Tiraspol, 14 March. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. An interesting incident occurred today in Kishinev's OSCE mission after a meeting of the political representatives of Pridnestrovie and Moldova. During the news conference, a Pridnestrovian asked Gheorghe Balan a question about the implications of establishing a joint Moldo-Ukrainian checkpoint in Kuchurgan at the Ukrainian border.
«You say Moldovan border guards are necessary to prevent smuggling at the Pridnestrovie-Ukraine border. It turns out you do not trust the Ukrainian customs officers who carelessly check the goods imported to Pridnestrovie, doesn't it?» asked the journalist in Russian. «Besides, you do not take into account that this will affect ordinary citizens, the residents of Pridnestrovie," she added.
Hardly had Gheorghe Balan begun to pick up phrases in a classic diplomatic manner to answer her in Russian when he was interrupted by Moldovan journalists who insisted that the prime minister should switch to Romanian. The diplomat said then that he would be able to repeat his reply in Romanian, in which he, by the way, had already told about his meeting with the Pridnestrovian counterpart several minutes before.
«After this I will say the same in Romanian; there's no problem," he told the Moldovan journalists in Romanian.
However, some journalists from Kishinev were not satisfied with such a reply — they had their own way, ignoring the opinion of their Pridnestrovian colleagues. Gheorghe Balan had no choice but to agree to the demands of the representatives of the Moldovan press and reply in Romanian to the question asked in Russian.
It should be noted that Kishinev traditionally assures international mediators and observers that the language component in the Moldo-Pridnestrovian conflict has been completely removed, insisting on the conflict’s political settlement and including Pridnestrovie in its jurisdiction.
The Moldo-Pridnestrovian conflict began in the late 1980's after Kishinev had adopted discriminatory language laws putting in an unequal position the Russians, Ukrainians and Gagauz who formed the majority in the South and East of the then MSSR. The regions began to demand the right to speak their native tongues — strikes and popular movements led to the idea of self-government to protect their rights and then after Kishinev had tightened its position and after a series of referendums, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, later PMR, was proclaimed. Kishinev tried to solve by force the problem it had created, which led to the bloody war between Moldova and Pridnestrovie. This March Pridnestrovians pay tribute to their defenders who lost their lives 25 years ago in the battles near Dubossary.
