Former deportees and their relatives as well as officials on July 6 came together at the monument to victims of the deportations staged by the Communist regime to commemorate the second wave of deportations, of 1949. Sixty-six years ago, on July 5–7, 1949, the then authorities of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic deported over 11,000 families. More than 35,000 people were forced to leave their homes, IPN reports.

Acting Prime Minister Natalia Gherman transmitted a message on this occasion, saying this is a sad and tragic day in our history. “Today we render homage to those who didn’t survive those terrible times, but also to those who went through deportation and returned home. Whole families were deported to Siberia and separated there, being taken to concentration and forced labor camps. The tragedy of those people – parents, grandparents, relatives, children and adults – will always remain our greatest pain,” reads the message.

Mayor General of Chisinau municipality Dorin Chirtoaca told those attending that he asked taking stock of what was done for the victims of deportations and setting up a representative group for discussing the problems of deportees and what steps should be yet taken. The deportees haven’t been yet granted the same rights as the war veterans and this is not fair.

The Liberal Democratic Party’s deputy head Valeriu Strelet said the national elites were deported in that period, with the people being brutally taken out of the country. Such events should never repeat.

The former deportees said they were regarded as enemies of the people when they were far from home and when they returned home too. They stated they were deported because they didn’t want to yield up their property, because they were priests, etc.

The deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina were a form of political repression organized by the Soviet authorities. An exact figure of those who were deported is not known. It was estimated that several hundred thousand people were deported in the period between June 28, 1940 and March 5, 1953, by three waves.