A ragged band of 200 Moldavians, some armed with chains and knives, milled around the main square of rural Chimishliya last week waiting for orders to begin a civil war. "This is our land, our home, and we will fight for it," explained Ion Rosanu. "We have to protect the integrity of sovereign Moldavia." Rosanu and his companions were among thousands who mobilized to prevent the Gagauz, an ethnic Turkish minority, from seceding. When the Moldavians marched toward the Gagauz region, only the arrival of troops from the Soviet Interior Ministry kept the peace.
But the troops weren't enough to prevent...
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