Tolerance.ro: FM Andrei Marga: Relations with Russia should become normal

Foreign Minister Andrei Marga, declared after his nominalisation as minister, that he was in favour of normal relations with Russia, saying that “we should have other relations, more normal with Russia, as they have become colder than necessary. We should use the possibilities offered by the huge, Russian market.” 

He added that Romanian-Russian relations are not simple at present but politicians ruling the two countries have the duty to find cooperation solutions. He also reminded a quotation from historian and former liberal leader of the interwar period Gheorgeh Bratianu, who said that Romania, in its geographic situation cannot gain from its relations with Europe if it ignores those placed to the East.


Source: http://tolerance.ro/portal/rule-of-law/fm-andrei-marga-relations-with-russia-should-become-normal/

EuroNews.com: Nicolae Timofti, president of the Republic of Moldova: the roots of the conflict in Transnistria lies on “the political interests of some states, among them Russia"

In an interview for EuroNews, Nicolae Timofti, president of the Republic of Moldova said that the roots of the conflict in Transnistria lies on “the political interests of some states, among them Russia.” Also, Timofti denies the suposed Russian radar plans for Moldovan border. 

Three years of political dispute in the Republic of Moldova ended in March with the election of President Nicolae Timofti. 

Republic of Moldova is a former Soviet republic that has a majoritary Romanian speaking population, sits between Romania and Ukraine, has fragile relations with the breakaway region of Transnistria, relations that needs mediation from the EU, US, Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE, the 5+2 group.

Transnistria is a separatist region of the Republic of Moldova, which broke away in 1990; it is not recognized by any UN member state. The Russian military forces and ammunitions are stationed on the Transnistrian territory against the will of the Moldovan authorities. 

Video: http://www.euronews.com/2012/05/16/timofti-denies-russian-radar-plans-for-moldovan-border/

Tolerance.ro: Republic of Moldova introduces chemical castration for paedophiles

The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova voted to make chemical castration compulsory for those convicted of violently abusing children under 15. The new law states that both citizens of the Republic of Moldova and foreigners convicted of violent paedophile offences will be chemically castrated. Also, rapists will face castration, to be decided on a case by case basis BBC reports.

Valeriu Munteanu the MP of the Liberal Party steered the bill through parliament. He said that there had been 15 cases in recent years of violent paedophiles reoffending in Republic of Moldova.

Chemical castration involves a man taking hormones which suppress the production of testosterone for three months, leading to a decreased sex drive. Poland introduced mandatory chemical castration for some sex offenders in 2009, and Russia has also recently introduced similar legislation. The new law of the Republic of Moldova will come into force on 1 July.

Source: http://tolerance.ro/portal/children/republic-of-moldova-introduces-chemical-castration-for-paedophiles/

Tolerance.ro: Titus Corlatean: EU-Serbia Association Accord to be ratified with declaration on minorities

Titus Corlatean, the chairman of the Foreign Policy Commission in Senate declared on Tuesday that the accord of Serbia’s accession to EU will be ratified by Senate with a declaration about observing the rights of national minorities. The orientation of my fellow MPs is to approve the ratification of the document, said foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu following hearings in the joint foreign policy commission of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

In his turn, the chairman of the foreign policy commission of the Senate, Titus Corlatean explained he would propose the approval of the document with a declaration annexed to it. As for conclusions I decide to suggest my colleagues in the Foreign Policy Commission in Senate to carry out favorably the procedure of ratification of Serbia’s accession accord accompanied by a declaration which Romania’s Senate should adopt and which is part of the ratified law, Corlatean said.He pointed out that this statement will be included in the ratification instrument deposited with the respective state.

According to Corlatean, the declaration will show that Romania’s Parliament requests the Romanian government, to have an active attitude in the negotiation process for various chapters which Serbia will have as candidate state, so as to ensure , in collaboration with European partners, that Serbia will fulfill these criteria before becoming a EU member.

The stability and association accord concluded by Serbia with EU must be ratified by all EU member states in order to come into force. Until now, three states, Romania included, have not ratified the document. The Senate is a decision making chamber in Romania’s case. The document received a negative vote from the Commission for Romanians everywhere in Senate and went to the European Affairs Commission. The document will also go to the Foreign Policy Commission in Senate.

