​ASSOCIATION HEAD CEASED RECEIVING INVITATIONS TO CHISINAU AFTER STATING THAT HE IS MOLDOVAN, NOT ROMANIAN

Alexandru Fetescu, Chairman of the Odessa region branch of the Association of the Moldovans of Ukraine, stated at the roundtable conference “Ethnic and Language Question in Moldova in the Light of the Association Agreement” here today, “I stopped receiving invitations to Chisinau for traditional congresses of Moldovan diasporas after I had started insisting that I am a Moldovan, not a Romanian”.

He reminded to conference participants that such diaspora congresses have been organized by the Moldovan Government annually since 2004, and they have long become a communication bridge for compatriots living outside the ethnic motherland.

“In 2013, when I started described at such congress in Chisinau the aspirations and daily concerns of Ukrainian Moldovans, my speech was perceived with bewilderment, to put in mildly. I was offered to regard myself to be a Romanian. They started teaching me with energy deserving a better application”, said Fetescu.

In his opinion, if the means, invested by Romania in fooling the consciousness of Moldovans, were used for developing the Moldovan economy, then a greater part of the Moldova population would begin looking differently at the ideologists from behind the Prut River.

“Today Moldova, judging by its incumbent rulers’ statements, is striving for the European Union. Very well, but why are we penetrating into Europe as Romanians? Look, when the French gather in Paris, why do they recollect the glorious pages from the history of France? And Germans in Berlin – from the history of Germany? Then why Moldovans in Chisinau should speak only of Romania’s victories?” wondered the Ukrainian Moldovan.

Alexandru Fetescu thinks that the Moldovan elite, having renounced their national self-identification as Moldovans and calling themselves ‘Romanians’, just cannot and should not seek their compatriots’ respect.

“Go visit Moldovan villages – nobody there position themselves as Romanians. Our future in undoubtedly in the European Union, but only as an independent and separate EU member state. And the Association Agreement with the European Union is the first step on this path”, believes Alexandru Fetescu.