The
Gagauz people are a small
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
ethnic group living mostly in southern
MoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....
(
GagauziaGagauzia , formally known as the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Găgăuzia , is an autonomous region of...
), southwestern
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
(
BudjakBudjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
) and north-eastern
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
(
DobrujaDobruja, or Dobrudja , is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast....
). Unlike most other
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
peoples, the Gagauz are predominantly Orthodox Christians. There is a related ethnic group also called
Gagavuz (or
GajalThe Gajal or Gadzhal are a Turkic subgroup, closely related to the Gagauz. Their name derives from a common root...
) living in the European part of northwestern
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
.
Geographic distribution
Today Gagauz people outside Moldova live mainly in the Ukrainian regions of
OdessaOdessa Oblast, also written as Odesa Oblast , is an oblast of south-western Ukraine...
and
ZaporizhiaZaporizhia Oblast is an oblast of southern Ukraine...
, as well as in
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
,
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
and the Russian region of
Kabardino-BalkariaThe Kabardino-Balkar Republic , or Kabardino-Balkaria , is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus...
. There are also nearly 20,000 descendants of Gagauzes living in the
BalkanThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
countries of
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
and
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, as well as upwards of 2000 living in the United States of America (USA) Brazil and Canada. Most of Gagauz immigrants in the USA are Evangelical Christians, who left their homeland in Moldova as refugees. They were persecuted by the Communist Government of the Soviet Union . Gagauz immigrants live in Sacramento California, Salem Oregon, Seatle Washington, Tacoma Washington, Charlotte North Carolina, Philadelphia Pennsylvania and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. However the official figures in the latter group of countries cited in this article are much lower due to the loss of Gagauz identity during the last century.
Language
The Gagauz language belongs to the
OghuzThe Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.Oghuz in old Turkic means thirty, in terms of the thirty tribes.-Linguistic Features:...
branch of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Azeri,
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
, and
TurkmenTurkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 380,000 in northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in northeastern Iran.- Classification, related languages and dialects :Turkmen is in the...
languages. The Gagauz language is particularly close to the Balkan Turkish dialects spoken in Greece, northeastern Bulgaria, and in the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of Macedonia. The Balkan Turkic languages, including Gagauz, are a typologically interesting case, because they are closely related to Turkish and at the same time contain a North-Turkic (Tartar or Kypchak) element besides the main South-Turkic (Oghuz) element (Pokrovskaya,1964). The modern Gagauz language has two dialects: central (or ‘‘Bulgar’’) and southern (or maritime) (Pokrovskaya,
1964; Gordon, 2005). It is also important to mention that the Gagauzes are Orthodox Christians, whereas most of the Turkic groups mentioned above are Muslims.
Origin
The origin of the Gagauzes is obscure. In the beginning of the 20th century the Bulgarian historian M.Dimitrov counts 19 different theories about their origin. A few decades later the Gagauz ethnologist M.N.Guboglo increases the number to 21. In some of those theories the Gagauz people are presented as descendants of the
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
or a clan of Seljuk Turks or as linguistically Turkified Bulgarians. The fact that their confession is East Orthodox Christianity suggest that their ancestors already lived in the Balkans prior the Ottoman conquest in the late 14th century.
Seljuk (Anatolian) hypothesis
According to the Seljuk theory, supported by the Polish orientalist T. Kowalski the Gagauz descended from the
SeljukThe Seljuq were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...
TurksThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
who in the 13th century followed the Anatolian Seljuk
SultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
Kaykaus IIKaykaus II or Kayka'us II was the eldest of three sons of Kaykhusraw II. He was a youth at the time of his father’s death in 1246 and could do little to prevent the Mongol subjugation of Anatolia. For most of his tenure as the Seljuq Sultan of Rum, he shared the throne with one or both of his...
(1236-1276) and supposedly settled in the
DobrujaDobruja, or Dobrudja , is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast....
region of the medieval Bulgarian kingdom. There they presumably mixed with other Turkic peoples such as
PechenegsThe Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people of the Central Asian steppes speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Turkic language family.-Origins and area:...
, Uz (
OghuzOghuz may refer to:* Oğuz, a male first name in Turkey*Oghuz Turks*Oghuz languages*Oghuz Rayon, Azerbaijan*Oğuz, Azerbaijan...