Source: http://tolerance.ro/portal/rule-of-law/titus-corlatean-euserbia-association-accord-to-be-ratified-with-declaration-on-minorities/

Tolerance.ro: Romania determined to block Serbia's candidate bid to the EU because of the invention of “Vlach” language

Romania is determined to block a positive decision on the status bid of Serbia regarding its candidacy to the European Union due to the lack of minority rights for the Romanians in Timoc region, according to Danas, a Belgrade based daily newspaper, Tolerance.ro reports .

The news reached top Serbian officials on Thursday as they were preparing to meet with visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

"The Romanians have announced they will block the candidacy over the “Vlach” issue. That cast a huge shadow on the already difficult talks with Westerwelle" unnamed sources were quoted according to Danas newspaper.

They also said that there will be "immediate engagement in intensive communication" with the friendly neighbor - one of five EU member-states that have not recognized the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence.

Romania is determined to block a positive decision on the status bid of Serbia regarding its candidacy to the European Union "unless steps are taken urgently to improve the position of the Romanian (Vlach) minority in Serbia".

The beginning of 2012 Serbian authorities has continued the plan to invent and standardize a new language “the Vlach language”. The so called Vlachs in Timoc region speak Romanian but they were not alowed to learn it in school.

Romanian leaders in Timoc (Eastern Serbia) were asking for many years their civil and political rights as minority: the opening of Romanian schools (or Romanian lessons in schools) andRomanian orthodox churches in Timoc , giving those people civil and cultural rights (such as access to mass-media in the mother tongue).

Source: Tolerance.ro

Daniel Gheorghe: The road for EU integration of Serbia, Cyrillic approaches. Stalin invented ”Moldovan” language, Serbia invents “Vlach” language

YouthVoice.ro: Daniel Gheorghe: The road for EU integration of Serbia, Cyrillic approaches. Stalin invented ”Moldovan” nation and language, Serbia invents “Vlach” nation and language...

One of the most controversial issues of the European affairs is the creation of fictive national identities in order to assimilate different minority groups inside and extreme nationalist state. This anti-democratic practice was first time elaborated during Stalin totalitarian communist regime. The technique has the purpose to gain and maintain the state control over large spaces and over different nations by using force and persuasion in a large scale strategy. This is done by dividing peoples and nations.

The Stalinist example of ”Moldovan” nation and language Stalin, during his terror over the eastern Romanian lands like Bessarabia, developed in the labs of the soviet communist party the so called “Moldovan” nation. This was in reality a fictive nation invented from political and anti-Romanian reasons. In order to understand they are different than Romanians, this new ”nation” needed to have a different language... and since they could not take Russian as mother tongue very fast, the Soviets propagated the idea that the language of the inhabitants of Bessarabia is ”Moldovan”...

The same ”scientific” technique -postmodern approaches Presently, in this postmodern and apparently free Europe this scenario is repeating. Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, neighbour and “historical friend” of Romania, is practicing a constant state policy of dismantling the important Romanian community from the Timoc and Crajna regions in Eastern Serbia.

There are after independent estimations more than 250.000 Romanian ethnics in Eastern Serbia called by the Serbs as “Vlachs”. The Romanian minority based in Eastern Serbia live in the same traditions, language, origin and legacy with their brothers from modern Romania. The purpose to call them “Vlachs” aims to identify them as other ethnic group than the one they are representing. The lack of fundamental rights is a cruel reality when we are speaking about the Romanians from Timoc region. Hunted by the Serbian state, forgotten by the Basescu’s administration of Romania, this minority is struggling for ethnic surviving.

Despite all the Serbian-Romanian treaties and despite all the assurances from the Serbian president and from the Belgrade Government that they plan to give all the necessary rights to Romanians in Timoc, the situation of those forgotten Romanians is getting worse. With all the commitments regarding the rights of minorities taken by the Serbian policy makers on the road to European integration, the reality of the practice on the field of dealing with national minorities is telling us a different story.

The invention of the “Vlach” nation using the old Bolshevik model is a significant obstacle towards the democratization of Serbia and a very unfaithful act on the relation with Romania, a country which has many political ties with Serbia and which has a long history of bilateral relations with this south-western neighbour. There are no “Vlach” people and there cannot be any Romanian language written with Cyrillic alphabet (“Vlach language”) .

More than this diversion with this fictive nation, there are other aspects of violating the international conventions on the protection of minorities such as the involvement of the state authorities in the issues of self-organization of the Romanian minority in Serbia. This illegal policy of forced control over the civil organizations is a proof that Serbia is still having big problems with breaking with the authoritarian past.

