Moldova – Gagauzia (Comrat) June 12, 2019
After sleeping in the parking lot of Milestii Misti Wine Cellars (great wifi with no password) and getting almost completely caught up on my web site, I drove the 110kms to Comrat. Garauzia constitutes a region in Nomad Mania, one of three in Moldova.
GARAUZIA
Gagauzia officially the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia is an autonomous region of Moldova. Its an ethnic autonomy of the Gagauz people, who are primarily Orthodox Turkic-speaking people. Gagauz Yeri literally means “place of the Gagauz”.
HISTORY
According to some theories, the Gagauz people descend from the Seljuq Turks who settled in Dobruja following the Anatolian Seljuq Sultan Izzeddin Keykavus II (1236–1276). .
More specifically, one clan of Oghuz Turks is known to have migrated to the Balkans during intertribal conflicts with other Turks. This Oghuz Turk clan converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity after settling in medieval Bulgaria, and were called Gagauz Turks. A large group of the Gagauz later left Bulgaria and settled in southern Bessarabia, along with a group of ethnic Bulgarians.
Russian Empire. In 1812, Bessarabia, previously the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia, was annexed by the Russian Empire following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War between 1806 and 1812. Nogai tribes who inhabited several villages in south Bessarabia (or Budjak) were forced to leave. Between 1812 and 1846, the Russians relocated the Gagauz people from what is today eastern Bulgaria (which was then under the Ottoman Empire) to the orthodox Bessarabia, mainly in the settlements vacated by the Nogai tribes. They settled there together with Bessarabian Bulgarians in Avdarma, Comrat, Congaz, Tomai, Cișmichioi, and other former Nogai villages. Some Gagauz were also settled in the part of the Principality of Moldavia that did not come under Russian control in 1812. But, within several years, villagers moved to live with their own people in the compact area descendants inhabit in the 21st century in the south of Bessarabia.
With the exception of a five-day de facto independence in the winter of 1906, when a peasant uprising declared an autonomous Republic of Comrat, ethnic Gagauzians have been ruled by other dominant groups: the Russian Empire (1812–1917), Romania (1918–1940 and 1941–1944), the Soviet Union (1940–1941 and 1944–1991), and Moldova (1917–1918 and 1991 to date).
Soviet Union. Gagauz nationalism remained an intellectual movement during the 1980s, but strengthened by the end of the decade, as the Soviet Union began to embrace democratic ideals. In 1988, activists from the local intelligentsia aligned with other ethnic minorities to create a movement known as the “Gagauz People”. A year later, the “Gagauz People” held its first assembly; they passed a resolution demanding the creation of an autonomous territory in southern Moldova, with the city of Comrat as its capital.
The Gagauzian national movement intensified when Moldavian (Romanian) was accepted as the official language of the Republic of Moldova in August 1989, replacing Russian, the official language of the USSR. A part of the multiethnic population of southern Moldova was concerned about the change in official languages. They had a lack of confidence in the central government in Chișinău. The Gagauz were also worried about the implications for them if Moldova reunited with Romania, as seemed likely at the time. In August 1990, Comrat declared itself an autonomous republic, but the Moldovan government annulled the declaration as unconstitutional.
Independent Moldova. Support for the Soviet Union remained high in Gagauzia, with a referendum in March 1991 returning an almost unanimous vote in favour of remaining part of the USSR. Many Gagauz supported the Moscow coup attempt in August 1991, and Gagauzia declared itself an independent republic on 19 August 1991. In September Transnistria declared its independence, thus further straining relations with the government of Moldova.
In February 1994, President Mircea Snegur promised autonomy to the Gagauz, but opposed independence. He was also opposed to the suggestion that Moldova become a federal state made up of three republics: Moldova, Gagauzia, and Transnistria.
In 1994, the Parliament of Moldova awarded to “the people of Gagauzia” the right of “external self-determination”. On 23 December 1994, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova accepted the “Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia” (Gagauz: Gagauz Yeri), resolving the dispute peacefully. This date is now a Gagauz holiday. Gagauzia is now a “national-territorial autonomous unit” with three official languages: Romanian, Gagauz, and Russian.
On 2 February 2014, Gagauzia held a referendum. An overwhelming majority of voters opted for closer ties with Russia over EU integration. They also said they preferred the independence of Gagauzia if Moldova chooses to enter the EU.
