Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

“The California of the Romanians”deteriorates, instead of improving, the situation of tens of thousands ofpeople.” 85 The most controversial stipulation of the law was the exclusionof urban Romanians from political rights. Ultimately, a new law on14 April 1910 removed rural properties as a precondition for full citizenship,granting instead political rights to all rural and urban Romanians,“owners of immobile property in Constanþa or Tulcea counties, and domiciledthere at the time of the law promulgation.” 86 The text of the newlaw remained, however, highly restrictive, and could not appease publicopinion in Dobrogea. Following a preliminary meeting of Dobrogeanleaders in Hîrºova, a provincial delegation led by Constantin Sarry metKing Carol I on 14 September 1911, and lobbied for a more inclusive citizenshiplaw. As a result, on 3 March 1912, a Conservative governmentled by Petre P. Carp issued yet another citizenship law for Dobrogea. 87Compared to the previous ones, the new law was more inclusive, conferringpolitical rights: 1) on former Ottoman subjects, legally residents inDobrogea by the date of 11 April 1877; and on Turks and Tartars whohad emigrated from Dobrogea after the 1877-78 War, but returned atleast two years before the time of the law promulgation; 2) on all categoriesof Romanian population, namely: autochthonous Romanians;Romanian colonists who owned rural or urban property in the province;and Romanians without property who had settled there by the time of thelaw promulgation; and, 3) on foreign colonists who acquired rural propertyin Dobrogea. In a dissimilationist spirit, the law still excluded frompolitical rights non-ethnic Romanians domiciled in urban areas, namelythe numerous Jewish, Armenian and Greek merchants who “infiltrated”Dobrogea after 1878. Citizenship legislation in Dobrogea was thus conceivedof as the last important step in “the work of national importance”conducted by Romanian authorities in the province. According to IoanGeorgescu, the citizenship commissions “favored in every possible waythe Romanian element,” especially Transylvanian Romanians. 88After 35 years of being “second class” citizens, the Dobrogeans weregranted rights of participation in the Romanian political life. Given therestrictive electoral system of Romania, the effects of the law on the politicalemancipation of the Dobrogeans were, nevertheless, quite limited.According to the first electoral statistics, in 1912 there were 12,872 “activecitizens” in Dobrogea out of a total population of 368,189. 89 As comparedto the other provinces that composed Romania at the time, Dobrogearemained largely underrepresented in the Romanian political life: theDobrogeans elected only 4 parliamentary representatives in Constanþacounty, and 4 in Tulcea county, thus a total of 8 deputies for the entireregion of Dobrogea. In comparison, Moldavia elected 79 deputies, whilethe Wallachian provinces of Muntenia Mare and Oltenia elected 75 and,143