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Minister-delegate Stoenescu: Massacre of Fantana Alba, a prohibited topic for half a century
Minister-Delegate for Relations with Romanians Abroad Dan Stoenescu participated on Friday in the commemoration of the victims of the massacre in Fantana Alba, Ukraine, formerly in the Soviet Union."On 1 April 1941, the Easter Sunday 75 years ago, Soviet troops killed hundreds of Romanians in the tragic event of Fantana Alba. (...) For more than half a century, what happened in Fantana Alba has been unmentionable on both sides of the border. Eventually, the historic truth prevails, and our duty as Romanians is not to forget all those who spilled their blood on this piece of earth. This painful moment will remain in the collective memory of Romanians and Ukrainians," Stoenescu is quoted in a release of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
According to him, history led to important ethnic communities living on the opposite sides of the Romania-Ukraine border, and the two states have the duty of collaborating to provide conditions for peaceful coexistence, respect and trust, thus contributing to improve the stability in the region.
"The great history lesson left to us by the hundreds of villagers of Valea Siretului who died here 75 years ago consists in the power of sacrifice to preserve the national identity, language and faith of our ancestors. In this place, today, we are commemorating one of the most painful moments in our history, when people of Valea Siretului, of the villages of Patrautii-de-Sus, Patrautii-de-Jos, Cupca, Corcesti, Suceveni, Opriseni, Trestiana, Iordanesti were killed here in Varnita, while attempting to cross the border to Romania, fleeing to the part of country unoccupied by the Soviets. On that Easter day, hundreds of Romanian families of Bucovina perished. Their fault was being Romanians and wanting to live free in their own country. Let us not forget that this great tragedy of the Romanian nation continued with reprisals in June 1941, when thousands more Romanians of Bucovina — many of them relatives of the victims in Fantana Alba — were forcibly taken from their homes and deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan," the minister mentioned.