The Role of National Minorities in the Development of the Romanian Society – Reflections and Opportunities

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On November 13, 2018, the Non-Governmental Association ANIMA FORI, with the support of the representatives of the national minorities in the Parliament of Romania and the Committee of Culture from the Chamber of Deputies, organized the Conference titled “Centenary of the Great Union and the Role of the National Minorities in the Development of the Romanian Society”.

We organized this event with the desire to promote the true image of the rights and support enjoyed by the national minorities of Romania at present, with the desire to make known the cultural values ​​of all national minorities in Romania which, throughout a millennial history, have enriched us, which we have assimilated and with which we have built this country. All we can know, without fear of being denied, is that we are the rich bearers of exceptional possibilities. And all this thanks to the fact that in this Romanian homeland there were so many nations, metamorphosing miraculously the spirit and the body of the Romanian culture. “All we can think of, without attempting to work against lucidity,” – said Lucian Blaga in “The Culture Trilogy”, “is that we were given to light a corner of earth with our tomorrow’s flower. All we can hope, without letting us be manipulated by illusions, is the pride of some spiritual, historical initiatives to jump from time to time as a spark towards other peoples. The rest is fate.”

Our country is democratic, it is a Romania that gives all national minorities the legal framework to learn, manage, judge and rule in their own language through their own representatives. A round Romania as a beating heart and thanks to our kin from all the ethnicities who proved not once, their loyalty to this Romanian homeland that they sowed with their genius, which they reunited in 1918 and which they ennobled, not once in wars, with their blood. Kin different in origin, language, history and traditions, but equal in dignity, rights and duties with the majority Romanian citizens. At the time of integration into the great homeland of all European nations, the role of national minorities should be recognized because what in some ages seemed to be a burden and a difficult problem, sometimes impossible to solve, has become today a source of spiritual enrichment for a better integration into the great symphony of the European nations.

The celebration of the Centenary of the Great Union was the main cultural concern of the Romanian institutional framework in 2018. The organization by the Parliament of Romania of such an event brought prestige and media valorization, at European level as well, as regards the situation existing in Romania (i.e. granting and observing the rights of ethnic minorities, with the direct contribution of the state to the cultural and identity perpetuation, together with the majority population). The public press in Romania has been reflecting for decades the identity evolution of national minorities in Romania.

This volume is dedicated to intercultural dialogue. The theme of the volume is to promote the identity elements of the ethnic minorities, the history and the evolution of the relations with the majority population, the contribution to the common cultural heritage (outstanding personalities), examples of collaboration for the economic, cultural, scientific development of the country.