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MoldovaSecession of Gagauzia and Transnistria
In August the Gagauz declared a separate "Gagauz
Republic"
(Gagauz-Yeri) in the south, around the city of Comrat
(Komrat, in
Russian). In September, Slavs on the east bank of the
Nistru
River proclaimed the "Dnestr Moldavian Republic" (commonly
called
the "Dnestr Republic") in Transnistria, with its capital
at
Tiraspol. Although the Supreme Soviet immediately declared
these
declarations null, both "republics" went on to hold
elections.
Stepan Topal was elected president of the "Gagauz
Republic" in
December 1991, and Igor' N. Smirnov was elected president
of the
"Dnestr Republic" in the same month.
Approximately 50,000 armed Moldovan nationalist
volunteers
went to Transnistria, where widespread violence was
temporarily
averted by the intervention of the Russian 14th Army. (The
Soviet
14th Army, now the Russian 14th Army, had been
headquartered in
Chisinau under the High Command of the Southwestern
Theater of
Military Operations since 1956.) Negotiations in Moscow
among the
Gagauz, the Transnistrian Slavs, and the government of the
Soviet
Socialist Republic of Moldova failed, and the government
refused
to join in further negotiations.
In May 1991, the country's official name was changed to
the
Republic of Moldova (Republica Moldova). The name of the
Supreme
Soviet also was changed, to the Moldovan Parliament.
Data as of June 1995
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