Word: moldova
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...through 1994 projected [TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Sources: PlanEcon; U.S. State Dept.}]CAPTION: ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN BELARUS ESTONIA GEORGIA KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN LATVIA LITHUANIA MOLDOVA RUSSIA TAJIKISTAN TURKMENISTAN UKRAINE UZBEKISTAN
...Azerbaijan, Moldova and Czechoslovakia were part of the world's last, now deceased empire. Their breakup may turn out to be the old business of history, not the wave of the future. National self-assertiveness in the West can be mighty ugly, especially in its more extreme Irish and Basque versions. But when Scots, Quebecois, Catalans and Bretons talk separatism, they are, in the main, actually renegotiating their ties to London, Ottawa, Madrid and Paris...
...little more than a week the story has turned into a blood-soaked tragedy with ominous international implications. As many as 500 people have been killed in savage fighting between Moldova's Romanians and Slavs, and tens of thousands of refugees have fled across the border into Ukraine. Worse, Russian-controlled units of the former Soviet army have been caught up in the battle. Russian President Boris Yeltsin has warned that Moscow may intervene to protect its soldiers and ethnics. That could set a precedent for further interventions on behalf of 25 million Russians living in the Baltic states...
What is happening in Moldova is of global concern for another reason too. It is a not at all untypical example of one of the two main trends vying to shape the post-cold war world. One is the move toward uniting once jealous sovereignties in economic groupings that also have political ties, like the 12-nation European Community. The contrasting trend is toward splitting up existing states into smaller ethnic nations, some of which then go on to divide amoeba-like into ever smaller pieces. Moldova conceivably might split in three: the Gagauz, a 150,000-member clan...
...thought that self-determination might be the wave of the future makes leaders of the established powers shudder. To them, it threatens instability on a horrendous scale. Secessions often have touched off savage neighbor-vs.- neighbor wars, like those in Moldova; in Georgia, where South Ossetians have been fighting to break away and join ethnic brethren across the border in Russia; and of course in Yugoslavia and in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, caught in a violent tug-of-war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even peaceful secessions could spawn a slew of mininations, unable to support themselves economically and dependent...