28 November 2015 UPDATE
Romania celebrates 97th anniversary of union with north-eastern province of Bukovina
Newsroom, 28.11.2015, 12:15
Anniversary Romanians celebrated on
Saturday the 97th anniversary of the union of Bukovina, a
north-eastern province until then under Hapsburg rule, with Romania. In a message on Facebook, president Klaus
Iohannis said that regardless of the political context, Romanian spirit and
identity survived in Bukovina thanks to the people who never gave up their
Romanian heritage. In the spring of 1918, before Bukovina’s union with Romania,
the eastern province of Bassarabia came under Bucharest’s control after being
ruled for more than a century by Tsarist Russia. The regions of Transylvania,
in the centre, and Banat, Crisana and Maramures in the west, which had been
under Austro-Hungarian control, also joined Romania on December 1st
1918. Declared the country’s National Day after the anticommunist revolution of
1989, December 1st marks the completion of the Romanian nation state
building process. In 1940, following an ultimatum, the Soviet troops occupied
Bassarabia, today in the Republic of Moldova, and the northern part of
Bukovina, today in Ukraine as a successor state to the former USSR.
Parade More than 2,600 military and army experts
and 360 pieces of military equipment of the defence and interior ministries and
the special services will be taking part in a military parade in Bucharest on
National Day on Tuesday. The Romanian army personnel will be joined by units
from the neighbouring Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria, as well as from NATO
allies the United States, Poland and Turkey. Special ceremonies will be held at
all army garrisons across the country.
Diaspora Representatives
of the Romanian communities abroad meet in Alba Iulia and Zlatna in central
Romania for the 19th Congress of Romanian Spirituality between the
29th of November and the 2nd of December. The congress
was established by the Cultural League for the Union of Romanians Everywhere
and aims to promote Romanian culture, strengthen the link between the Romanians
living abroad and Romania and convince Romanian NGOs and authorities to give
real support to Romanian communities abroad. Representatives from 30 different
countries and regions as well as from Romania will attend this year’s congress.
Poll Most
Romanians perceive Russia as their country’s biggest enemy and view the United
States and Germany as the friendliest states, according to a poll conducted by
the Romanian Institute for Polling and Strategy (IRES) cited by the daily Adevarul.
More than half of respondents say Russia poses a security threat to Romania,
Europe and the world. In the event of a conflict in the region, 49% of
Romanians believe their country should stay neutral, while 39% say it should be
on the side of the United States and the West. In the opinion of 46% of
respondents, the United States is the country that could best protect Romania,
followed by Germany, in the case of 24% of respondents.
Corruption
The former head of the National Authority for Property Restitution Crinuta
Dumitrean and five other persons will be detained for 30 days for corruption,
the High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled on Saturday. Two Liberal MPs,
Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu, are also under investigation as part of
this case, with anticorruption prosecutors requesting that their immunity be
lifted so that they can also be placed under arrest. According to the
investigators, Oltean received 600,000 euros in bribe from a businessman to put
pressure on the property restitution agency to approve compensation that was
deliberately overvalued by 20 million euros. Teodorescu, who at the time was in
the panel establishing the amount of compensation, approved the assessment of
the property in question.
Handball
The Romanian women’s handball team on Saturday defeated the Czech Republic
31:26 in a friendly match in France. On Sunday, Romania meet Cuba. On Thursday,
Romania lost to France in their first training match ahead of the World
Championship hosted by Denmark between the 5th and the 20th
of December. Romania have participated in every single edition of the World
Championship since 1957, winning three medals: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973
and again in 2005.
(Translated by: C. Mateescu)
