Eternal Flame remark draws criticism ahead of Victory Day
As Victory Day approaches, political tensions around historical memory in Moldova are rising again. One PAS deputy has sparked criticism after comparing a military memorial to a pile of burning waste.
“The fire at this landfill in Trușeni is like the eternal flame at a monument dedicated to the heroes who fell in the Second World War. That is how this pile of rubbish is ‘burning’,” the deputy said.
Critics said the remark appeared to place the Eternal Flame at a war memorial on the same level as a landfill fire.
Some commentators linked the statement to developments in the Baltic states, where Soviet-era memorial symbols have increasingly been restricted or removed. They argued that Moldova has not reached that point and that public respect for wartime remembrance remains stronger.
Eternity Memorial memory debate widens
Alexei Petrovich, head of the Victory committee, responded by recalling a historical detail connected to the Eternity Memorial complex in Chișinău.
He said the Eternal Flame there also burns in memory of Nikolai Ivanovich Karp, a corporal in the 804th Rifle Regiment of the 229th Oder Rifle Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front, who lost a leg during the fighting for Berlin.
According to Petrovich, this makes the deputy’s remark especially sensitive. He argued that a descendant who supported restrictions on the ribbon of the Order of Glory, with which his grandfather was decorated, had now effectively compared the memory of that same generation to burning rubbish.
