Raid on Romanian Centre in Ukraine Worries Bucharest
The inauguration of the Romanian Cultural Centre Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi in Chernivtsi, Ukraine in 2015. Photo: dprp.gov.ro |
The Romanian foreign ministry expressed concern on Tuesday about the rights of the Romanian community in Ukraine after a raid by the Ukrainian security service the previous day on a Romanian cultural centre in Chernivtsi, Northern Bukovina.
The raid has sparked new tensions between Kiev and Bucharest over Romanian minority rights in the former Soviet state.
The foreign ministry in Bucharest said that the incident was raised at a meeting between a Romanian state secretary and Ukraine’s ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov.
“On this occasion, the Romanian side stressed the necessity that the Ukrainian authorities respect the rights of the Romanian minority and avoid any actions meant to violate these rights or that can be interpreted as intimidation,” the ministry said in a press statement.
The Chernivtsi branch of the Ukrainian security service announced in a press release on Tuesday that it had launched an inquiry into the founders of the Romanian cultural centre after they allegedly disseminated “calls to violate the national integrity of the [Ukrainian] state”.
It said that maps and literature printed to promote the centenary of the formation of the modern Romanian state were found during the raid.
Investigators said they found literature calling for the re-establishment of the “historical truth” by reuniting several regions with Romania – Northern Bukovina, Northern Bessarabia (today’s Moldova) and Southern Bessarabia, which is also now in Ukraine.
The Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Cultural Centre in Chernivtsi, which is funded by the Romanian government, hosted a conference on June 9 dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Romania’s union with Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania.
During the event, the organisers also displayed memorabilia of the 1918 political events, including a map of Greater Romania, which included Northern Bukovina and Southern Bessarabia.
But after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed their neutrality pact in 1939, Moscow annexed Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertza region, as well as Southern Bessarabia. Bessarabia became the Soviet Republic of Moldova, while Northern Bukovina, Southern Bessarabia and Hertza became part of Ukraine.
BIRN was not able to reach the cultural centre’s executive director Vasile Tarateanu, who was detained by the security forces and released on Monday night.
But he told local news agency BucPress that the investigators confiscated all maps of 1918 Romania, the magazines that the centre publishes and some history books.
“With such actions at Romanian cultural centres and other minority centres, Ukraine will not end up in the European Union,” Tarateanu said.
“These raids only spark fear, distrust, suspicions and divisions in society,” he added.
Tarateanu also said that the map was not meant to threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but to debate a common history.
Romania’s Diaspora Minister Natalia Intotero told BIRN meanwhile that she regrets the situation the cultural centre and its director is in, particularly since it has received grants from her ministry in the past.
“Our ministry, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is following the situation closely and will offer every support, according to national and international legislation,” Intotero said.
Romania and Ukraine have been at odds over the rights of the Romanian minority on previous occasions.
In February, two schools that taught in the Romanian language in Chernivtsi were set ablaze by unknown assailants.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov, told Romanian media at the time that it was not an isolated incident and blamed a Russian ‘hybrid war’ against Ukraine.
In September 2017, Ukraine introduced new education legislation that sets Ukrainian as the only language of study in primary and secondary schools.
The move, which the government in Kiev said was meant to prevent teaching in the Russian language, raised concerns from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Poland, which complained to the Venice Commission.
Hungary also blocked a Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting at the ministerial level in April 2018 in connection with the legislation.
The Kiev government decided in February to extend the transition period to the new Ukrainian-only system until 2023 and submitted a new bill to parliament.
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