We think that the situation of Timoc and Crajna must be dealt as a European political issue and this unpleasant problem is necessary to be put on the attention of the European Parliament and Council of Europe. Meanwhile, on the process of ratification of the EU-Serbia association and stabilization treaty, the question of the rights of the Romanian minority from Eastern Serbia cannot be missed. The convention over this European issue should be a part of a separate addendum chapter of Serbian-Romanian relations besides the EU – Serbia association agreement.

We think that is the obligation of the Romanian and European authorities to take a stand on protecting minorities’ rights from Serbia. The Serbian government should understand that protecting the rights of Romanian minority, they are helping their own society in the process of reopening to the world and in the process of cooperation in the south Eastern Europe.

The “Vlach” term is a derogatory for “Romanian” and it is the duty of the Romanian authorities, of the Romanian Parliament and of the Romanian parties to understand that we have the moral right to convince the Serbian state that recognizing the Romanians as Romanians and not as “Vlach”, the opening of Romanian schools (or Romanian lessons in schools) and Romanian orthodox churches in Timoc , giving those people civil and cultural rights (such as access to mass-media in the mother tongue ) is a legal and moral “must”.

Daniel Gheorghe

Sursa: Romanian YouthVoice.ro

Romanian YouthVoice.ro: “Lucky” Romanians: native speakers of three languages: Romanian, Moldovan (a Soviet fake), Vlah (a Serbian fake)

Romanian YouthVoice.ro: “Lucky” Romanians: native speakers of three languages: Romanian, Moldovan (a Soviet fake), Vlah (a Serbian fake). Serbia on the way to create huge diplomatic scandal with Romania

The beginning of 2012 gives the linguists a new area of study. Serbian authorities are planning to invent and standardize a new language “the Vlach language” Romanian YouthVoice.ro reports.

The National Council of the Vlah minority, which should represent the interests of the Vlach/Romanian minority in Serbia was overtaken by Serbian parties in 2009. More exactly, Serbian authorities have allowed and encouraged nonVlachs/nonRomanians to participate for this election. Thus, the Serbian parties were allowed to participate and took control of the Council. From that moment, the activity of the Council was directed for the replacemt of the Romanian language in Timoc Valley (a Romanian majoritary area) of Serbia with a new invention, the “Vlah language”.

Thus, at the beginning of 2012 the pioneers of this stupidity have created already a new alphabet that is ready to be imposed to the Romanians (Vlachs) in Timoc…

Soviet model
We all know that after ocupying the eastern part of the Romanian principality of Moldova in 1812, the Russian Empire and latter on the Soviet Union have continually tried to tell the inhabitants of this teritory that they are not speaking Romanian but Moldovan.
Now, there are still some remainings of this histirical clash:
-the Declaration of independence of the Republic of Moldova from 1991 sais Romanian is the state language;
-the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova from 1994 (modified by Agrarians -Comunists-) sais Moldovan is the state language;

The officials in the Republic of Moldova have also diffrent opinions about the same language:
-the prime minister speaks Romanian;
-the President of the Parliament (interim President of the Republic) sais he speaks Romanian from the schientific point of view and Moldovan from the political point of view;
-the leader of the Liberal Party from the governing alience sais he speaks Romanian;
-the communits in the oposition, the remainings of the soviet times, speak Moldovan;
-the Moldovan Academy of Science sais the language of the population of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian and any atempt to call it Moldovan is unscientific.

Transplantation of stupidity
So, as we see, imperialist times of Russia and the soviet ones have created a monster, the “Moldovan language”. A fake name of the language in order to assimilate the population... Due to intense propaganda, some still believe this stupidity.

But what it is even more absurde in the Europe of 2012 is that Serbia, a country that calls itself democratic and plans to European integration, a country that wants good relations with its neighbours, including Romania, a country that need to respect minority rights in order to get closer to its EU objective, this country alows and suports an agression against an important part of its population (the Vlah/Romanian minority) and promotes a scandalous relation with its neigbour Romania.

So, what we can do, is to “congratulate” Romanians for their historical ability to manage to speak their own language three times in one: Romanian, Moldovan and Vlah options, but also we can congratulate Serbia for its succes in restoring “Soviet democracy” after 20 years of its collapse and thus cutting any changes to get closer of the European Union in the near future...

