Rompress: National Minorities Feel Well in Romania
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Subject: Rompress: National Minorities Feel Well in Romania
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Rompress: National Minorities Feel Well in Romania
National Minorities Feel Well in Romania
05 Jul 1999
Bucharest Rompres in English 0909 GMT 5 Jul 99
[FBIS Transcribed Text] Bucharest, 4 Jul (Rompres) -- The
representatives of publications belonging to the 16 national
minorities living in Romania, other than the Hungarian one, who
participated in a seminar on "inter-ethnic dialogue", held in the
central-Romanian town of Sfantu Gheorghe over 1-4 July, said they were
satisfied with the rights enjoyed by the national minorities in
Romania.
Several opinion leaders, representing the Armenian, Albanian, Serbian,
Croatian, Russian, Italian, Tartar minorities said in the plenum of
the get-together organized by the press association of the national
minorities that the respective ethnic groups are rather satisfied with
their rights in Romania, adding, among other things, that they were
free to speak both their respective mother-tongues and the official
Romanian language.
Some participants in the inter-ethnic seminar told Rompres their views
on the minorities' status in Romania.
Altay Kerim, chief editor of the Karadeniz publication of the Moslem
Turkish Tartars Union of Romania, said: "I feel at home in Romania,
not only because my parents were born in Romania but also because,
paradoxically as may seem, I have taught the romanian language for 15
years. I do not want to do politics, but before 1989, I, as a member
of a minority, was deprived of certain rights. Even though financially
I am not faring very well now, I do feel very well spiritually. I
thank the government for its subsidy, a means by which we can ensure
the publication of newspapers and books that are spiritual assets."
Srboliub Miscovici, chief editor of the Nnasa Rec Serbian magazine,
said that "generally, in Romania the minorities' rights are observed.
As for the Serb minority to which I belong, some amendments can still
be made, but they regard the return of assets that used to belong to
this ethnic community."
Volfgang Fux, representative of the German minority, said: "we resent
a certain unfairness from the motherland rather than from the Romanian
authorities. I have remained in Romania because I feel useful here.
There are problems as concerns claims on buildings, but they have
nothing to do with the ethnic belonging."
Ecaterina Martin, editor of the Zorile Review of the Union of Lipovan
Russians of Romania, declared: "I do not feel like a person belonging
to a minority, I feel integrated in Romania. But I would like the
Russian language to be better regarded as a language of school
tuition."
The members of the press association of national minorities exchanged
views during the seminar, showing that a real dialogue among various
ethnic groups was possible, schedulled new meetings, contests and
other events, all of them meant to help promoting the understanding of
the national minorities in Romania.
[Description of Source: Rompres: Government press agency]
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