Lenny which side do you support in Trans-Dniester, you think native Ukrainians should pack their backs and live for the refugee camps?
student.org.uni-hamburg.de
"In the Trans-Dniester region, where Ukrainians and Russians comprised 26 percent and 23 percent of the population respectively" (there is a mistake someplace, because according to 1989 census ethnic Russians comprise 13 percent and Ukrainians-14), "a full-scale separatist movement developed. The conflict also has irredentist overtones because the Trans-Dniester region was historically part of the Ukraine, not Moldova, and therefore the indigenous population was Slavic and not Romanian. The region is of considerable economic importance. Although comprising only about 10 percent of the land mass of Moldova, 20 percent of Moldova's industrial output flows from the Trans-Dniester region, and much of the energy for the republic is produced there as well." ("Ethnic Relations: Cross Cultural Encyclopedia" by D. Levinson, 1994)
The conflict between Moldova's Romanian majority and the Slavic minority east of the Dniester River has deep and bitter roots. Russia was looking at this territory long before the Russo-Turkish war. |
