Talk:Transnistrian War

Human rights abuse

The Russian sources quoted in the Human rights abuse section are doubtful, specially since Russia is one of the co belligerents. I would remove it , if a neutral source is not provided. (UN ? )

Introduction section

The introduction in this 'wiki' on the Moldova-Transnistria conflict is contradictory. It opens by stating that fighting broke out in November, 1992. It then goes on to state that fighting intensified in March of 1992 and a ceasefire was agreed in July of the same year. These two events - intensification and ceasefire - are written as taking place prior to when initial fighting broke out. I have conducted research on this conflict and would argue that it was in March, 1992, that the conflict broke out, and July, 1992, when ceasefire was agreed (Sanchez, 2009). Intensification can be argued as happening in the months during the short conflict. If the author who cited conflict beginning in November, 1992, can put forward a citation to prove otherwise that'd be great. But, otherwise it should be regarded as starting in March, 1992.

Sanchez, W.A. (2009). The "Frozen" Southseast: How the Moldovan Question has Become a European Geo-Security Issue. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 22(2), pp. 153-176.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.206.73.120 (talk) 18:13, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out! Someone changed the date from 1990 to 1992 a week ago and you are apparently the first to notice. --illythr (talk) 19:31, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Appeal to Russian Irregulars

Anyone know who issued a televised appeal to Russian citizens to come fight for Transnistria during 1992? The claim needs a citation and I would be interested to verify this claim. In general, the citations are sparse in this article. jamason (talk) 18:38, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

There wasn't such appeal. I delete this information simply because it is not true. If somebody is going to insist, show a proof. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Balalayker (talk • contribs) 08:41, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Casualty figures

I can see that the reporting of casualty figures here relies a lot on sources with links to the waring parties (Russian and Moldovian sources). Are there any UN statistics for these figures? I removed the uncited civilian casualties figures already and added the Uppsala Conflict Data Program's low and high estimates for at least one non-biased total figure.Wareditor2013 (talk) 12:11, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

War?

Was it a war? I am not sure about the definition, but it was always referred to as an "armed conflict" around here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Qeek (talk • contribs) 07:24, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Leaders?

It is only fit that if the Romanian president appears as "belligerent leader", Boris Yeltsin appears as a "belligerent leader" as well, especially since the Russian involvement in this conflict is much better documented and much heavier than the Romanian one. 67.87.145.157 (talk) 16:01, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Iliescu was added along with Kravchuk by an anonymous editor without explanation. Kravchuk was removed later, so I removed Iliescu: No source, no mention in the article. Russian involvement rests solely on Lebed', whereas the Romanian one was limited to an indirect supporting role unfit for listing in that infobox section.--illythr (talk) 20:28, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Russia as a combatant

I think we need sources explicitly naming Russia as a side to the conflict to include it as a combatant rather than as a supporting side. Certainly the 14th army supported PMR in a number of ways, however it does not necessarily amount to Russia being an ally of the PMR. Alaexis_¿question? 07:12, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Russia has long been known as an ally of Transnistria. I don't think many sources are necessary. An army of Russia fought directly in the war and it is still in the area, which I believe that is enough for mentioning it as a combatant. Super Ψ Dro 15:09, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Surely it would be easy to find an academic source calling it a party to the conflict explicitly. Alaexis_¿question? 12:14, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Done. Super Ψ Dro 11:43, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for this. Can you point to the page where O'Reilly and Higgings say it? I found a quote of the ECHR decision:

“ ..In acting thus, the authorities of the Russian Federation contributed both militarily and politically to the creation of a separatist regime in the region of Transdniestria, which is part of the territory of the Republic of Moldova.87 ”

So Russia contributed to/supported the PMR during the conflict, which is not disputed, however this is not equivalent to saying that Russian is a combatant. Alaexis_¿question? 14:31, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Actually, on a second thought, sure, it is more appropiate to list Russia as a supporting side, so I changed it. Super Ψ Dro 23:25, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Moldo-Russian war

I haven't seen this name being used in English-language academic sources or media. I see that you have provided a Romanian-language article as a source, is it the most common name of the conflict in Moldova? I see that the Romanian wiki article is called "Conflictul din Transnistria." In any case per WP:OR and WP:UNDUE we should not include it in the lede as an alternative name. We could note that in Moldova it's called differently in the body of the article. Alaexis_¿question? 07:20, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

