Comrat

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Comrat ( rum. )
Komrat ( gag. ) Комрат ( Russian )
coat of arms
coat of arms 		flag
flag
State : Moldova RepublicRepublic of Moldova Moldova
Administrative unit : GagauziaGagauzia Gagauzia
Founded : 1789
Coordinates : 46 ° 18 ′  N , 28 ° 39 ′  E Coordinates: 46 ° 18 ′  N , 28 ° 39 ′  E
Height : 64  m. ü. M.
Area : 16.4  km²
 
Residents : 26,000
Population density : 1,585 inhabitants per km²
 
Telephone code : +373 298
Postal code : MD-3800
 
Mayor : Viktor Volkov
Website :
Comrat (Republic of Moldova)
Comrat
Comrat

Comrat ( Gagauz Komrat ; Russian Комрат "Komrat") is the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia in the south of the Republic of Moldova . The seventh largest city in the country (without Transnistria ) with around 26,000 inhabitants according to a calculation as of January 1, 2014, is mostly inhabited by Gagauz . Some factories process agricultural products.

location

Comrat is located around 100 kilometers south of the provincial capital Chișinău on the right bank of the Jalpuch , which rises a few kilometers north of the city and flows straight south until it flows into the Danube on Ukrainian territory . The European route 584 coming from Chișinău runs 22 kilometers south of Comrat through the small town of Congaz, on via Vulcăneşti and the border town of Giurgiuleşti to the Romanian city of Galați . After Cahul , the largest city in southern Moldova, the R38 branches off to the west south of Congaz. An alternative route that connects Comrat with Cahul leads from Comrat directly west to Cantemir, one of the eight road bridges over the border river Prut to Romania, and further along the river to the south. The closest border crossing to Ukraine is in Basarabeasca , 29 kilometers east of Comrat. The second largest Gagauz city of Ceadîr-Lunga is 35 kilometers southeast of Comrat. The city has no direct rail link. The next stop is Bugeac, 8 kilometers north, on the west-east route from Bârlad in Romania via Basarabeasca to Odessa, completed in 1917 .

The area around Comrat is a flat, undulating, uniform landscape with natural steppe grass vegetation and fields in which mainly cereals and sunflowers are grown. The city is at a height of 64 meters, the hills in the region reach up to 200 meters. The hills with deep black earth soils, the warm climate in summer and cold and damp in winter, and the long frost-free period of up to 200 days are ideal for viticulture . In the cellars of Cahul, Comrat and smaller towns in the south, mainly sweet red wines and dessert wines are produced for export to Russia. The annual precipitation fluctuated between 2009 and 2012 between 438 and 613 millimeters. In occasional drought years (1895 only 117 and 1928 only 222 millimeters of annual precipitation) there are crop failures.

history

Rudiments of old village architecture in the center. Exit to the storage cellar in front of the house entrances.

According to archaeological studies, the area was already inhabited in ancient times. The first source in which a village Comrat is mentioned comes from the historian Vladimir Nicu from 1443. A few years earlier, in 1436, a village called Chișinău was mentioned for the first time. At that time, the area belonged to the Principality of Moldova , whose eastern border at the Nistru was defended against invading Tatars , while the Ottomans controlled the Black Sea in the south . Around 1512 Moldova became tributary to the Ottoman Empire and from 1538 the Ottomans exercised direct control over southern Bessarabia . According to popular belief, a city was founded in the second half of the 18th century, with the year usually given as 1789. At that time the Ottomans waged one of the many wars with the Russian Empire . From the 1780s until the end of the 19th century, Orthodox Gagauz and Bulgarians from Bulgaria , which belonged to the Ottoman Empire , immigrated to southern Bessarabia, fleeing religious oppression. Contemporary observers often made no distinction between the two ethnic groups. With the peace treaty of Bucharest in 1812, Russia received the territory of Bessarabia as far as the western border on the Prut. A policy of Russification followed, which was directed primarily against the Romanians living in the country . As a result of the Third Peace of Paris in 1856, the three southern Bessarabian districts of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail , on whose eastern border Comrat lay, were reassigned to the Principality of Moldova. Romania's independence from the Ottoman Empire was recognized at the Berlin Congress in 1878, but the country had to return the southern Bessarabian districts to Russia. During the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878 , Bulgaria was occupied by Russian troops for three years, which made it easier for the Gagauz to emigrate to Bessarabia.

The Russian governorate of Bessarabia remained until 1917 . Between the world wars, Bessarabia belonged to Greater Romania until the Soviet Army invaded in June 1940. In the course of the Romanization of the region, Romanian colonists were specifically settled during this period. In the 1930 census, 12,331 inhabitants were determined. Of these, 7,689 were Gagauz (62.4 percent), 1,827 Romanians (14.8 percent), 1,759 Bulgarians (14.3 percent), 454 Russians (3.7 percent) and 390 Jews (3.2% percent). In the Second World War, Bessarabia was under Romanian occupation from June 1941. Around 5000 Jews from southern Bessarabia were held in small camps (in Cahul, Ismajil , Kilija and Bolhrad ) until September . During the subsequent deportations to Transnistria in October 1941 , the majority of the Jews of Bessarabia - including the Jews of Comrats - perished. The deportations of the Jews from southern Bessarabia and Chișinău took place on the basis of order No. 2830 from Colonel Meculescu of October 1, which also called for the establishment of another interim camp in Tarutyne . The refugee train from southern Bessarabia had to move to Bender in a group on foot and by cart .

