Victory Day events not to be allowed on Chisinau's central square from 2014 - mayor
CHISINAU. May 8 (Interfax) - There will be no officially sanctioned May 9 Victory Day celebrations on the central square of Chisinau from next year onward, and Europe Day events will be held there instead, the Moldovan capital's mayor said on Wednesday.
"The mayor's office of Chisinau will no longer make the central square of the city available for marking Victory Day. From 2014, Grand National Assembly Square will be reserved by the mayor's office in advance for Europe Day celebrations, while Victory Day will be marked at the Eternity memorial of military glory, as was the tradition before," Dorin Chirtoaca told a news conference.
He was responding to appeals from right-wing groups to cancel a planned concert on Grand National Assembly Square on May 9.
"Europe day will no longer be postponed to another day. The two holidays will be simultaneous, and so no one will be hurt," he said.
He mentioned that the mayor's office and the European Commission Delegation had been forced to put off Europe Day celebrations in recent years. This year the holiday will be observed in Chisinau on May 18.
Chirtoaca also attacked the Russian Embassy in Chisinau, claiming it was a secret co-organizer of the May 9 concert. The official applicant for permission for the concert was a Moldovan bank.
"If the embassy has decided to carry out the event, it shouldn't have hidden behind the sponsor of the concert in view of the holiday program of the government. Nor should it forget that in May 1945 fascism was defeated but later the occupation of Moldova started," the mayor said.
After all, he said, the mayor's office could also have bluffed by retroactively issuing documents and making the square available for other events.
At the same time, he slammed demands for canceling the concert or using a different venue for it.
"The public doesn't always understand the law on assemblies in public places - the mayor cannot ban events. I can't understand those who are juggling with the law, holding protests outside the mayor's office and calling the mayor a traitor," he said.
He promised legal action against the Russian Youth League for putting up a banner on the central square showing the statue of a Soviet soldier that was moved out of the center of the Estonian capital Tallinn a few years ago bearing the inscription "Death to Romanian Cannibals." He said the inscription could be qualified as an attempt to fan ethnic strife.