"Moldo-Russian war" is the name I have chosen to use to match other articles such as the Russo-Georgian War in which the demonym of the first country listed is shortened. No academic sources use this name exactly but it has a few results in Google and some similar variations such as "Russo-Moldovan War" or "Moldovan-Russian War" have more results in both. We can choose between variations but I don't think WP:DUE has anything to do with it here. And no, it is not the most common name used in Romania or Moldova, but it is true that it is an alternative name. Note that I have also cited a Russian source. The name is an alternate one in all these three languages. I can cite a few more sources if needed. Super Ψ Dro 15:09, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Per WP:OTHERNAMES we should use significant alternative names. This name is hardly significant: basically no academic sources or media of any importance use it, notwithstanding the Ukrainian source you have added. If we include it as an alternative title the Wikipedia would do what no reliable sources have done so far. Obviously there is an NPOV aspect to this as such a name treats Russia as a party whereas "Transnistria war" avoids such connotations. If it's a widespread name in Moldova or Romania, we could add it with necessary qualifications. Alaexis_¿question? 12:13, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

We can add something like "sometimes known in Romanian as the Moldo-Russian War" or "sometimes known in Moldova and Romania as the Moldo-Russian War". I don't think we should remove it, it's just a single name after all. Super Ψ Dro 11:43, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, I think that would work. Alaexis_¿question? 14:37, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Political background

The article states that:

As these movements exhibited increasingly nationalist sentiments and expressed intent to leave the USSR in favor of uniting with Romania, they encountered growing opposition from among the primarily Russian-speaking ethnic minorities living in the republic.[] This opposition to the new trends and potential future policies was manifested in a more visible way in Transnistria, where, unlike the rest of the MSSR, ethnic Moldovans (39.9%) were outnumbered by the combined figure of Russians and Ukrainians (53.8%) as per the 1989 Census in Transnistria, largely due to higher immigration during the Soviet Era. [Hare, Ishaq, Batt, p. 369-370]

• However, there is no mention in the provided source of these "national" movements seeking to unite with Romania. According to this "It was only after the end of the Ceausescu regime in December 1989 that radical elements of the Front also called for reunification with Romania." i.e. a fringe development that came at the very end.
• Also, the part about opposition "from among the primarily Russian-speaking ethnic minorities" is rather vague. According the source ~ the opposition leadership were Russian communist elites, who staffed the local party apparatus, the local Soviets, and the large enterprises concentrated in transnistria, most of which were All-Union enterprises directly controlled from Moscow rather than chisinau. That they used the restoration of language law was as pretext to mobilize mass support among the Russians for their own broader pro-Soviet ideological and political agenda. And that while they claimed to speak in the name of the 'Russian-speaking' majority in transnistria, they could not claim to speak on behalf of the majority of Russians, two-thirds of whom still lived in Bessarabia. --Nilsol2 (talk) 19:47, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 22 July 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. No reason has been presented for this change except that some wars are named this way (whereas other wars are not). (closed by non-admin page mover) SilverLocust 💬 13:40, 31 July 2023 (UTC)

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Transnistria War → War in TransnistriaWar in Transnistria – The War in Darfur, the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), the War in Donbas (2014–2022) and the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) use this format. WikipedianRevolutionary (talk) 20:12, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose cherrypicked examples. WP:OTHERSTUFF. This is not a standard form in Wikipedia. Super Dromaeosaurus (talk) 09:15, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Layout issues and repeated details

This article has the unusual layout of a chronological timeline, followed by a geography-based section, and then a foreign involvement section. Unfortunately, it is evident that these sections were each written by different editors, as many details are repeated, particularly about specific battles. This article would benefit from reorganisation or a rewrite. Yue🌙 19:27, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 16 May 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved to Transnistrian War. No changes to Transnistria conflict. (closed by non-admin page mover) Fancy Refrigerator ^(talk) 01:32, 4 July 2025 (UTC)

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• Transnistria War → War in TransnistriaWar in Transnistria
• Transnistria conflict → Transnistrian conflictTransnistrian conflict

– I thought the use of the proper noun Transnistria but not its adjective form was a bit peculiar, so I did a cursory search on Google to see if it is the common name. Google Ngrams returns no results for Transnistria War and plausible variants with the use of "war", including War in Transnistria, Transnistrian War, and War of Transnistria. Transnistrian conflict and Transnistria conflict return some results (conflict in / of Transnistria returning none), with the former adjective form seeing much more usage. However, Transnistria conflict is a separate article from Transnistria War with a wider scope, time-wise.

