1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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Soviet Republics. Rather than seeking mere indepen- other non-Romanians of the region. This has the
dence, it proclaimed its desire to join, or rather rejoin, potential to become a serious problem not only on a
Romania. The Moldovans are Romanians who as a local level but also in Romania as well. We should
result of history found themselves under Russian rule. remember that one of Ceasuescu's major demands
While Russians in Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, and other from Brezhnev was the return of Moldova to Roma-
republics were in general not frightened of the inde- nian control.
pendence movements taking place in the non-Russian
republics, that of Moldova threatened to place them The Gagauz (Bulgarian Orthodox Turks) of Moldova
under alien (Romanian) rule. Violent protests erupted, have also expressed serious concerns about the rise of
and open warfare ensued in the Trans-Dniestr region, Moldovan-Romaian nationalism and fear the merger
which attempted to secede from Moldova and join of Moldova with Romania.3 As such, they have allied
Ukraine. themselves with the Russian and Ukrainian popula-
tions in Moldova. In and of themselves they do not
Moldova itself became part of Russia as a result of represent a serious problem to Moldova, Romania, or
Russian imperial expansionism. 2 Moldova was Ukraine. Their importance is transient and is tied to
annexed from the Ottoman Empire. After World War I the greater Slavic-Romanian split in Moldova.
it was reunited with Romania, only to find itself being
passed back to the USSR after World War II. This war Western Ukraine
resulted in a drastic diminution of the Jewish and Ger- The western part of Ukraine (Galicia and Ruthenia)
man populations,'and many Tatars also left for Turkey became part of the Russian Empire and the USSR for
and Romania. On the other hand, Stalin deported the first time after World War II. In this area there had
many Moldovans, attached the southern part of Mold- been a strong Central European and Catholic influ-
ova (Budjak) to Ukraine, and induced the in-migration ence. Here distinct dialects of Ukrainian are spoken,
of hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians. and the Uniate Church has recently been reinstated as
In addition, the Trans-Dniestr region, which was for- an officially recognized religion. The Uniate Church
merly part of Ukraine, was added to Moldova (in an (Byzantine Rite Catholics) had millions of followers
attempt to gerrymander borders, effectively reducing among the Ukrainians, Slovaks, Romanians, and Hun-
the Moldovan proportion of Moldova's population) garians. In most cases this religious institution was
and Bucovina/Bukovina (the area around Chernovits/ declared illegal during the Soviet period. Although the
Chernivtsy) was detached from Romania and trans- demands for its recognition are great throughout the
ferred to Ukraine. greater region of Ukraine, only in the western part of
Ukraine does it represent any potential threat to the
Deep antagonisms exist between Ukrainians and. stability of a nation. Because western Ukraine became
Romanians, between Russians and Ukrainians in part of the Soviet Union only in the post-World War II
Moldova, and between ethnic Russians and Moldo- period and because the Uniate Church in that region
van-Romanians in Romania. Moldovan nationalist used Ukrainian and not Russian as the language of the
talk of anschluss between Moldova and Romania has church, it is considered by its members as the "true"
led to uprisings among the Russians, Ukrainians, and Ukrainian church. Among Ukrainians themselves
there is a deep cultural split between those who lived
under Russian and Soviet rule for the past 200-plus
2 In the 19th century, the Russian Empire expanded into areas ears and those who lived under Polish or Austrian
under Ottoman-Turkish control. The region of Bessarabia was years
taken by Russia. No Romania existed at that time. The population
of Moldova was changed dramatically as a result of this. It already 7 The origin of the Gagauz is still debated. They are either hnguisti-
had a large Tatar and Jewish population that had come during the cally Turkified Bulgarians, Bulgarian Orthodox Christianized
period of the Ottomans, but, with incorporation into the Russian Turks, or a combination of both. Regardless of actual origin, today
Empire, Orthodox Christians from Bulgaria and other parts of the they are Turkish in speech (for instance, Istanbul Turkish) and are
Ottoman Empire (Bulgars, Greeks, Romanians, Gagauz, and even Bulgarian Orthodox in religion.
some Albanians and Serbs) migrated to Bessarabia. In addition to
these, Cossacks from'the northern Caucasus were settled there by
Catherine the Great, and Germans were invited to settle there as
well. Thus, by the 20th century, it already had a very mixed popu-
lation, even though the Romanians (Moldovans) were still in the
majority. -
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