Transnistrian Parliament refuses to move to another city

The Transnistrian supreme soviet has refused to move over to the region’s second biggest city, Bendery [some 12 kilometers off Tiraspol], to thus let president Yevgeny Shevchuk realize his idea to create a Parliamentary Center there.    

The president’s initiative was voted down by 26 out of the parliament’s 43 deputies, who are convinced that there exist no reasons or grounds for relocating «the republic’s only legislative organ» from its historic building in Tiraspol.  

The parliamentary majority believe that the Transnistrian supreme soviet is one of the symbols of democracy and, being the center of the representative power, it should be situated nowhere but in the capital of the state.    

The opinion of one of Shevchuk’s allies, leader of the pro-presidential Vozrojdenie [Rebirth] party Andrei Sipchenko, remained practically unheard. Sipchenko maintained, in particular, that by moving the parliament over to Bendery its citizens will receive a distinct signal that nobody is going to yield the city [situated on the western Dniester bank but under Transnistria authorities’ control] to Moldova.     

Galina Antiufeyeva, chairwoman of the supreme soviet standing committee for state building, local self-governance, human rights and freedoms, state security and defense, reminded about an agreement signed with Chisinau according to which the location of administrative organs in Bendery must be agreed upon with the Joint Control Commission [JCC, a supervisory body for the Joint Peacekeeping Forces]. However, this has not been done.    

She referred to the opinion presented recently by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Moldova, Sergey Pirozhkov, who believes that the intention by the Tiraspol authorities to relocate the supreme soviet over to Bendery may create extra tension in the Transnistria Security Zone.    

Galina Antiufeyeva cited Ambassador Pirozhkov’s saying that «Bendery is a Security Zone, where it is necessary to maintain the balance of relations and the balance of the presence of both Transnistrian and Moldovan structures. Any tension must be tackled and resolved peacefully and democratically».    

Eventually, the supreme soviet passed a resolution «On the location of representative organs of state power in the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic», according to which the region’s supreme soviet shall remain in Tiraspol.    

Adapted from Infotag