COMPETING IDENTITIES IN THE EX-SOVIET SPACE: THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA`S IDENTITY CRISIS IN LIGHT OF ITS FROZEN CONFLICT IN TRANSNISTRIA

Abstract:

This paper tackles the frozen conflict in Transnistria through the lens of the competing identities between the Republic of Moldova and its breakaway region. Based on the fact that most specialists on the above-mentioned frozen conflict stress the responsibility of the Moldovan leadership for exploiting and manipulating the interethnic animosities in the wake of the Soviet dissolution, the author will reassess the historical background of the country in order to point out its identity crisis from which the political inconsistency stems. The politics of pan- Romanianism on which Chișinău embarked in the late years of perestroika and the first years of Moldova`s independence will be discussed in conjunction with the war in Transnistria in March 1992 and the latter`s newly emerging identity as a consequence. Finally, the clashing identities between Tiraspol and Chișinău will be analysed as an increasingly insurmountable barrier to efffective resolution of the conflict.

Keywords:

Transnistria, the Republic of Moldova, competing identities, frozen conflict, indigenization