) and
CumanCumans were a nomadic Turkic people who inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea known as Cumania along the Volga River. They eventually settled to the west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Wallachia...
(
KipchakKipchaks were an ancient Turkic people who originally formed part of the group of Kimäks in Siberia along the middle reaches of Irtysh or along the Ob. Around the middle of the eleventh century they split off from the bulk of the Kimaks and departed in the direction of Europe...
) who came from the Russian steppe at about the same time. After settling in the eastern Balkans (
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
) this Seljuks are thought to have converted from
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
to
Orthodox ChristianityThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
in the 13th century and later became known as "Gagauz".
In fact Kaykaus is known to have finally settled in Crimea. However, the story of Kaykaus is a very convenient way for
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
to export Panturkism to the Gagauz people of Moldova. The supporters of the Turkic theory claim that the term Gagauz came from the name of Sultan Kaykaus II and therefore it is an ancient tribal name, confirming that the Gagauz were originally Turkic people and not linguistically Turkified Bulgarians. Another explanation is that the ethnonym means strait-nosed (from
gaga - nose and
uz - strait). Therefore Gagauz means strait-nosed Christian Turks in opposition to the curved-nosed
OttomanThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
Muslim Turks. Some interpret Gagauz as derivative of Gök Oğuz - "Heavenly
OghuzOghuz may refer to:* Oğuz, a male first name in Turkey*Oghuz Turks*Oghuz languages*Oghuz Rayon, Azerbaijan*Oğuz, Azerbaijan...
" (from turkish
gök - sky, heaven and
oğuz - branch of Turkic people).
Steppe hypothesis
The ‘‘Steppe’’ hypothesis suggestes that the Gagauzes may be descendants of the Turkic nomadic tribes (Bulgars and Cumans) from the Eurasian steppes. In 19th century, prior to their migration to Bessarabia, the Gagauzes from the Bulgarian lands (then in Ottoman Turkey) considered themselves Bulgarians. Ethnological research suggest that "Gagauz" was a linguistical distinction and not ethnic. Gagauzes at that time called themselves
"Hasli Bulgar" (True
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
) or
"Eski Bulgar" (Old Bulgars) and considered the term "Gagauz" applied to them by the Slavic-speaking Bulgarians (who they called "toukan") demeaning. The Gagauzes called their language Turkish but claimed descend from early Bulgars who in the 7th century established the Bulgarian state on Danube . Now many Gagauz in Moldova claim Seljuk-Turkish descend. The Gagauz in Bulgaria do not support that view.
The 1897 Russian Census did not distinguish the Gagauz as a specific group, but it reported the existence of 55,790 native speakers of a "Turkish language" (presumably, the Gagauz language) in the Bessarabian Governorate
Genetics
In population comparisons, the Gagauzes were found to be more closely related genetically to neighboring southeastern
EuropeanThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
groups than to linguistically-related
AnatolianAnatolian means of or pertaining to Anatolia , or a person from Anatolia, including:Biology* Anatolian Black, a breed of cattle.* Anatolian buffalo, a domestic animal of Anatolia....
populations. More considerable distinctions in the distribution of
Y chromosomeThe Y chromosome is the sex-determining chromosome in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development, thus determining sex. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs.- Overview :...
components appeared between the Gagauzes and other
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
. .
The similarity to neighboring populations may be due to the lack of social barriers between the local and the Turkic-
OrthodoxThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
populations of the Balkan Peninsula. Thus, the ongoing intensive reciprocal gene flow was accompanied by the gradual dissolution of the Asian genetic component. Another possibility is
language shiftLanguage shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
in accordance with the
eliteElite is taken originally from the Latin, eligere, "to elect". In sociology as in general usage, the elite is a relatively small dominant group within a large society, having a privileged status perceived as being envied by others of a lower line of order.The elite at the top of the social strata...
dominance model, i.e.
TurkificationTurkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily...
Nevertheless, Gagauz people were found to have a higher proportion of Near Eastern
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
lineages. This fact agrees with the historically documented information on the migration of the Gagauzes to the Southern Bessarabia from the territory of the Balkan Peninsula. Genetic findings testifies to the emergence of the Near Eastern lineages in the Gagauz at the entry of the Seljuk Turks into the Balkans.
