On May 25-26 Åland was visited by the working group of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and Gagauzia people’s assembly. The Gagauz-Yeri autonomous region, was established in southern Moldova in the 1990’s to safeguard the rights of the Gagauz minority. The study visit to Åland was arranged by CMI, with financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. CMI works to facilitate informal and official dialogue processes between the Parliament of Moldova and Gagauzia’s People’s Assembly to improve mechanisms of center-autonomy relations.
While on Åland, the group had several meetings with officials and politicians. The Åland Islands Peace Institute arranged a round table discussion for the visitors, moderated by the Director, Professor Kjell-Åke Nordquist and including the Chair of the Board, Ms Barbro Sundback, the Head of Research, Associate Professor Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, researcher Saila Heinikoski and Information Officer Susann Simolin.
In the report ”Conflict Regulation through Self-Rule: Success factors for Territorial Autonomy Systems” published in the Åland Islands Peace Institute’s report series in 2015, Felix Schulte has used the Gagauz autonomy as one of the case studies. The report can be found here.