1.
Tiraspol
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Tiraspol is internationally recognised as the second largest city in Moldova, but is effectively the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The city is located on the bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a hub of light industry, such as furniture. The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, the city celebrates its anniversary every year on October 14. The toponym consists of two ancient Greek words, Τύρας, Tyras, the Ancient name for the Dniester River, and polis, i. e. a city. Tyras, also spelled Tiras, was a colony of the Greek city Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, of no great importance in early times in the 2nd century BC, it fell under the dominion of indigenous kings whose names appear on its coins. It was destroyed by the Thracian Getae about 50 BC, in 56 AD the Romans restored the city and made it part of the colonial province of Lower Moesia. A series of its coins exist that feature heads of Roman emperors from Domitian to Severus Alexander, soon after the time of the latter, the city was destroyed again, this time by the invasion of the Goths. Its government was in the hands of five archons, a senate, a popular assembly, the images on its coins from this period suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions extant are mostly concerned with trade, such ancient archeological remains are scanty, as the city site was built over by the great medieval fortress of Monocastro or Akkerman. During the Middle Ages, the area around Tiraspol was a zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, and inhabited by both ethnic groups. The Russian Empire conquered its way to the Dniester River, taking territory from the Ottoman Empire, in 1792 the Russian army built fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia. Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov is considered the founder of modern Tiraspol, the city took its name from Tyras, the Greek name of the Dniester River on which it stands. In 1828 the Russian government established a house in Tiraspol to try to suppress smuggling. The customs house was subordinated to the chief of the Odessa customs region and it began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits, after the Russian Revolution, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in Ukraine in 1924, with Balta as its capital. The republic had Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian as its official languages and its capital was moved in 1929 to Tiraspol, which remained the capital of the Moldavian ASSR until 1940. In 1940, following the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
2.
Transnistria
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The region is considered by the UN to be part of Moldova. The PMR controls a narrow strip of territory to the east of the River Dniester, unrecognised by any United Nations member state, Transnistria is designated by the Republic of Moldova as the Transnistria autonomous territorial unit with special legal status, or Stînga Nistrului. As part of agreement, a three-party Joint Control Commission supervises the security arrangements in the demilitarised zone. Its authorities have adopted a constitution, flag, national anthem and it is the only country still using the hammer and sickle on its flag. After a 2005 agreement between Moldova and Ukraine, all Transnistrian companies that seek to export goods through the Ukrainian border must be registered with the Moldovan authorities and this agreement was implemented after the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine took force in 2005. Most Transnistrians also have Moldovan citizenship, but many Transnistrians also have Russian and Ukrainian citizenship, the largest ethnic group is Moldovans, who historically had a higher share of the population, up to 49. 4% in 1926. Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia are post-Soviet frozen conflict zones and these four partially recognised states maintain friendly relations with each other and form the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations. The region is known in English as Trans-Dniestr or Transdniestria. Etymologically, these names are adaptations of the Romanian colloquial name of the region, the documents of the government of Moldova refer to the region as Stînga Nistrului meaning Left Bank of the Dniester. The name of the according to the Transnistrian authorities is Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The short form of name is Pridnestrovie. Pridnestrovie is a transliteration of the Russian Приднестровье meaning by the Dniester, indo-European tribes had for millennia inhabited the area where Transnistria now is when it was a borderland between Dacia and Scythia. The Tyragetae inhabited the area around the River Dniester as well as the Scythians, early Germanic and Turkic tribes were present in the area during their attacks and invasions of the Roman Empire. From 56 AD, the area around the city of Tyras was occupied by the Romans for nearly four centuries. Tyras enjoyed great development during Roman times, there is a series of its coins with heads of emperors from Domitian to Alexander Severus, but in the second half of the fourth century the area was continuously attacked by barbarians and the Roman legionaries left Tyras. In the early Middle Ages, Slavic tribes of Tivertsi and Ulichs populated larger areas, including Transnistria, followed by Turkic nomads such as the Petchenegs and Cumans. Possibly an early part of Kievan Rus, after the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241, prince of Moldavia George Ducas built a court at Țicanova on the east bank of the Dniester, and one at Nimirov on the Southern Bug, last mentioned in Moldavian hands in 1765. The localities Dubăsari, Rașcov, Vasilcău, as well as four other currently in Ukraine are mentioned in 17th–18th centuries as fairs for the Dniester-Bug region
3.
