Moldovan parliamentary speaker receives jubilee medal of Belarus (and deserves it)
https://www.moldpres.md/en/news/2019/08/23/19006673
There are several ways of looking at this. First of all, it is clear that a large majority of the population of Belarus is very much in favor of the (neo-Soviet) jubilees of the Soviet liberation in 1944. By contrast, in Moldova, most people do not see the Soviet occupation of 1944 as "liberation". Yet most people do not see it as "occupation" either (though most did in 1944). Stalin's approval rate is only 36% in Moldova, but those who think highly of Stalin still include most of the Socialist voters, hence the opposition of the Socialist leaders (including President Dodon) against the commemoration and condemnation of the totalitarian regimes. The Socialist leadership of the Moldovan parliament, which has never said anything along the lines of "it's good to have Western-style democracy in Moldova" clearly deserves medals from Lukashenka's regime in Belarus ("the last dictatorship in Europe"). The interesting thing is that Dodon is not getting a decoration from Belarus, as neo-Soviet as he might be. This is because since 2018, he is actually saying that democracy is good, not, as he was saying in the past, that Moldova needs a dictatorship. See my "Moldovan President Igor Dodon’s Hopes of Becoming a Dictator and His Party’s Authoritarian Program" at https://www.moldova.org/en/moldovan-president-igor-dodons-hopes-becoming-dictator-partys-authoritarian-program/. Dodon was saying in 2016 that he wants to be “A dictatorial leader, the same as Putin.” To his "credit", he was not saying that he wants to be "a dictatorial leader, the same as Stalin or Brezhnev". By contrast, the (Socialist) chief justice of Moldova, the former militia general Vladimir Turcan (see https://jurnalul.antena3.ro/scinteia/special/cu-glasnost-si-perestroika-gorbaciov-a-deschis-cutia-pandorei-530116.html) thought that Gorbachev's Glasnost was a bad idea, and (although this is not included in the article) that the Tienenminh Square Massacre in Communist China was good and necessary. The bottom line is that there are some frictions between the Dodon faction (a minority among the Socialists) and the hardline faction (led by speaker Zinaida Greceanai). Dodon does not quite believe in European integration, but he believes in the private sector and in illiberal democracy (with a Putinist and neo-Soviet stench). (And Russia is not a democracy, but Moldova is.)
All the best,
Ionas Aurelian Rus
https://www.moldpres.md/en/news/2019/08/23/19006673
Moldovan speaker receives jubilee medal of Belarus
18:42 | 23.08.2019
Category: Official
Chisinau, 23 August /MOLDPRES/ – Speaker of Parliament, Zinaida Greceanii, has received the Jubilee Medal: 75 years since the liberation of Belarus from fascist occupation. The distinction was handed out, during the meeting with the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belarus in Moldova, Serghei Ciciuk and a group of officials, which are paying a visit to Moldova, on Friday, 23 August, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.
The jubilee medal was also given to the deputy SP, Ion Ceban, as well as to MPs of parliamentary faction PSRM, Vlad Batrincea, Grigore Novac, Vasile Bolea.
Zinaida Greceanii thanked the guests for their distinction and participation in the events dedicated to 75th anniversary of liberation of Moldova from fascist occupation, which take place these days, throughout the territory of Moldova.
Also, the parties discussed the intensification of bilateral interparliamentary relations, and especially, the activity of friendship groups between the two legislatures.
The participants of discussions were the following officials: deputy SP, Ion Ceban, head of PSRM faction, Vlad Batrincea, and the Secretary General of legislature, Adrian Albu.
With Glasnost and Perestroika, "Gorbachev opened Pandora's box"
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Author: Florin Mihai
12 Dec 2009 - 00:00
Florin Mihai / National Journal
From the 11th floor of the Ministry of Agriculture of Chisinau you can see many of the buildings and markets where the history of 1989 was written to the right of the Prut. However, the historical events are perceived differently from above, especially from the office of the current deputy and member in the Permanent Bureau of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Turcan.
20 years ago, he was the head of the Legal Commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Moldova (RSSM). He also believes that the demands of the Bessarabians to formalize the Romanian language have triggered the conflict with the Transnistrians. He also believes that in the 1980s, Gorbachev, through glasnost and perestroika, "opened Pandora's box." He appreciates the Chinese political-economic model as a success. He speaks four languages: Russian, French, German and ... Romanian. Because his mother tongue is, as he says, Moldovan.
INTERESTING YEAR 1989
About Vladimir Turcan's career I learned more from Wikipedia than from his words. He was born in
October 14, 1954, in the city of Slobozia, near Tiraspol. He graduated from the Law School of the "Mihail V. Lomonosov" State University of Moscow (1976). He was then employed as an inspector in the Moldovan RSS Prosecutor's Office (1976-1982). He then obtained the dignity of prosecutor in the city of Ribnita. In the structure of the Communist Party of the SSMR he was co-opted for his formation as a lawyer.
