the Soviet Union in 1940 when Stalin invaded and created the Moldavian SSR, a new union republic of the USSR, by merging Pridnestrovie and Moldova.
" - So, you see, it wasn't that Pridnestrovie became part of Moldova. In fact, in 1940 its overall status didn't change," says Alex Holt, a researcher who has written about the history of the region.
" - The land which is today Pridnestrovie was already part of the Soviet Union prior to 1940, and with the creation of the MSSR in 1940 it was still part of the Soviet Union," says Holt.
" - What changed was in Moldova. They were part of Romania and Stalin forced them into the USSR with the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Hitler."
Upon declaring independence, Moldova declared this move "null and void from the start". Moldova denounced the pact as illegal, and declared independence to leave the Soviet Union on the basis that the original 1940 land grab was an act of war. It unilaterally dissolved the creation of the Moldavian SSR as having been illegal from the start. It was this pact which originally brought Moldova and Pridnestrovie together, albeit never in an independent Moldovan state and always merely as a component part within the USSR.
When Moldova unilaterally declared independence on 27 August 1991, the USSR still existed as a country. Moldova's independence declaration violated the territorial integrity of an existing country; the USSR.
Nevertheless, Moldova obtained diplomatic from Romania and a number of other states in quick succession, notwithstanding provisions in the Helsinki Final Act which supposedly guaranteed the territorial integrity of signatory states against the self-determination aspirations of citizens seeking freedom.
See also:
» Transnistria's parliament nixes common state with Moldova
» The former Moldavian SSR: A non-country which broke in two
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova
On the web:
» What's in a name: "Pridnestrovie" vs "Transnistria"
A conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels concluded that unrecognized states like Pridnestrovie need a way to be heard by the world. "It is necessary to create and sustain permanent mechanisms of involvement and consultation of unrecognized state entities in the international community". This will benefit everyone, says the event's official statement. . . 