George Cristian Popescu
Source: Romanian YouthVoice.ro

Tolerance.ro: Russian Ambassador in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, to start new diplomatic scandal

Valerii Kuzmin, the Russian Ambassador in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova declared that his country plans to open a Consulate in Tiraspol, in Transnistria, the unrecognized separatist region of the Republic of Moldova, Tolerance.ro reports.

Speaking with one representative of the unrecongnised Transnsitria, he confirmed that although Republic of Moldova is against this Consulate, sunner or later Russia will open it…

So, Should we understand that Kuzmin wanted to say that that sooner or later Russian Federation will recognize the independence of Transnsitria ?

Source: Tolerance.ro

Tolerance.ro: Iaşi to host a joint meeting of Governments of Republic of Moldova and Romania

The joint meeting of the Governments of Republic of Moldova and Romania is expected to take place in March 2012, according to the declararions of Vlad Filat, prime-minister of RM, Tolerance.ro reports.

The main infrastructure projects to be discussed during the joint meeting are the elctrical interconection line Fâlciu – Goteşti and the natural gas interconnection pipeline Ungheni – Iaşi. The decision to have the joint meeting in Iaşi was made after the prime minister of Romania, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, spoke yesterday at the phone with Vlad Filat.

Romania has regularly joint meetings with neighbouring countries or countries that have a special relation. The Governments of Romania and Hungary met in joint meetings five times and Romania – Bulgaria one time, last year.

Source: Tolerance.ro

Tolerance.ro: Serbia accepts a Romanian consulate in Timoc after numerous bilateral negotiations

The Government of Serbia approved the opening of the General Romanian Consulate in Zaicear, Timoc, Eastern Serbia, a region with a significant Vlach (Romanian) community. The Consulate was subject to numerous bilateral negotiations, but until now Serbia refused to agree with the Consulate, Romanian Global News reports.

The gesture of Serbia can be one of sincere opening towards finding solutions for the problems of the Romanians/Vlachs in Timoc Valley or it can be just a singular action designed to convince Romania of the good intentions of Belgrade.

Asked by the Romanian Global News Agency to give a feedback on the decision, the leaders of the Romanians/Vlachs in Timoc welcomed the decision of the Serbian Government but underlined that a true opening should be followed by other measures like:
-ceding the leadership of the The National Council of the Vlach Minority which has been overtaken by the Serbian mainstream parties;
-the introduction of the education in Romanian language in the schools with Romanian/Vlach children;
-the elimination of all obstacles to rebuild the Churches of Romanian Ortodox Church in Romanian villages from Timoc Valley.

According to the daily newspaper Politika, the Government of Serbia approved the opening of the General Romanian Consulate in Zaicear, Timoc, Eastern Serbia and the Consulate would thus be available for citizens for Bor, Zaiecar, Nis, Pirot, Pčinj and Jablanički counties.

Source: http://tolerance.ro/portal/minorities/serbia-accepts-a-romanian-consulate-in-timoc-after-numerous-bilateral-negotiations/

Tolerance.ro: Republic of Moldova calls for replacing the Russia-led peacekeeping force in its breakaway transnistrian region by an international civi

A Russian military man of the „peacekeeping” forces serving in the security zone of Moldova’s separatist transnistrian region shot dead with a kalasnikov a local driving a car in the morning of January 1 for not stoping his car at a checkpoint on the bridge over the Dniester, Tolerance.ro reports.

The Russian ambasador in Chisinau, Valeri Kuzmin, declared that the „peacemaker” had to shoot the 18-year-old boy since his car was stollen, and he did not have a driving licence. The interior minister in Chisinau confirmed that the declarations of the Russian ambasador are NOT true.

Meanwhile, local residents organised a protest against Russian peacekeepers in the region. The protest was organised by the fellow villagers of the killed man. They gathered in front of the checkpoint and said they would protest until “the peacekeepers posts in the conflict security zone are removed”.

“The Russian peacekeeper should not have fired at the young man because he posed no threat to the people around,” Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Eugen Carpov said.

Moldovan officials consider that the Russian peacekeepers stationed at a checkpoint in a separatist region where an 18-year-old man was fatally shot have no reason to carry guns.
Also, the oficials in Chisinau asks the international community to support in convincing Russia to withdow the military forces and replace them with a civilian international mission.

More details: Tolerance.ro