Information on the Gagauz People

In Moldavia there were 173.000 gagauz in 1979, in 1989 their number sank to 153.000. In their autonomous region they state about 80% of the population.

Their religion is orthodox christianity.

News on Gagauz Place and Moldova

GAGAUZ GROUP CONCERNED ABOUT MOLDOVAN COMMUNISTS' 'ARBITRARINESS.' The United Gagauz movement in Moldova's Gagauz-Yeri Autonomous Republic has appealed to Moldovans and international organizations to help Gagauz "put an end to the Communist arbitrariness in the autonomous region," Infotag reported on 29 August. According to the movement, Gagauz-Yeri's Popular Assembly (Halk Toplusu) and Gagauz-Yeri Governor Gheorghe Tabunshik are planning to submit to the Moldovan parliament in Chisinau an amendment to the law on Gagauz-Yeri's status in order to provide the autonomous region's legislature with the right to elect the governor. United Gagauzia says the initiative to pass such an amendment comes from the Party of Moldovan Communists, which is allegedly afraid that its representative may lose the next gubernatorial election if held by popular vote. United Gagauzia appealed to the Popular Assembly not to yield to a "new provocation" by the Communists and to hold a regional referendum on the issue. Gagauz-Yeri's chief executive is elected every four years by popular vote in the region. Tabunshik has been in office since 1995. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 164, Part II, 30 August 2005

MOLDOVA TO PROMOTE NATIONAL VALUES THROUGH POP-MUSIC FESTIVAL. The city of Comrat in southern Moldova will host an international pop-music festival called "Songs of the World" on 20-21 August, BASA reported on 15 August. The director of the festival, Constantin Moscovici, said the event is intended to spread the values of Moldovan culture and find new talent worldwide. "The festival is comprised of two stages -- on the first day, young singers will perform in Romanian, and on the second day in their own language," he added. Singers from 14 countries will reportedly take part in the song contest whose main prize amounts to some $10,000. Comrat is the capital of Moldova's Gagauz-Yeri autonomous region which is home to some 130,000 Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking, Christian ethnic minority that also lives in Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Greece. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 154, Part II, 16 August 2005

MOLDOVAN PREMIER: BESLAN ARMS ORIGINATED IN TRANSDNIESTER Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev said on 6 September that "foreign secret services" told him that weapons used by the Beslan hostage takers were manufactured in Transdniestrian factories, Deutsche Welle's Romanian-language website (http://www.dw-world.de/romanian/) reported on 7 September. "After this painful case, our friends in the Russian Federation should change their position toward the Transdniester separatists," Tarlev said. He accused Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov of being "the head of a criminal group that terrorizes hundreds of thousands of people" for his own "and his foreign bosses'" financial interests. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 172, Part II, 9 September 2004

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT SAYS GAGAUZ-YERI SHOULD BE MODEL FOR

TRANSDNIESTRIAN CONFLICT'S RESOLUTION. President Vladimir Voronin

said during a "working visit" to the Gagauz-Yeri Autonomous Region on

19 November that the region has turned into a "European example of

how conflicts over territories populated by national minorities can

be peacefully solved," Flux reported. The same model, he said, could

well serve for ending the Transdniestrian conflict. The visit marked

10 years since the setting up of the autonomous republic. Voronin

said that Moldova must create conditions under which both the primacy

of "Moldovan" as the country's official language and the free use of

minority languages are ensured. He said citizens belonging to

national minorities must be equally fluent in Moldovan and their own

language. RFE/RL Newsline

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 178, Part II, 18 September 2003

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT SAYS GAGAUZ-YERI TO BE FEDERATION SUBJECT.

President Voronin said at a meeting with Gagauz-Yeri Popular Assembly

deputies on 17 September that the autonomous region should be the

third subject of the envisaged federation, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau

reported. Voronin said that "an asymmetric federation suits best

Moldova's needs," and added that the autonomous region's separate

status already figures in the current Moldovan Constitution. Tiraspol

is rejecting the "asymmetric model" and wants the envisaged

federation to be based on two equal subjects. It was announced in

Chisinau on 17 September that members of the joint

Moldovan-Transdniester commission tasked with drafting the federal

constitution have concluded negotiations on the basic document's

first section. The OSCE and the Venice Commission are to be consulted

on some issues in line with an agreement reached when the joint

commission was set up. Meanwhile, separatist leader Igor Smirnov said

in Tiraspol that Transdniester will never be the side that breaks the

negotiations off. "Otherwise we will lose forever our current

position as an equal-right partner in the dialogue with the Republic

Gagauz leader, Georgi Tabunschik, and an accompanying delegation were received by President Suleyman Demirel on 11 March at Cankaya

Presidential Palace. During the meeting, President Suleyman Demirel recalled that the Gagauz won autonomy within the territory

of the Moldovan Republic following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Noting that the only problem resolved from among the

controversies which arose after the disintegration of the Soviet Union was the status of the Gagauz. President Demirel added that

the Gagauz were recognised as a people and not a minority.