Transnistria War
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Fighting intensified on 1 March 1992 and, alternating with ad hoc ceasefires, lasted throughout the spring and early summer of 1992 until a ceasefire was declared on 21 July 1992, which has held. The conflict remained unresolved, but in 2011 talks were held under the auspices of the Organization for Security, however, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the territorial changes resulting from it have remained in place. It represents slightly more than one tenth of Moldovas territory, in the Moldavian SSR, as in many other parts of the Soviet Union, national movements became the leading political force. According to John Mackinlay and Peter Cross, who conducted a study based on casualty reports and they suggest that the conflict is more political in nature. On 31 August 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR enacted two laws, one of them made Moldovan the official language, in lieu of Russian, the de facto official language of the Soviet Union. It also mentioned a linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity, the second law stipulated the return to the Latin Romanian alphabet. Moldovan language is the used in the former Soviet Union for a virtually identical dialect of the Romanian language during 1940–1989. On 27 April 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR adopted the tricolour flag with the Moldavian coat of arms and changed the national anthem to Deșteaptă-te. The national anthem of Romania since 1989, later that year the words Soviet and Socialist were dropped and the name of the country was changed to Republic of Moldova. This possibility caused fears among the Russian-speaking population that it would be excluded from most aspects of public life, from September 1989, there were strong scenes of protests in the region against the central governments ethnic policies. The language laws presented a particularly volatile issue as a proportion of the non-Moldovan population of the Moldavian SSR did not speak Moldovan. The problem of the language in the MSSR had become a Gordian knot, being exaggerated and, perhaps. Some described the laws as discriminatory and criticized their rapid implementation. Others, on the contrary, complained the laws were not followed, on 2 September 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, Pridnestrovie being the name for Transnistria in Russian. On 22 December 1990 president Gorbachev signed a decree that declared void the decisions of the Second Congress of People Deputies of Transnistria from 2 September, for two months, Moldovan authorities refrained from taking action against this proclamation. Transnistria became one of the republics that appeared throughout the USSR, alongside Abkhazia, South Ossetia. These unrecognized states maintained close ties with each other, the first clash between the Moldovan government and separatists occurred on 3 November 1990 in Dubăsari. A police detachment was dispatched to clear a roadblock placed by the city residents on the bridge over the river Dniester that effectively cut the city off from the central government, in the resulting shootout, three residents of Dubăsari were killed, the first casualties of the conflict
4.
Parliament
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In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative, elected body of government. Generally a modern parliament has three functions, representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government, historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies. The term is derived from Anglo-Norman parlement, from the verb parler talk, the meaning evolved over time, originally any discussion, conversation, or negotiation, through various kinds of deliberative or judicial groups, often summoned by the monarch. By 1400, it had come to mean in Britain specifically the British supreme legislature, various parliaments are claimed to be the oldest in the world, under varying definitions. The Sicilian Parliament, whose first assembly was convened in 1097, the Icelandic Althing, year 930, but only including the main chiefs. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, some scholars suggest that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a primitive democratic government where the kings were assessed by council. The same has been said about ancient India, where some form of deliberative assemblies existed, however, these claims are not accepted by most scholars, who see these forms of government as oligarchies. Ancient Athens was the cradle of democracy, the Athenian assembly was the most important institution, and every citizen could take part in the discussions. However, Athenian democracy was not representative, but rather direct, the Roman Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy. Some Muslim scholars argue that the Islamic shura is analogous to the parliament, however, others highlight what they consider fundamental differences between the shura system and the parliamentary system. England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist, under the Anglo-Saxon kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, the first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca. 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose, however, the Witan, along with the folkmoots, is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament. As part of the Norman Conquest of England, the new king, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few nobles who rented great estates directly from the king, along with ecclesiastics. William brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy and this is the original body from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet descend. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament, only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court. Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of Edward I, like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments, in 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without the consent of the realm
5.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
6.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
7.
