FOREIGN EXPERTS RECOGNIZE TRANSDNIESTRIA INDEPENDENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2006 14:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A scholarly paper on the state sovereignty of the
Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic (TMR) within the framework of
the international law has been presented in Washington. The authors
are Stefan Talmon, Christofer Goebel, Nancy Furman, Paul Williams,
Stephen Krasner, Andrew Lorenz, Michael Scharf, and William Wood,
the international scholars from Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and
Cambridge universities who contributed to the elaboration of the
Dayton agreements on the division of former Yugoslavia. The experts
conclude that historically, Transdniestria has never been part of
Moldova. While Transdniestria originated from the collapse of the USSR,
its people and territory have roots that go far into the history. The
foundation and the existence of the modern Republic of Moldova are
based on a unilateral declaration of independence that enunciated the
forced unification on Moldova and Transdniestria performed by Stalin
at the outset of the World War II.

It lacked any ‘actual legal base,’ i. e. was instituted
illegally. Legal and factual analysis reveal that during the collapse
of the USSR, the Moldavian SSR broke up into two successor states:
Moldova and Transdniestria, whose today’s border fully corresponds to
the traditional historical border that divided them since the early
Middle Ages. At the moment of Moldova’s secession from the USSR,
Transdniestria had already exited it and governed its territory.

The report says that many years of international practice
accumulated in charters allow listing the criteria used to define
state sovereignty. These are steady population, defined territory,
government capable of establishing relations with other nations.

Transdnestr today meets all the criteria. It has its own democratically
elected President and a legislative body currently controlled by an
opposition party. Its government controls armed forces and enters
discussions with foreign states. In the case of the TMR, the viability
of the state is proved, as well as the legitimacy of the process of
the state building, the scholars affirm. More than a half million
people residing in Transdniestria that occupies territory of 4,
163 km2, successfully meet all the criteria of state sovereignty in
accord with the international law. Transdniestria has an effectively
functioning government that has its own agencies, the Constitution,
currency, tax system, legal system, and population exceeding in its
numbers that of many UN member states.