The Romanian community in Ukraine is still awaiting the establishment of a Romanian Language Day in Ukraine, which would be comparable to the acknowledgement of Ukrainian Language Day in Romania on November 9, as enshrined by Romania’s Law 213/2018.
The initiative for a Romanian Language Day in Ukraine came from the “Bessarabia” National-Cultural Association of Romanians in the Odesa region. A year ago, Anatol Popescu, the association’s president, formally proposed this recognition to the Presidential Administration in Kyiv.
“With the friendly gesture of the Romanian State recognizing Ukrainian Language Day within its borders, we hope for a reciprocal acknowledgement. Following the recent joint statement by the prime ministers of Ukraine and Romania affirming the official disuse of the term ‘Moldovan language,’ we propose and request, in line with Ukrainian law, the submission of a legislative project to Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada or the issuance of a presidential decree to recognize Romanian Language Day on August 31,” wrote Anatol Popescu in his letter to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
August 31 holds special significance as the day of returning to the Latin script and the official recognition of the Romanian language, established by Moldova’s 1989 National Assembly and recently confirmed by Moldova’s Parliament.
A glottonym of Soviet origin
Despite Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s recent assertion that Ukraine officially recognizes Romanian as the minority language of Ukrainian Romanians, discussions on national minority rights have seen limited progress, with the “Moldovan language” label still used in Odesa region schools and official documents.
Romanians, a historical community in Ukraine
It would be necessary and correct to recognize Romanians as a native population of Ukraine, a term used in the legislation of the neighbouring country, because they are the descendants of Romanians who lived from generation to generation in the Chernivtsi Regions (Northern Bukovina, Northern Bessarabia, and Hertsa Land), Odesa (Bugeac), and Transcarpathia (historic Maramures).
And if in the towns in the Chernivtsi region where the Romanians once declared themselves “Moldovans” (as a result of Soviet influence), the official language of instruction in schools is always Romanian, the situation should be the same in the Odesa region, where the Moldavian-language glottonym still persists.
Religious association for Romanians in Ukraine
Registering an association dedicated to Romanian parishes in Ukraine, which meets all the conditions required by the Ukrainian legislation in force, is also pending.
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church recently announced that it “approved the continuation of the steps to the central public authorities in Romania and Ukraine to resolve this legitimate request”.
In Ukraine, there is a historical Romanian community of approximately 500,000 Romanians, who form the second-largest national minority on the territory of the neighbouring country after the Russian minority.
Around 500,000 Romanians live in Ukraine today, forming the country’s second-largest national minority after Russians.
Photo: Facebook / „Zorile Bucovinei” Newspaper
