Gagauzia Is One Step Away from self-Determination: People’s Assembly Prepares Ultimatum to Sandu

Gagauzia Is One Step Away from self-Determination: People’s Assembly Prepares Ultimatum to Sandu

The People’s Assembly of Gagauzia is calling for a congress of deputies of all levels on Saturday, May 27. It will adopt a declaration with a list of demands to President of Moldova Maia Sandu, to the Moldovan Government and to the Parliament controlled by her Action and Solidarity Party.

According to the document, if the central authorities in Chisinau ignore these conditions, Gagauzia “reserves the right to initiate and hold a referendum on the future of the autonomy”.

The demands include “no interference in elections of the Governor of Gagauzia, full representation of Gagauzia in the Parliament, central bodies of the executive, judiciary and law enforcement bodies, as well as appointment of guarantors of the special legal status of Gagauzia by the Council of Europe, UN, Russia, Turkey and Germany.

Furthermore, the Gagauz deputies asked to “give constitutional status to the law on special legal status of Gagauzia in the hierarchy of legislative acts of Moldova,” to set up the Court of Statute of Gagauzia (analogue of the Constitutional Court of Moldova) to resolve disputes, which appear during implementation of the Gagauz autonomy’s legislation.

It should be reminded that the second round of elections for regional governor (bashkan) took place in Gagauzia on May 14. Yevgenia Gutsul, a candidate of the Moldovan opposition party “Shor”, came out in favour of closer ties with Russia, which people here are called brotherly in contrast to the Moldovan authorities. Chisinau attempted to invalidate the election results by conducting a search at the Comrat CEC. Parliament speaker Igor Grosu and Prime Minister Dorin Recean later said they would not work with a pro-Russian head of the region, while President Maia Sandu called the Gagauz politicians “agents of Moscow” for not knowing the Romanian language.

In response, the Gagauz People’s Assembly warned that Chisinau had crossed “red lines” in putting pressure on the autonomy, but that it would defend the choice of its people.

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