Grigore Mărăcuţă: "Every nation has the right to choose its own path"

Grigore Mărăcuţă is a leading politician in Pridnestrovie and also an ethnic Moldovan who fully supports independence

TIRASPOL (Atac / Tiraspol Times) - Grigore Mărăcuţă is one of Pridnestrovie's "elder statesmen." He is an ethnic Moldovan who was one of the founding fathers of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. As an ethnic Moldovan, he supports independence, which represents the majority view among Moldovans who are resident in Pridnestrovie. He rejects a joint union state with Moldova, but is open to discussing the terms of a federation or confederation where Pridnestrovie can keep ruling itself and will not be under the thumb of Chisinau, the Moldovan capital.

For most of Pridnestrovie's independent existence, Grigore Mărăcuţă was Speaker of Parliament. He was unseated in 2005 when the opposition party Renewal gained a surprise victory and took control of the legislature.

Mărăcuţă turned 65 years old on 16 October 2007.

How do you see the future of the republic? Will the country return to the original borders inside Moldova? Do you plan closer ties to Ukraine, or an eventual Russia-Belarus Union? Do you want to keep your independence?

" - Every nation has the right to choose its own path. As a matter of fact, from 1924, to 1940, we had our own special status as a republic. Within the Soviet Union, we were then considered, as I can say, a state. In the 1940s, Stalin did not ask us, and also not the people from Bessarabia, if we wanted to unite. Formerly, Bessarabia was a province of Romania at the time. But Stalin united us and created the Moldavian Socialist Soviet Republic. We lived together for 50 years and we could have lived another 50, 100 or even more years together, if the Soviet Union had continued. But the Soviet Union dissolved and the Parliament of Moldova declared that the act which gave rise to the union between Bessarabia and Transdniestria was illegal and illegitimate. This means that the Moldovan Parliament itself dissolved the Moldavian SSR, which was composed of Transdniestria and Bessarabia."

Yes, but that is history. Let us concentrate on the future. How do you see your future?

" - Other countries and the international community want to keep us and Moldova together as a joint state within the old borders of the Moldavian SSR. We would have liked that, too. And Russia and Ukraine, which are the countries that mediate between us and Moldova, would like the same. We already proposed to Moldova that we should establish a federation or a confederation which would be composed of two parts: Moldova and Transdniestria. But the leadership in Chisinau didn't want to establish such a country. They wanted a single state, to be ruled only from Chisinau. There is no hope of ever creating such a country, I can safely say, because the rupture that was already created between Moldova and Transdniestria does not diminish all by itself. So you can't just step over this rupture, and you can't ignore it. I don’t think we will find a common ground for talks with the leadership from Chisinau. Of course, we can once again ask our people to express their opinion about this, as we already did with last year's referendum on independence..."

International organizations will guarantee an autonomous status for Transdniestria. What is your view?

" - We haven't discussed this option formally, and we are hearing it from you now. We also found out about it from the press. And President Voronin said that there were some groups, even in Romania, who wanted to promote a scenario whereby Bessarabia would be reunited with Romania and Transdniestria would be reunited with Ukraine. I don’t think we should reject these sort of suggestions today. There are many projects and every single one of them can be put on the table and discussed. But I can say, quite honestly, that these sort of proposals are still just theoretical, and haven't been discussed yet."

What is the stage of the peace process? How are negotiations with OSCE evolving? What is the purpose of these negotiations?

" - In talks between us and Moldova, the OSCE is a mediator, along with Russia and Ukraine [as guarantor countries]. Their wish and purpose is to help us find a common language with Moldova, to help determine the shape of the future relationship between Moldova and Transdniestria. Since there haven't been a lot of proposals from Moldova, the mediators themselves have offered some suggestions. One of these was the Primakov Memorandum which was signed between the sides in 1997, and another was the 2003 Kozak Memorandum, and the 2005 Yushchenko plan."

What is the best solution for both sides: The Yushchenko plan or the Kozak memorandum?

" - There are some proposals which can be adopted from the Kozak memorandum, and others which can be taken from the Yushchenko plan. We can come up with several options, in order to make - let's say - a symbiosis that might be implemented. There are also some proposals that might simply not be acceptable at all."

What are those unacceptable proposals?

" - For instance those which the Moldovan Parliament recently voted into law, where the purported objective was to implement the Yushchenko plan, but where in reality the law that was passed was something else: It changed the Yushchenko plan, and sought to nullify the current status of Transdniestria by making us into one of the 38 or 40 districts of Moldova. This means that what Moldova couldn't get through warfare in 1992, they will not get with the help of Ukraine and Russia..."

How is the relationship between you and Ukraine? And how did changes in Kiev impact this relationship?

" - As I said before, every nation chooses its own path. Just like the Romanians decided to shoot Ceausescu, and afterwards they felt sorry about that, so Ukraine also embarked on its own direction. It is the legitimate wish of a people to find its direction – it can not depend on us what they chose. We just cooperate with the authorities of Ukraine, no matter who is in charge. Before, we did the same thing. We have gone to Kiev after the Orange Revolution. Smirnov met with Yushchenko. We agreed on cooperating in economical, social, political and humanitarian fields. At the current point in time, the relationship between the governments of Ukraine and Transdniestria is very good in the economic sphere. Meanwhile, we continue to seek solutions to other problems. Theoretically we already agreed to seek a way to implement the Yushchenko plan. There is one part of the plan that we don't agree with: Namely that the peacekeeping troops should be changed. At this moment, the peacekeeping force has an effective strength of about 1,000 soldiers. Fifty percent from Russia, twenty-five percent from Moldova, and twenty-five percent from Transdniestria. Let’s not forget that from 1992 and until now, no soldier or civilian has been killed. The present format of the peacekeeping force is a format that is working. We are not against of sending in Ukrainian troops. For example, the format can be changed: 40 percent Russian forces, 20–30 percent Ukrainian, about 10–15 percent Transdniestrian and the same for Moldova."

Do you feel a threat from NATO or from the United States, since there are troops from Russia's 14th Army on Transdniesters territory and Romania is now a NATO country?

" - Well let me say this: We're not afraid of such a scenario, be it from NATO or any other structures. But we have already expressed an opinion on this matter. If there are no external treats anymore to the NATO member countries, now that the Warsaw Pact doesn't exist anymore, it would be best to just dissolve NATO. Then there'd be less to worry about in the world. On the other hand, the 14th Army's troops that you mentioned are not here anymore. They already left Transdniestria a long time ago. Just 600 or 700 soldiers remained, in order to guard some storage depots. Nothing more. The heavy weapons have also been removed a long time ago, and many of them were dismantled. 700, 800, maybe 1,000 soldiers are all that remain, and they are only equipped with light weapons and Kalashnikovs. They don't represent a danger to any foreign countries, including Romania."

See also:
» Grigore Mărăcuţă: "I'm a Moldovan, and proud that my people voted for freedom"
» Andrei Tarna: "As a Moldovan, I want Moldova to respect Transnistria's wish for independence"
» Alex Caraman: "There is no possible way we can be part of Moldova"