After the Soviet reconquest in 1944, Bessarabia belonged to the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic until it became independent Moldova in 1991. In 1957 Comrat was officially granted city rights. In Soviet times there were milk processing plants, wineries and a carpet factory in Comrat, which produced carpets with the Moldovan national ornament.

The population rose from 14,142 in 1959 to 21,093 in 1970. In 1989 the population was 25,800. Due to the economic collapse of the country after independence, many residents emigrated abroad. In 2004 the number was 23,327. Of these, 16,993 identified themselves as Gagauz (around 73 percent), 2,067 as Moldovans (8.9 percent), 1,711 as Russians (7.3 percent), 1,121 as Ukrainians (4.8 percent), 1,065 as Bulgarians (4.6 percent) ), 108 as Roma , 16 as Poles , 13 as Romanians and 7 as Jews .

The seat of government of the Gagauzia Autonomous Region on Lenin Street

Comrat is best known as the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia . At the end of the 19th century, according to Russian statistics, around 57,000 Gagauz lived in Bessarabia (referred to as "Ottoman Turks"); in the Romanian census of 1940 it was 98,172. The Gagauz were a long-term disadvantaged group in all respects and apart from certain efforts in the 1920s / 1930s and the opening of some Gagauz-speaking schools in the 1950s, they had found relatively little cultural autonomy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union , a cultural movement emerged under the Gagauz, at the same time as the calls from intellectuals for reforms in Chișinău in 1998/1999, which demanded independence. From this, the political group Gagauz Halkı (" Gagauz people") arose in 1989 in Comrat , which consisted of several members of the regional administration and represented the interests of the Gagauz . As political tensions increased between the Moldovan party Frontul Popular din Moldova ("Popular Front of Moldova"), founded in 1989, and the Russian government, the Gagauz leaders, who had previously participated with a representative in the founding of Frontul Popular , decided against the nationalist central government to establish an autonomous republic. The Gagauz Soviet Socialist Republic, based in Comrat, declared itself independent in August 1990. Their head of government was Stepan Topal , a former civil engineer who had prevailed over the Gagauz Halkı group . Only through the intervention of Soviet troops could violent clashes between Moldovan and Gagauz irregular fighters be contained. Tensions between the Moscow-friendly Gagauz and the Frontul Popular increased with Moldova's declaration of independence in 1991. Only the victory of the Partidul Agrar din Moldova (PAM) in the parliamentary elections in 1994, which sought better relations with Russia, finally paved the way to an agreement with the separatist Gagauz, who renounced full independence. The autonomous region of Gagauz Yeri (" Gagauz Place / Square") within Moldova, founded in December 1994, consists of the three cities Comrat as the capital, Ceadîr-Lunga, Vulcăneşti and two dozen villages, whose settlement area, which is divided into several parts, is ruled by an elected regional assembly which has extensive independence. Official languages ​​with equal rights are Gagauz, which was only an oral language during the Soviet era, Russian and Romanian. In 1994, the central government and the Gagauz also agreed to expand the Gagauz University, which opened in 2002 as the State University of Comrat . In contrast to the breakaway region of Transnistria , which was developed into a leading location for heavy industry and power generation during the Soviet era, Gagauzia is still one of the poorest regions in Moldova and is financially dependent on Chișinău. Comrat received support from Bulgaria and Turkey, especially to build the university. Turkey also sponsored a library named after Ataturk .

Cityscape

Cathedral and gate building with bell tower in the city park

The approximately right-angled street plan follows the cardinal directions. The two main streets running north-south are Strada Lenin and to the east of it Strada Victoriei . The main streets of all Gagauz cities in Moldova are named after Lenin . Urban business life takes place around the central city park ( Parcul Central ), which is bordered by these two streets. The city park is characterized by the bright yellow facade of the Orthodox cathedral from 1820. The design of the central building with an octagonal drum above the main room and four corner towers, all of which are surmounted by onion roofs, is a simple takeover of the Russian style. The church has a separate gate with a barrel roof and a two-tier octagonal bell tower . Coming from the State University ( Universitatea de Stat din Comrat ) in the west, a short section of the pedestrian zone ( Strada Galaţana ) flows into the square. Opposite, on Strada Victoriei , is the grocery and housewares market. The Strada Victoriei leads a few hundred meters to the north to the bus station in front of a large roundabout where the road leading to Chisinau starts. The Gagauz regional parliament is a three-story rectangular building on Lenin Street north of the center. A row with busts of Gagauz personalities was placed in front of the university in 2006 on the occasion of the first World Congress of Gagauz - the second World Congress also took place in Comrat in 2009. The city has two hotels and a modest number of restaurants in the center.