National Assembly (Azerbaijan)
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The National Assembly, also transliterated as Milli Majlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. Milli Majlis was the first secular republican parliament in the Muslim world, following the Russian Revolution in February 1917, a special committee consisting of deputees from Transcaucasian State Duma was created. In November, Transcaucasian Commissariat was created as the first government of independent Transcaucasia, the Sejm made up from representatives of three nations did not have a solid political platform as each nation looked after its own interests. This subsequently led to dissolution of the Sejm on May 25,1918, on May 27,44 Muslim deputees of the Sejm gathered in Tbilisi and established Azerbaijan National Council to form the government of Azerbaijan. Mammad Emin Rasulzade was elected its chairman, on May 28, the National Council passed a resolution proclaiming independence of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. On June 16, the National Council and the Azerbaijani government moved to Ganja, once the government was established, Azerbaijani was made the official state language. One of the priorities of the government before moving to Baku was to liberate Baku from Centrocaspian Dictatorship then in control of the city took place on September 15,1918. Alimardan Topchubashov was elected the Speaker of the Parliament, Hasanbey Agayev - Deputy Speaker, by the end of 1919, there were 11 various political party factions in the parliament represented by 96 deputies. During its 17-month existence, the parliament held 145 sessions with the last session being convened on April 27,1920 on the eve of Russian occupation of Azerbaijan, a total of 270 resolutions were sponsored,230 of which were passed. In January 1920, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was de facto recognized by the Peace Conference, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Azerbaijani Army, executed its generals and officers, and nationalized private industries. In May 1921, the first All-Azerbaijan Soviet Session made up of elected deputies from all regions of Azerbaijan convened in Baku. The elected deputies were mainly drawn from poor, uneducated, unprepared factory workers and villagers which facilitated complete rule from Moscow, the first session established the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee consisting of 75 members and its board with 13 members. From 1921 through 1937, nine sessions of All-Azerbaijan Soviets were convened, in 1937, during the 9th session of the All-Azerbaijani Soviets a new Azerbaijan SSR Constitution was ratified and the new legislative body the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR was established. The first elections to Supreme Soviet took place on June 24,1938, out of 310 deputies elected,107 were workers,88 collective farmers and 115 educated civil servants. Seventy two of the deputies were women, due to the authoritarian nature of Soviet rule where most new initiatives were met as conspiracies against the state, the parliament was virtually ineffective. Due to multiple reforms and restructuring in the government of the Azerbaijan SSR in the 1970s-1980s, many legislative reforms including the ratification of the new Azerbaijan SSR Constitution of 1977 took place. After the demands of the Armenian SSR to transfer the NKAO region of Azerbaijan to Armenia, on October 18,1991 the Supreme Soviet passed a resolution confirming the restoration of the independence of Azerbaijan. The first Azerbaijani parliamentary election was held in late 1990, when the Supreme Soviet already held discussions on independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union, the 1995 parliamentary election was the first to be held after restoration of Azerbaijans independence
8.
Legislature
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A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
9.
Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The PMSSR was never recognized as a Soviet republic by authorities in either Moscow or Chișinău. In 1991, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic succeeded the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic from which the PMSSR seceded was created in 1940 following the Soviet annexation of territory belonging to inter-war Romania. The newly fused territory became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, and was quickly sovietized, while intended to reinvigorate the Soviet system, perestroika also undermined the strength of key institutions which provided for central control of the Soviet Union. This devolution of centralized power to republican legislatures was matched by an explosion of mass participation in the now open debate about the Soviet future. Two sets of concerns were prominent in the debates that accompanied the opening of political dialogue in the late 1980s. The first was concern for the devastation that was so characteristic of Soviet industrial society. The second, and increasingly ascendant concern, revolved around the Moldovan language and national heritage that many felt had been trammeled by Soviet, cultural revival was just one of the issues championed by such informals in early 1988. Social mobilization came late to the cities that became the centers of pro-Pridnestrovian activity. Social mobilization in Tiraspol and Bendery was mostly achieved through workplace networks called Work Collective Councils Work Collective Soviets, the mobilization in Transnistria was a reaction to the national revivalist mobilization in Bessarabian Moldova. The councils were created throughout the Soviet Union in 1987 with the Law on State Enterprises as part of the perestroika reforms and they were intended to foster democratization and increase efficiency in Soviet industry. However, they were also ready-made forums for debate and provided a structure which used to take control of Moldovan industry in late 1989. The national revivalist movements were created essentially from scratch and led by cultural figures, the internationalist movement in Transnistria took advantage of workplace institutions to build a countermovement and looked to engineers and factory managers for leadership. Staffed as it was with Moldovas Romanized cultural elite, the commission recommended the government accept all three points of the national revivalists demands. This move did nothing to diffuse the inevitable tension involved with the very project, a further draft leaked in August further escalated tensions because its opponents believed that it was even more pro-nationalist and radical than the first draft. The law was passed in a stormy Supreme Soviet session on 31 August 1989 and it declared that, The state language of Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic is Moldovan. The state language is used in political, economic, social and cultural life, however, it went on to promise protection of the Russian and other languages of Moldovas minority populations. Elsewhere in Chişinău and other cities, smaller rallies voiced opposition, the most effective, opposition, came in the form of a massive strike movement that originated in the Transnistrian city of Tiraspol. While the group Intermovement-Unitate-Edinstvo was the first to organize significant opposition to the language legislation, STKs became the focus around which opposition activity turned in the early part of the conflict