"War in Transnistria" and "Transnistrian conflict" are the most used names by a significant margin in Google Search, Google Books, and Google Scholar. I'd rather not waste time copying-and-pasting all the links, but anyone can make the searches themselves and correct me if I'm mistaken. For consistency's sake, it may be preferential to move Transnistria War to Transnistrian war in conjunction with a move to Transnistrian conflict. A final note is that the Romanian and Russian translations provided in the lead also translate literally to "War in Transnistria". Yue🌙 16:21, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

• Regarding the war, "Transnistrian War" seems to be the most common in Google Scholar with 236 results ("Transnistria War": 146; "War in Transnistria": 155; "War of Transnistria": 66). Regarding regular Google regults, -wikipedia "Transnistria War" gives me 8,230 results, -wikipedia "Transnistrian War" 5,710, -wikipedia "War in Transnistria" 68,500, -wikipedia "War of Transnistria" 16,700. Important to note that regular Google results may vary depending on the location and maybe user.

Many of the results I get from "War in Transnistria" in regular Google refer to Russian disinformation accussations about Moldova hypothetically attacking Transnistria in the present/recent years , or other hypothethic scenarios not coming from Russian disinformation . I have no personal reference but I do not feel incited in supporting any variant in particular. I'd like to see other arguments, be it from the OP or other users, for a particular variant being preferable to the current.

Regarding the political conflict, "Transnistrian conflict" is the most common in Google Scholar with 2,850 results, "Transnistria conflict" has 888, "Conflict in Transnistria" 907, "Conflict of Transnistria" 50. In regular Google, -wikipedia "Transnistria conflict" gives me 15,800 results, -wikipedia "Transnistrian conflict" 89,300, -wikipedia "Conflict in Transnistria" 46,600, -wikipedia "Conflict of Transnistria" 4,770. Out of curiosity, -wikipedia "Moldovan conflict" gives 967. Support "Transnistrian conflict". I am who introduced "Transnistria conflict" as a Wikipedia title anyway . Super Ψ Dro 23:48, 20 May 2025 (UTC)

• Comments There are a lot of precedents we can refer to. We just need to align with them:

MOVE Transnistria War → Transnistrian War

Precedents: Russo-Ukrainian War, Bosnian War, Korean War, and First Sino-Japanese War etc.

KEEP Transnistria conflict

Precedents: Western Sahara conflict, Kashmir conflict, Cyprus problem, Gaza–Israel conflict etc. 2001:8003:9078:2401:4861:851:B200:EB1A (talk) 05:18, 11 June 2025 (UTC)

Again I don't have much particular preference, but this argument is uniquely based on WP:OTHERSTUFF. There are anyway other articles that don't follow the ones you mentioned such as Iraq War or Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Super Ψ Dro 13:37, 19 June 2025 (UTC)

Although it could be argued those fall under WP:COMMONNAME and don’t fall under this premise. Reader of Information (talk) 10:53, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

Support Move and Keep under the premise it is moved and kept to the pages SuperDro mentioned. Reader of Information (talk) 10:51, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

• Fancy Refrigerator, you didn't move the page that the OP and I (both with long, policy-based arguments) supported moving, but you moved the page that had less support for moving, specifically to the proposal suggested by an IP based on practically nothing. I don't think you've read the discussion. Please self-revert and re-open the discussion, or make the result reflect the discussion. Thanks, Super Ψ Dro 12:48, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

@Super Dromaeosaurus. Hi. I read that you had no particular preference for any name variant of the war which OP mentioned would make a preferred title over Transnistria War. And you said yourself that Transnistrian War appears most frequently on Google Scholars.

I wouldn't say that what the IP editor proposed was baseless. Using precedents to help choose a preferred title over Transnistria War where there are several preferred titles is a valid enough use of precedents.

As for the conflict, I am open to a separate RM. I think the topic is in need of more attention in any case. Fancy Refrigerator ^(talk) 14:06, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

Indeed personally I have no preference, but I think the technical process needed a bit more of time. I wished for some other user to get interested and give their opinion because I wasn't completely sure if "Transnistrian War" or "War in Transnistria" was more common (the first is more common in Google Scholar, the second in regular Google). The IP gave a list of articles titled a way and I gave another titled the opposite way. Not a strong argument as each of those are subject to an individual analysis. In any case I'd have liked more users to give their opinion. Actually I invite you to give your own opinion if you want on which one looks more common. Super Ψ Dro 14:55, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

Transnistria War → War in Transnistria is the more drastic rename than Transnistria War → Transnistrian War. If the goal is to give the page a common name, then I personally think making the less drastic change is more appropriate if the two name variants are used arguably as often as each other. Fancy Refrigerator ^(talk) 16:01, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

Fair point. Well, I hope this RM is not later looked on as a sloppy one. Thanks for your participation and happy editing. Super Ψ Dro 20:27, 8 July 2025 (UTC)