Foreign Experts Recognize Transdniestria Independence

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.