The administration of the public association “Focul din Vatra” regrets that poet Dumitru Matkovski, instead of being venerated after his death, risks being removed from the nation’s history. “Dumitru Matkovski, being a citizen of honor of Chisinau municipality, is not honored as the forerunners should be as if he didn’t exist and didn’t leave such a rich cultural inheritance,” says a statement that was read in a news conference at IPN.

Dumitru Matkovski’s grandchild Eugen Marius Smolnitski said that five years passed since the dearth of the great poem, but the local authorities of Chisinau haven’t yet identified an area for placing the bard’s bust on the Alley of Classical Writers in the central park “Stefan cel Mare”. “We made dozens of approaches, but the City Hall hasn’t agreed a street that would bear the name of Dumitru Matkovski. Many letters were also sent to the groups working on the Municipal Council, whereby we proposed that the street Soseaua Hancesti should bear the name of Dumitru Matkovski. But this proposal was also ignored,” stated the young man.

Eugen Marius Smolnitski expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that Dumitru Matcovski’s works were withdrawn from the school programs, ignoring the fact that he is the author of the lyrics of over 200 songs that became popular in time. Sometimes his lyrics are attributed to someone else. “Five years after his death, the Culture Division of the Chisinau City Hall has organized no cultural event dedicated to Dumitru Matkovski,” said the poet’s grandchild.

Leonid Smolnitski, chairman of the association “Focul din Vatra”, considers this is due to the fact that Dumitru Matkovski was inconvenient by his poems. He referred also to particular disagreements between the poet and the leader of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu. “Mister Ghimpu said in Parliament, in a period of maximum intensity for our politics, that he is the greatest patriot. In an essay, Dumitru Matkovski asked rhetorically since when Ghimpu has been the greatest patriot,” stated Leonid Smolnitski.

The public association “Focul din Vatra” is a nongovernmental organization whose goal is to promote the literary works and to eternalize the name of poet and person of culture from the Romanian area Dumitru Matkovski. The poet died from disease at the age of 73, on June 26, 2013.