Raid on Romanian Centre in Ukraine Worries Bucharest

The Romanian foreign ministry expressed concern on Tuesday about the rights of the Romanian community in Ukraine after a raid by the Ukrainian security service the previous day on a Romanian cultural centre in Chernivtsi, Northern Bukovina.

The raid has sparked new tensions between Kiev and Bucharest over Romanian minority rights in the former Soviet state.

The foreign ministry in Bucharest that the incident was raised at a meeting between a Romanian state secretary and Ukraine's ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov.

"On this occasion, the Romanian side stressed the necessity that the Ukrainian authorities respect the rights of the Romanian minority and avoid any actions meant to violate these rights or that can be interpreted as intimidation," the ministry said in a press statement.

The Chernivtsi branch of the Ukrainian security service announced in a press release on Tuesday that it had launched an inquiry into the founders of the Romanian cultural centre after they allegedly disseminated "calls to violate the national integrity of the [Ukrainian] state".

It said that maps and literature printed to promote the centenary of the formation of the modern Romanian state were found during the raid.

Investigators said they found literature calling for the re-establishment of the "historical truth" by reuniting several regions with Romania  - Northern Bukovina, Northern Bessarabia (today's Moldova) and Southern Bessarabia, which is also now in Ukraine.

The Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Cultural Centre in Chernivtsi, which is funded by the Romanian government, hosted a conference on June 9 dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Romania's union with Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania.

During the event, the organisers also...

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