Moldova, Gagauzia Dispute Romanian-Language Education

Tensions have risen in Moldova between the central government and the government of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, which has blamed the Moldovan government for failing to provide sufficient funds for the teaching of Romanian as a second language to Gagauz high school students, 10% of whom failed their final exams because of their inability to pass sections on the Romanian language and literature. More here.

Gagauzia, situated in southern Moldova, is the homeland of Moldova's Gagauz minority, a Turkic nation that settled in Bessarabia centuries ago and adopted Orthodox Christianity instead of the Islam of the Crimean Tatars to their east and the Ottoman Turks to their south. Although there were fears that the pro-Russian Gagauz would seek to secede from Moldova as Russians and Ukrainians in eastern Moldova did after the fall of the USSR the Gagauz instead negotiated autonomy for predominantly Gagauz districts in Moldova.

Turkish Influence in Gagauzia a Threat to Russia

A Russian analyst has published a report claiming that Turkey's growing influence amongst the Gagauz, an Orthodox Christian minority concentrated in Moldova and the southwestern Ukraine, is a threat to Russian influence within the former USSR. In recent years the Gagauz have switched from using the Cyrillic alphabet to the form of the Latin alphabet used by modern Turkish and growing numbers of Gagauz from the autonomous Gagauz state in Moldova have moved to Turkey for advanced studies. More here.

Pictured is a map of the region of Gagauzia in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.