Early history
It is historically documented that the Gagauzes migrated to Bessarabia from northeastern Bulgaria
(Dobruja) in the beginning of the 19th century fleeing from political and religious oppression by the Ottoman Turks. However, very little is known about their previous history. Turkic-speaking tribes of the
Nogai HordeThe Nogai Horde was a confederation of Turkic nomads that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed south by the Russians in the 17th century. 'Nogai' is more of an ethnonym than an ethnic group...
inhabited the
BudjakBudjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
region of southern
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Before 1807, a portion of these tribes were forced to abandon the Budjak by the Tsarist government of Russia, resettling in
CrimeaCrimea or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only autonomous republic of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name.The territory of Crimea was conquered and controlled many times throughout its history...
,
AzovAzov is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just sixteen kilometers from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town. Population: -Early settlements in the vicinity:...
and
StavropolStavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol.-Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the Northern slopes of Caucasus Major...
. Soon after they were replaced by other Turkic-speaking people which later came to be known as the Gagauz. Most if not all Gagauz people who now live in Moldova, came to Bessarabia from Bulgaria (then in the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
) after the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812). This fact is well documented in the Russian tsarist archives. They settled alongside Slavic-speaking Bulgarian who emigrated at the same time and often married them.
Between 1820 and 1846, the Russian Empire allocated land to the Gagauz and gave them financial incentives to settle in
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
in the settlements vacated by the
NogaiThe term Nogai can refer to more than one thing:* Nogai Khan was a de facto ruler of the Golden Horde.* Nogai Horde was a Turkic state which split from the Golden Horde in late 1400s.* The Nogais are a Turkic people....
tribes. They settled in Bessarabia along with Bulgarians, mainly in
AvdarmaAvdarma is a village in the Gagauz Autonomous Territorial Unit of the Republic of Moldova. The 2004 census listed the village as having a population of 3,564 people. Gagauz total 3,356...
,
ComratComrat is a city in Moldova and the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia. It is located at , in the south of the country, on the Ialpug River. In 2004, Comrat's population was 23,429, of which the vast majority are Gagauzians.The name is of Turkic and Nogai origin...
(or
Komrat),
CongazCongaz is a village in the Gagauz Autonomous Territorial Unit of the Republic of Moldova. The 2004 census listed the village as having a population of 12,327 people. Gagauz total 11,849...
(
Kongaz),
TomaiTomai may refer to several places in Moldova:*Tomai, a commune in Gagauzia*Tomai, a commune in Leova district...
,
CismichioiCişmichioi is a village in the Gagauz Autonomous Territorial Unit of the Republic of Moldova. The 2004 census listed the village as having a population of 5,054 people. 4,772 inhabitants are Gagauz. Minorities included 43 Russians, 39 Ukrainians, 25 Bulgarians and 115 Moldovans. The village lies...
and other former Nogai villages located in the central Budjak region. Originally, the Gagauz also settled in several villages belonging to boyars throughout southern Bessarabia and the Principality of Moldavia, but soon moved to join their kin in the Bugeac. Until 1869, the Gagauz in Bessarabia were described as Bulgarians. During the
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
n rule of southernmost Bessarabia (1856-1878), they supported Bulgarian schools in their settlements and participated in the Bulgarian national movement. Therefore some ethnologists (
Karel ŠkorpilKarel Václav Škorpil was a Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist and museum worker credited along with his brother Hermann with the establishment of those two disciplines in Bulgaria....
, Gavril Zanetov, Benyo Tsonev) claim Bulgarian origin for the Gagauz.
With the exception of a five-day independence in the winter of 1906, when a peasant uprising declared the autonomous Republic of Komrat, the Gagauzian people have mainly been ruled by the Russian Empire, Romania, the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, and
MoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....
.
Soviet Union and Republic of Moldova
Gagauz
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
remained an intellectual movement during the 1980s but strengthened by the end of the decade as the Soviet Union began to embrace
liberalLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
ideals. In 1988, activists from the local
intelligentsiaThe intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
aligned with other ethnic minorities to create the movement known as the "Gagauz People" (Gagauz Turkish:
Gagavz halki). A year later, the "Gagauz People" held its first assembly which accepted the resolution to create an autonomous territory in the southern
Moldavian SSRThe Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic : Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ or Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească; Moldavskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
, with Comrat designated as capital. The Gagauz nationalist movement increased in popularity when
MoldovanMoldovan , written in the Latin script, is one of the names of the official language of the Republic of Moldova. The language spoken in Moldova is identical to Romanian, sharing the same literary standard,...
