Four Pillars of Transnistria
Encyclopedia
Transnistria's
September 2, 1990, declaration of independence rests upon the following Four Pillars:
Moldova does not agree with the Four Pillars theory and disputes the status of Transnistria
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Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
September 2, 1990, declaration of independence rests upon the following Four Pillars:
- Self-determinationSelf-determinationSelf-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
- Transnistria's separate history from MoldovaHistory of TransnistriaThis is the history of Transnistria.See also the history of Europe.-Antiquity:In ancient times, the area was inhabited by Thracian and Scythian tribes...
- Actual distinctiveness
- Reversal of Molotov-Ribbentrop PactMolotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
Moldova does not agree with the Four Pillars theory and disputes the status of Transnistria
Disputed status of Transnistria
The political status of Transnistria, an unrecognized state on the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Moldova, has been disputed since the Transnistrian declaration of independence on September 2, 1990. This declaration established a Soviet Socialist Republic separate from...
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Explaining the pillars
- Self-determination is the concept that, in the words of United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
president Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live. Transnistria argues that since the majority of today's countries were founded on the principle of self-determinationSelf-determinationSelf-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
, they too have this moral right. - Transnistria's separate history from Moldova refers to the fact that Transnistria has no historical ties with MoldovaMoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
and that it was never at any time in its historyHistory of TransnistriaThis is the history of Transnistria.See also the history of Europe.-Antiquity:In ancient times, the area was inhabited by Thracian and Scythian tribes...
part of an independent Moldovan state. Traditionally, the DniesterDniesterThe Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
river formed an international border between the two. Transnistria therefore argues that Moldova's claim to Transnistria is not supported by history. - Actual distinctiveness demonstrates that Transnistria has few things in common with Moldova. The minority (30.4% as of 2005) in Transnistria are slavs who speak RussianRussificationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
in contrast to Moldova where most of the population are ethnic MoldovansMoldovansMoldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
and speak MoldovanMoldovan languageMoldovan is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova, where it is official. The spoken language of Moldova is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in northeastern Romania, and the two countries share the same literary standard...
. The two also differ in alphabets, religions, economies, etc. - Reversal of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is the legal argument that the only tie between Moldova and Transnistria was the forced 1940-annexation by the USSR after the outbreak of World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but that this annexation was declared null and void by Moldova itself with its 1990 reversal of the legal effects of the Molotov-Ribbentrop PactMolotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
. This, argues Transnistria, also voids any claim to territory obtained as a result of the pact as the result of the legal principle of status quo ante bellumStatus quo ante bellumThe term status quo ante bellum is Latin, meaning literally "the state in which things were before the war".The term was originally used in treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses...
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External links
- pridnestrovie.net: The four pillars (Official Transnistrian website) - a highly partisan site.