July 28, 2014 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Aura Piha, 28.07.2014, 20:16
Bogdan Diaconu, deputy president of the Commission for the Romanians outside Romania with the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest, says the neighboring Ukraine is recruiting ethnic Romanians from the Cernauti region in the west to deploy them in the regions controlled by pro-Russia militants instead of Ukrainians. The Romanian official says that this is the solution the authorities in Kiev have found to what he called ‘the extermination’ of the Romanians in the region. His statement comes after hundreds of ethnic Romanians have received conscription orders, which means they could be deployed in eastern Ukraine to fight pro-Russia rebels. The Romanian community in Ukraine, which consists of roughly half a million people, is concentrated mainly in the west of the country, in the Romanian territories annexed by the former Soviet Union back in 1940, which now belong to Ukraine.
The black boxes retrieved from the Malaysian airliner that crashed in Ukraine have confirmed the plane went down after the cockpit had been depressurized by the explosion of a missile, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council was quoted by the international press agencies as saying. The Malaysia Flight 17, which was going from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on July 17th in eastern Ukraine in a region controlled by the pro-Russia militants. Kiev and the West have blamed Moscow for the tragedy, while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday said the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 might amount to a war crime. In another development Ukrainian forces have announced they have taken control over some strategic positions close to the place where the airliner crashed.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday conveyed a message to the Muslim community in Romania wishing them all the best on the occasion of Bairam, the festivity marking the end of Ramadan. ‘We have a Muslim community with which we share the tradition of harmonious cohabitation, strengthened through cultural and social solidarity, mutual respect, and the respect o traditions and faith’ — the Romanian Prime Minister went on to say. Romania, a country with a Christian Orthodox majority, boasts a community of 70 thousand Muslims, mostly consisting of Tartar and Turkish ethnics, who are now living in Dobrogea, southeastern Romania, a province, which was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.
According to Radio Romania correspondent to the Middle East, the UN-brokered ceasefire was repeatedly violated on Monday. Several missiles have been launched from Gaza against southern Israel. In turn, Israel says that an offensive is needed to put an end to Hamas’ rocket attacks and destroy its network of tunnels. According to Palestinian sources, the Israeli military operations that commenced three weeks ago have caused the death of 1030 Palestinians, mostly civilians and numerous children. Israel says it has lost 43 soldiers and three Israeli nationals have been killed in the rocket attacks from Gaza.
Russia’s expansionist attitude should be a reason for concern, as it has the potential to propagate negative situations on Romania’s territory, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior told Adevarul LIVE on Monday. Maior has also stated that the Black Sea region, which Romania is part of, will in time become a geopolitical zone, an intersection point of some very powerful players — Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The new international tensions are not specific to classical war, but they rather characterize a new type of war, a more complex one, with actions such as cyber attacks, that will affect the region for a long period of time, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior has pointed out.
