Halit Habip Oğlu met with Irina Vlah, Governor of Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia in Chisinau

Halit Habip Oğlu, Vice-President of the Federal Union of European Nations (FUEN) made a visit on 18 April 2018 to Chisinau, capital of Moldova, of which Gagauzia is an autonomous region.

Hosted by Vasiliy Kelioğlu, the President of Ukraine Gagauzian Union, Habip Oğlu was accompanied by Melek Kırmacı Arık from the FUEN Working Group of Turkic Minorities/Communities TAG) Secretariat, met with Irina Vlah, Governor(Bashkan) of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, Vadim Çeban, First Deputy of Governor, Vitalii Vlah, Head of the General Department of External Relations, and Fiodor Gagavuz, Gagauz deputy in the Moldova parliament participated at the meeting held at premises of the Council of Ministers.

At the meeting Halit Habip Oğlu provided information about FUEN to Irina Vlah and noted that FUEN is the biggest civil society organization which convenes national minorities in Europe under the same umbrella. He conveyed that FUEN, which has launched the European Citizens Initiative named “Minority SafePack Initiative” succeeded to collect 1 million signatures within one year with the objective to establish a protection mechanism Europe-wide for national minorities living in Europe. Habip Oğlu indicated that in 2013, Turkish Minorities/Communities Working group was established within FUEN, and he informed that they would like to hold 5th Annual Meeting of FUEN TAG in Gagauzia hosted by the Autonomous Territorial Unit.

The Governor Vlah expressed their gratitude for Habip Oğlu’s visit and noted that they would be very glad to host the FUEN TAG Annual Meeting in Gagauzia. The Governor stated they would like to meet with other Turkish minorities and communities within FUEN TAG. Furthermore, Vlah provided information about their work they carried out as the Autonomous Unit and informed about their planned initiatives for the preservation of Gagauzian language, history and culture.