The Struggle for Political Control over the GRT Continues in the Gagauz Autonomy

The People’s Assembly in Comrat dissolved, during the meeting on December 21, 2017, the Supervisory Council (SC) of the regional public Teleradio Gagauzia company ​​with the votes of 19 local deputies. The SC considers this decision illegal and intends to contest it. Local experts believe that there is a struggle in the Gagauz autonomy between Bashkan of Gagauz-Yeri Irina Vlah, who controls the current Council, and the People’s Assembly controlled by Democrats wishing to form a new Council to influence the regional public TV station: the GRT.

At the last meeting of the People’s Assembly, held in 2017, deputy Sergei Cernev presented a report on the activities of the SC of the regional public television channel Teleradio Gagauzia. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the work of the Council and supported his statements with a number of conclusions of the Comrat Auditing Chamber, which indicated numerous problems in the work of the Council. Cernev proposed to dissolve the SC and announce a new contest for the appointment of the new members. Cernev’s suggestion was approved by 19 deputies – most of those present in the hall.

Eight deputies who voted against this suggestion motivated their vote by the fact that a number of procedural infractions were committed during the examination of this issue and that in this case the dissolution of the SC was illegal.

At the request of Media-azi to comment on what happened, the SC Chairman, Maria Acbas, stated that the SC members had drafted a preliminary claim to challenge the decision of the deputies to dissolve the Council. The SC members assert that the deputies violated many legislative rules, including provisions on the terms of execution of their powers by the members of the SC.

According to Maria Acbas, the People’s Assembly is trying to take control over the GRT television station in order to have a loyal television during the parliamentary and local elections, as well as the elections of the Bashkan, which are to be held in 2019. At the same time, the SC Chairman asserts that some of the SC members received threats from local businessmen close to local authorities.

At the request of Media-azi.md, the chairman of the Piligrim-Demo Youth Center, Mihail Sirkeli, who is well acquainted with the realities of the region, has commented on the situation as follows: “The majority of the People’s Assembly, controlled by the Democrats, wants to take control over the GRT, which is currently controlled by Irina Vlah (Bashkan of Gagauzia)”.  At the same time, Sirkeli has criticized the work of the SC, which, in his opinion, is politically biased.

The expert has noted that the regional public GRT television station is very popular in the Gagauz autonomy and that according to recent polls it holds the top positions in the preferences of the Gagauz as a source of information about local events.

However, according to Sirkeli, the decision of the People’s Assembly, although based on political interests, is legal, since the current legislation regulating the activities of GRT allows deputies, both appoint  SC members and to dissolve the Council: “In the previous legislation regulating the company's activities, such a provision did not exist”, says the expert.