Moldova faces new challenge from restive Gagauzia region

21/4/2024 12:04

        Moldova's pro-European government faces a new challenge from its restive pro-Moscow Gagauzia region after its leaders denounced proposed judicial reforms and demanded enhanced status for the Russian language.
        
        Gagauzia's 140,000 residents, mainly ethnic Turks who adhere to Orthodox Christianity, have had uneasy relations with central authorities since Moldova threw off Soviet rule in 1991.
        
        On Friday, Gagauzia's local assembly rejected judicial reforms which would shut down an appeal court in the region and called for special status for Russian, alongside Moldova's sole state language, Romanian.
        
        Under Moldova's constitution, Gagauzia's leader, or bashkan, is automatically a member of the government in the country lying between Ukraine and Romania.
        But President Maia Sandu refuses to sign an enabling decree on grounds that the current bashkan, Yevgenia Gutul, was elected on the ticket of a banned pro-Russian political party led by fugitive businessman Ilan Shor, convicted of mass fraud.
        
        Prime Minister Dorin Recean stood by the judicial reforms and said the courts would uproot what he called criminal elements running the region.