​ETHNIC AND LANGUAGE DIVERSITY OF MOLDOVA IS COUNTRY’S MAIN RESOURCE – GERMAN AMBASSADOR

The Republic of Moldova’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is the country’s main resource, said Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Moldova Ulrike Knotz during Tuesday’s roundtable “Minorities and inclusive society consolidation: Moldova, Ukraine and international practice”.

According to her, the problem is not the ethnic diversity, but the political approach to it.

Very often, the diversity is used for political purposes such as strengthening of the electorate. Despite everything, people find common language. This year the German Embassy organized a lot of events on the topic of the disconnected society, which showed that the young people do not see any problem in the ethnicity; for them this is just a reason for being proud of to laugh, the Ambassador said.

The main topics of discussion at the conference became the integration of Moldovan minorities from the point of view of the communities and of the Government, as well as the Gagauz autonomy in Moldova – lessons and perspectives.

The US are all the time sharing experience in the field of the national issue with Moldovan colleagues. The issues of Transnistria and Gagauzia are being discussed like threats of country’s disintegration. Such an approach does not contribute to dialog and achieving understanding, due to which there is a feeling of less security both at the national and at personal level of each citizen, said Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Michael Scanlan.

According to him, Transnistria and Gagauzia citizens are concerned about their personal and their families’ security, as they do not see any future in Moldova.

Moldovans have to respect all nationalities and remind that everyone is equal, regardless of the language one speaks. They have one country where they are building a state of law. There is a need of efforts for uniting the society. If the consolidation of the Moldovan nation fails, many current problems will aggravate and the European potential of the country will not be fulfilled. There is a need to elaborate a strategy, which will help overcoming the existing problems, Ambassador Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the European Union Delegation to Moldova, said.

According to him, the Gagauz autonomy’s status in a united Moldova may become a good example for Transnistria. He stressed that the unification of different parts of the society is one of European policy’s priorities.