The canning factory is located on the eastern outskirts, separated from the center by the Jalpuch stream and a strip of meadow. A winery and other food processing companies have settled there.

Apart from the church, there are practically no historical buildings in Comrat. A local museum shows Gagauz culture. In the village of Beşalma, around 20 kilometers south of Comrat, is the Museum of the History and Ethnography of Gagauzia ( Muzeul Găgăuz de Istorie și Etnografie ) , which opened in 1966 . It was named after its founder, Dimitrij Kara-Coban (1933–1986).

In contrast to the cities in northern Bessarabia, where Jews made up an average of around 37 percent of the population around 1900, there were only very few Jews in Comrat: in 1930 there were 392 of 12,331 inhabitants. Accordingly, only a small Jewish cemetery remained . It is located immediately south of the R35 leading to Basarabeasca on the eastern edge of the city behind the canning factory. The well-tended and fenced-in area contains around 50 gravestones from the 19th century to the present on an area of ​​less than 1000 square meters.

Town twinning

Market district

Comrat has partnerships with the following cities:

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Klaus Bochmann, Vasile Dumbrava, Dietmar Müller, Victoria Reinhardt (eds.): The Republic of Moldau. Republica Moldova. A manual. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-86583-557-4
  • Comrat . In: Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu: The A to Z of Moldova. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham / Toronto / Plymouth 2010, pp. 99f
  • Charles King: The Moldovans. Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, Stanford (CA) 2000

Web links

Commons : Comrat  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • comrat.md Official website of the city (Russian)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / enigagauziya.md
  2. ↑ Numărul populaţiei stable al Republicii Moldova la 1st January 2014, în profil teritorial . Biroul Național de Statistică al Republicii Moldova (Romanian)
  3. ↑ Mihaela Narcisa Niemczik-Arambașa: Everyday life on the eastern edge of the EU: The population in the border region Romania / Republic of Moldova appropriates space. (Praxis Kultur- und Sozialgeographie, 54) Universitätsverlag, Potsdam 2012, p. 63 ( full text )
  4. ^ Peter Jordan: Transportation . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): The Republic of Moldau, p. 470
  5. ^ Martin Petrick: Agriculture . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): Die Republik Moldau , 2012, p. 488
  6. ↑ Maria Babaian: Ecopedological Conditions of Pastures in Southern Plain of Moldova and Measures to Improve . In: Lucrări Științifice. Seria Agronomy , Vol. 57, No. 2. University of Iași, 2014, pp. 79–84, here p. 80
  7. ↑ Anatolie Puţuntică, Valentin Sofroni: Non-Periodical Variations of Precipitation Quantities and their Negative Deviation on the Territory of Moldova. In: Present Environment and Sustainable Development, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2011, pp. 24, 29
  8. ^ Charles King: The Moldovans, 2000, p. 211
  9. ↑ Gagauz. In: Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu: The A to Z of Moldova , 2000, p. 159
  10. ↑ The registered resident population by nationality and mother tongue 1930. Tighina district. ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Romanian census data from 1930)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dediserver.eu
  11. ^ Jean Ancel : The History of the Holocaust in Romania . (The Comprehensive History of the Holocaust) University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 2011, p. 239
  12. ↑ Radu Ioanid: The deportation of the jews to Transnistria. In: Mariana Hausleitner, Brigitte Mihok, Juliane Wetzel (eds.): Romania and the Holocaust. On the mass crimes in Transnistria 1941–1944. (National Socialist Occupation Policy in Europe 1939–1945, Volume 10) Metropol, Berlin 2001, pp. 80f
  13. ↑ Demographic, national, language and cultural characteristics. (Excel table in Section 7) National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova
  14. ^ Charles King: The Moldovans, 2000, pp. 215-217
  15. ↑ Gagauz Yeri. In: Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu: The A to Z of Moldova, 2010, p. 159f
  16. ^ Charles King: Moldovan Identity and the Politics of Pan-Romanianism . In: Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2. Summer 1994, pp. 345-368, here p. 362
  17. ^ Andrei Avram: The Gagauz Society . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): Die Republik Moldau, 2012, p. 567
  18. ↑ Stefan Ihrig: Gagausen . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): Die Republik Moldau , 2012, p. 206
  19. ^ Mariana Hausleitner: Germans and Jews. The legacy of the disappearing minorities. In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): Die Republik Moldau, 2012, p. 218
  20. ^ Yefim Kogan: The Jewish Cemetery of Comrat, Bendery district, Bessarabia, Russia, now in Republic of Moldova, Gagauzia district. JewishGen, February 28, 2015
  21. ↑ http://gagauzinfo.md/index.php?newsid=1970
  22. ↑ http://gagauzinfo.md/index.php?newsid=20170