It has a mandate for lawmaking powers within its own jurisdiction. This includes laws on education, culture, local development, budgetary and taxation issues, social security, and questions of territorial administration.
ECONOMY
The base of the Gagauzian economy is agriculture, particularly viticulture. The main export products are wine, sunflower oil, non-alcoholic beverages, wool, leather and textiles. There are 12 wineries, processing more than 400,000 tonnes annually. There are also two oil factories, two carpet factories, one meat factory, and one non-alcoholic beverage factory.
DEMOGRAPHICS
According to the 2014 census, Gagauzia had a population of 134,132, of which 36.2% urban and 63.8% rural population.
Ethnic composition. According to the 2014 census results, the ethnic breakdown in Gagauzia was: Gagauz 83.8%, Bulgarians 4.9%, Moldovans 4.7%, Russian 3.2%, Ukrainians 2.5%, Otheres .9%
Religion. Christians – 96.0% – Orthodox Christians – 93.0%, Protestant – 3.0%, Baptists – 1.6%, Seventh-day Adventists – 0.8%, Evangelicals – 0.4%, Pentecostals – 0.2% Other – 2.2%, No Religion – 1.6%, Atheists – 0.2%
CULTURE AND EDUCATION
Despite declaring Gagauz as the national language of the Autonomy, the local authorities do not provide any full Gagauz-teaching school, most of those are Russian-language as opposed to inner Moldovan full Romanian language education. Although pupils are introduced to all of the usual school languages (Russian, Romanian, English or French, Gagauz), the local language continues to be the most popular language.
The noticeable differences are the alphabet is Cyrillic instead of Latin, they speak Russian and Russian crosses (diagonal bar on the lower shaft) are along the roadside, the tops of the churches and in the cemeteries.
COMRAT
Russian Orthodox Church (Cathedral of St John the Bapist). Enter through a large bell tower that needs painting. The church was just being painted a bright yellow with white trim. The Corinthian capitals on the columns around the door were orange. The several onion domes were bright brass. The inside has a slightly different look than the Romanian Orthodox churches. It is square with two side aisles. The entire inside is painted in a subdued blue background with faux marble and floral decoration on the columns. The murals are large as in the rest of Moldova. All the icons have simple gilt frames but the jacketed ones are a rich brass. The iconoclast is also mostly bright brass.
I entered during a service. 8 older women and two priests were blessing bottles of pop and several round ropes of bread with candles stuck in them on a small table to the side.
BESALMA
Besalma is a tiny, sleepy village about 17kms south of Comrat.
Gagauz National Museum of History and Ethnography. The museum walls are lined with photos, newspaper clippings and letters. There is the usual ethnographic material, farm equipment, old grape presses, a loom, wedding pictures, a large horse drawn sleigh but all is in Russian and I learned nothing about Gagauz. No one spoke a word of English. 10 Lei, no reduction
The toilet was in a shed out back – a long-drop with a simple hole in the tile. There was no water and I washed my hands with a scoop of water out of a bucket in the office (no soap).
A small granite monument outside the museum had the dates 1979-1989 and the figure of a women laying down a rifle and weeping over a prostate man.
It was then 134kms to Bender in Transnistria (2h 17minutes). A young couple were hitchhiking outside Besalma and I offered them a ride, asking if they spoke English. Replying “I don’t speak English”, he refused the ride despite there being no traffic.
The road was a mixed bag from a piece of shit road (potholes, patched and frost-heaved) to wonderful. On the good part, I hit a large black bird with my right rear view mirror, knocking the glass loose, but there was no damage. I believe the bird died. I picked up a young couple who spoke no English. The young women got off in the middle of nowhere and offered me 10 Lei (it is usually routine to pay if hitchhiking in most countries), but I refused. 5kms before Bender I entered Trans Dniestr. It was like any other border where they look in the back of the van. I then went into the office where he checked my passport, asked where I was going, checked the car documents, gave me a receipt but no stamp and I continued on.
NOMAD MANIA Moldova – Gagauzia (Comrat)
Borders: Moldova ‘proper’-Ukraine
Museums: Besalma: Gagauz National Museum of History and Ethnography
Religious Temples: Comrat: Russian Orthodox Church (Cathedral of St John the Bapist)