We have taken note of the latest xenophobic remarks by Moldova’s political representative, who offered his own ignorant interpretation of the Pridnestrovian people.
We regard this attack by the aforementioned individual against the multinational people of Pridnestrovie as offensive and unacceptable.
It’s striking how quickly Valeriu Chiveri – a former Pioneer and Komsomol member who received a free education in Soviet Moldovan schools and universities – has completely forgotten about the existence of the Moldovan people, forgotten about Moldovan language textbooks written in the traditional Cyrillic script, and forgotten about Moldovan history, culture, literature, and identity as a whole.
This is a regrettable phenomenon.
Unlike individuals such as Chiveri, the people of Pridnestrovie not only preserve but also actively promote and develop their languages, culture, traditions, and customs; they defend their inalienable rights and interests; and they oppose attempts to distort history, exonerate Nazi criminals, and silence the tragedy of the Holocaust they perpetrated.
The people of Pridnestrovie have lived on their land for centuries.
We recommend that Moldova’s ill-informed political representative carefully reread the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova of August 27, 1991, in which he will find not only a reference to to the people of Pridnestrovie, but also a reference to the first Pridnestrovian statehood in the form of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It was precisely this statehood that preceded the Bessarabian Governorate of the Russian Empire, which had been annexed by Romanian troops for 22 years. It was to the Moldavian ASSR that Bessarabia was annexed in 1940 (without even “asking the people of Pridnestrovie” – as stated in the Declaration) so that people like Chiveri could get a start in life.
The multi-ethnic people of Pridnestrovie have lived and will continue to live for centuries to come, preserving their native languages and culture as the foundation of their identity.
But those who renounce the memory of their ancestors, mimicking a different culture, clowning around and mocking traditional values, face an unenviable fate –to their new patrons, they will always remain strangers.