He was deputy director of the administrative bodies of the Central Committee of the PC from the SSM and head of the Standing Legal Committee of the SSM. Less volatile when it comes to his career, Vladimir Turcan dislodges his language when he remembers about 1989.
"A very interesting year, in the sense that it was a very complicated period, very tense in the RSSM, a period when it was the peak of all the events related to the problem of reform and social-political changes, first of all. 1989 was still the period when all these events were have started, starting with certain meetings, meetings.
At that time, I was active in the presidency of the Supreme Soviet of the SSRM. I was the head of the legal service of this body. This service was part of the apparatus of the Supreme Soviet, as it today ensures the normal activity of the legislative body, starting from the moment of elaboration, settlement of legislative acts, their expertise and presentation of opinions in the plenary sessions. Considering that during this period the Soviet was not on a permanent basis, the deputies were only meeting at the session and it was evident that the SS was the body that dealt with all the problems. At that time, a very important law was given which was the basis for several transformations. "
LAW OF LANGUAGE, THE BEGINNING OF THE TRANSNISTRIAN CONFLICT
About the Law of formalizing the status of the Moldovan language in the SSM, adopted in August 1989, Vladimir Turcan has a different vision than the former leaders of the Popular Front.
"Aggressive implementation has caused such a phenomenon as today's Transnistria. At that stage, forced, too aggressive implementation was used as an argument from the left bank of the Dniester to start all actions to create this structure which is the administration of Transnistria. My firm opinion is that the procedure itself was wrong.
I remember very well. The meetings were held in the building where the Presidency is now. The atmosphere was very tense even in the days before the meeting. Numerous rallies were taking place in Biruintei Square. All around the language problem. This building itself was blocked by a lot of people who were assembled by the People's Front. It was indeed a very complicated situation, because this law forced all those who wished to hold office in the state bodies, but even the craftsmen, doctors, teachers, forced them, in a very short time, to move to another language. than the massively used one until then, namely Russian. And under these conditions, I considered that the man is not guilty of not knowing the language of the state, because the conditions were simply not created, starting from kindergartens, schools, Higher education institutions. We know very well that the non-use of language leads to the fact that only passive memory remains. But, actively, the language dies, if not used. This law was given under the pressure of those who gathered.
This psychological pressure, sometimes even physical, was given in terms that were obviously not real. Even one of my arguments then was this: in physics it is a law - any action causes contractions and backpressures. And obviously, the citizens from the left side of the Dniester, where the Russian language was more widespread, I myself am from that side, from the Slobozia district, they were not satisfied. My mother taught me the Moldovan language. This problem caused the reaction of the population there. All these meetings were not held under the aegis of "Come back to us!", But under the aegis of union with the Romanians. And obviously there was another problem here. The introduction of the Latin spelling was a very stressful moment, first of all for the elderly. They were switching to another alphabet and practically, one night, the world was losing the opportunity to read more newspapers. Then it was a very tense atmosphere, very hot. "
CHINESE ARE BRAVO
I ask the interlocutor about Gorbachev's reforms. "How does the communist Vladimir Turcan perceive them now?" "There were also negative things, which influenced the fate of many people, maybe even a disappointed generation, believes the current Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. Obviously there were some necessary changes. Everything was in such a closed way, but more could not develop, there were some moments of regression in the development of the society and in this context I would positively appreciate the idea of this period and the slogans that were promoted at that time.
The way of implementing these slogans in our reality was not well thought out. There were some people in society who used this democracy for their benefit, this freedom for their own benefit. But it is no great secret that some very dangerous things have started: the phenomenon of organized crime, corruption, the problem of seizing some goods without any absolute basis, perhaps from where the so-called oligarchs appeared. It seems as if suddenly, during the night, we found ourselves in a society at the first stage of the development of capitalism, when the non-democratic laws and of a normal society were applied, but which are characteristic for the life of animals.
When society moves from a period of totalitarianism to democracy, economic reforms must be undertaken at once, and only then political ones. Or in the worst case, at the same time. We started from political reforms. Then what was received throughout the Soviet Union was received. The Chinese are more rational. They started from economic reforms and now they are leading to political reforms, including the introduction of democratic elements. The Chinese are good. What was not with us. It was more chaotic to us, spontaneously, so based on the emotions, this whole period of Perestroika and Glasnost. Gorbachev never visited the Republic of Moldova. That Pandora's box that he opened didn't allow him to make this visit again. "
The reforms that took place in independent Moldova also got Vladimir Turcan ready for democracy. In the meantime, he became forced by the brief ban of the Communist Party over Prut, as he tells us, a businessman. One is successful, as every 10 minutes the latest mobile phone interrupts our discussion, and Vladimir Turcan speaks in either Goethe's or Pushkin's. Had the "golden dream of humanity", the communist society of equals, been abandoned in the meantime?