President Nicolae Timofti paid a working visit to southern Territorial Administrative Unit (UTA) Gagauzia today, the presidential press service has reported.
Timofti participated in the ceremony of school year end at the Mihai Eminescu Theoretical Lyceum in Comrat town.
In his speech, Timofti spoke about the importance to study the Romanian and Gagauz languages in the region. „No Gagauz-language school is in UTA Gagauzia. It is not fair that an ethnic group not to have the possibility to study in its language,” Timofti said.
In the mentioned region, out of those 30 lyceums, 26 lyceums use the Russian language as teaching language, other two Moldovan-Turkish lyceums use the English language and another two the Romanian language.
Timofti made a Romanian-language book donation to the Mihai Eminescu Theoretical Lyceum, among which all works by poet Mihai Eminescu, dictionaries and other volumes.
In Cismichioi village, Vulcanest district, Timofti participated in the launch of works of construction of a kindergarten, which will be built from funds provided by Turkmenistan. Timofti and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov reached an understanding in this respect during Timofti’s visit to Ashgabat in past April.
The kindergarten will have a capacity of 160 places and is to be finished and equipped with modern equipment in 18 months.
Timofti thanked the Turkmen side, represented by a delegation at the event, for the aid provided to build the kindergarten and also thanked Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for this act of goodwill.
Timofti called the Cismichioi residents to unity. „This project is meant to break up the myth about the disinterest of central authorities towards the Moldovan southern region. Beyond the separation propaganda and political speculations, concrete things remain,” Timofti said.
During the visit, Nicolae Timofti was accompanied by Gagauz Governor Irina Vlah, the head of the Popular Assembly, Dmitrii Constantinov, advisors to president and other officials.