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Moldova's president considers Pridnestrovie a trade-off for losing Bukovina; Budjak
Criticizing the loss of Moldova's northern and southern regions to Ukraine in 1940, its president made it clear that he sees Pridnestrovie as just a consolation prize. But Pridnestrovie was historically never part of Moldova. Nor does it want to be: It declared independence in 1990.
In 1940, Moldova lost its north and south, and gained - for 50 years - an eastern part; Pridnestrovie (click to enlarge)DZHURDZHULESHT (Tiraspol Times) - Still sulking over the loss of Moldova's north and south to Ukraine in 1940, the country's president - Vladimir Voronin - attempted to justify his territorial claim on Pridnestrovie by pointing to how traditional and historical Moldovan land is today part of Ukraine.
Vladimir Voronin said that in the middle of last century Moldova was a country geographically located in the center of Europe, with the territory much larger in comparison to other countries that surround it today.
" - They pinched off pieces both in south and north. And now they are breaking off pieces in connection with the Transnistria problem,” the Moldovan president said, using the Romanian name for Pridnestrovie (which is also known as Transdniester).
In 1940, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin established MSSR, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, as a a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. The MSSR was created by merging Moldova with today's Pridnestrovie, a territory on the East of the Dniester which had never been part of Moldova before. In contrast, important parts of Moldova's historical north and south, Bukovina and Budjak (facing the Black Sea), were not included in the new Soviet republic but were transferred to Ukraine at the time of the creation of the MSSR.
The MSSR was broken up in the 1990-1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union but Ukraine did not return neither Bukovina nor Budjak to Moldova. As a result, Moldova felt justified in pursuing a territorial claim on Pridnestrovie although this majority Slav-populated region had traditionally and historically never been part of Moldova at any time in the past.
As reported by the Regnum News Agency, Vladimir Voronin's comments were made during the opening ceremony at a bulk-oil terminal in Dzhurdzhulesht, southern Moldova. The Jurnal de Chisinau newspaper reported that the accusations by Voronin against Ukraine, saying that it pinched off a piece of the Moldovan territory, “could not help but deliberately hit Ukraine.”
- Expert: No such trade-off existed
In the Soviet political reshuffling, Moldova briefly shared Pridnestrovie - from 1940 until the latter's declaration of independence in 1990. In 1940, however, it also lost the southern Budjak region and its Northern Bukovina and Hertsa regions. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, these historically Moldovan lands were not returned to Moldova but are, still today, parts of Ukraine.
Many in Moldova share Vladimir Voronin's belief that Moldova received Pridnestrovie from the Ukrainian SSR as a way to compensate for the loss of its north and south to Ukraine. But this is not true, says Alexandru Buju, a historian. No such trade-off existed.
" - The "tit for tat" argument has some moral validity. It is the argument that Moldova got Pridnestrovie in return for Budjak, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa. It has no historical or legal validity however. The "trade" was never made, discussed or formalized," says Buju.
The MSSR was created by merging the territory of today's Republic of Moldova west of the Dniester into the heart of a Tiraspol-based entity established in 1924 and existing at the time as the Moldavian ASSR, the forerunner to today's Pridnestrovie. Technically speaking, Pridnestrovie received Moldova and not the other way around. Moldova, in its 1991 independence declaration, recognized this as a historical fact and specifically denounced this act as an illegal annexation, declaring it to be "null and void" and demanding that "the political and legal consequences of the above be eliminated".
Pridnestrovie latched on to this declaration by Moldova, using it to justify its own independence by arguing that the 1940 annexation and merger of the two sides of the Dniester was a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and that by declaring it null and void, Moldova implicitly ruled out any previous claim that it might have had to any territory east of the Dniester river.
Since Pridnestrovie declared independence on 2 September 1990, the small state has successfully resisted demands by its larger neighbor to give up its hopes of independence and become part of the Republic of Moldova.
See also:
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova
» US foreign policy org: "Moldova is a failed state"
On the web:
» Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova (1991)
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. . . 
