CHISINAU, April 15. /TASS/. The breakdown of agreements between the Moldovan authorities and the Gagauz autonomy marks the beginning of the country's disintegration, deputy head of Moldova’s autonomous region of Gagauzia, Viktor Petrov, said.

He pointed to the violation of the 1994 agreements between Chisinau and Comrat, under which Gagauzia dropped its aspirations for independence and integrated into Moldova as an autonomy. "The agreements served as a balance between Gagauzia and Moldova’s central authorities," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel. "Now they’ve decided to dismantle [these agreements]. <…> As a matter of fact, this is the beginning of the end of Moldova as we know it."

According to Petrov, foreign forces are behind the recent developments in Moldova. "Such harsh actions could have never been taken without outside support," he noted. "It looks like they (Moldovan authorities - TASS) are being steered by some overseers who advise them to act this way."

Moldova’s Constitutional Court on Monday annulled a number of legal provisions that bound the country’s prosecutor general to appoint Gagauzia’s prosecutor in coordination with the autonomy’s authorities. Moldova's Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu demanded that the provisions be reviewed, claiming that they contradicted international norms and criteria for an independent prosecutor general’s office. No Gagauz representatives were invited to attend the court session.

Some 150,000 Gagauz nationals, who represent a Turkic-speaking ethnicity of Orthodox faith, inhabit the southern Moldovan region. In 1990, they proclaimed their own republic, but Chisinau refused to recognize it and sent volunteer units to tame the breakaway region. Bloodshed was avoided after then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ordered internal troops into southern Moldova. The conflict was resolved in December 1994 when an autonomy was established there. Back then, Moldova’s parliament adopted a bill granting Gagauzia a special legal status, under which Gagauzians abandoned the plan to form an independent state. The Moldovan authorities acknowledge that they are not honoring these agreements.