(
RomanianRomanian or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia...
) was accepted as the official language of the Republic of Moldova in August 1989. The minorities of southern Moldova – Gagauz, Bulgars, and Russians – looked on this decision with concern, precipitating a lack of confidence in the central government located in
ChişinăuChişinău , is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc. The city is the most economically prosperous locality in Moldova, and its largest transportation hub...
. The Moldavian population regarded Gagauz demands with suspicion, convinced they were acting as puppets of forces that wanted to preserve the Soviet Union.
In August 1990, Comrat declared itself an autonomous republic, but the Moldovan government annulled the declaration as unconstitutional. The Gagauz were also worried about the implications for them if Moldova reunited with Romania, as seemed increasingly likely. Support for the Soviet Union remained high, with a local referendum in March 1991 yielding an almost unanimous "yes" vote to stay in the USSR; Moldovans in Gagauzia, however,
boycottA boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons.-Etymology:...
ed the referendum. Many Gagauz supported the
Moscow coup attemptThe 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup, was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
, further straining relations with Chişinău. However, when the
Moldovan parliamentThe Parliament of the Republic of Moldova is a unicameral assembly with 101 seats. Its members are elected by popular vote every 4 years. The parliament then elects a president, who functions as the head of state...
voted on whether Moldova should become independent, six of the twelve Gagauz deputies voted in favor.
GagauziaGagauzia , formally known as the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Găgăuzia , is an autonomous region of...
declared itself independent on 19 August 1991 – the day of the Moscow coup attempt – followed by
TransnistriaTransnistria, also known as Trans-Dniester or Transdniestria is a disputed region in Eastern Europe, located mostly in a strip between the Dniester River and Ukraine...
in September. Some believe that these moves prompted the nationalist Moldovan Popular Front to tone down its pro-Romanian line and speak up for the rights of minorities. In February 1994,
PresidentThe President of the Republic of Moldova is the head of state of Moldova.- Description of the post :According to the Article 77 of the Constitution of Moldova , the President of Moldova is the head of the State and represents the State and is the guarantor of national sovereignty, independence, of...
Mircea SnegurMircea Ion Snegur was the first President of Moldova 1990-1997. Before that he was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet 1989-1990 and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 27 April to 3 September 1990...
, opposed to Gaugauz independence, promised a Gaugauz
autonomous regionAn autonomous area is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the country or is populated by a national minority. Countries that include autonomous areas are often federacies...
. Snegur also opposed the suggestion that Moldova become a
federal stateA federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
made up of three "republics": Moldova, Gagauzia, and Transnistria. This was the plan promoted by those wishing to rehabilitate the former Soviet Union. In 1994, the Moldovan parliament awarded "the people of Gagauzia" the right of "external self-determination" should the status of the country change. This means that in the event -and only in that event- that Moldova decided to join another country (by all accounts this is referred to Romania), the Gagauzians would be entitled to decide whether to remain or not a part of the new state by means of a self determination referendum
On December 23, 1994, the Moldovan parliament produced a peaceful resolution to the dispute by passing the "Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia" (
Gagauz Yeri). Gagauzia became a "national-territorial autonomous unit" with three official languages –
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
,
GagauzThe Gagauz language is a Turkic language, spoken by the Gagauz people, and the official language of Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova. It is spoken by approximately 150,000 people. There are two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. This is a different language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish...
and Moldovan/Romanian – and the date is now a Gagauzian holiday. Many European human-rights organizations recognize Gagauzia as a successful model for resolving ethnic conflict.
As a result of a referendum to determine Gagauzia's borders, thirty settlements (three towns and twenty-seven villages) expressed their desire to be included in the Gagauz Autonomous Territorial Unit. In 1995, George Tabunshik was elected to serve as the Governor (
Bashkan) of Gagauzia for a four year term, as were the deputies of the local parliament, "The People's Assembly" (
Halk Topluşu) and its chairman Peter Pashali.
External links
Who are Gagauz people and Where do they come from? Article about the Gagauz people Bulgarian Government claim that they are Bulgarian speaking in Turkish