Nation-Building and Contested Identities - MEK

CONSTANTIN IORDACHIcommission, the Dobrogeans’ emancipation proceeded, however, ata slow pace. 79 It was only on 15 November 1908 when the Message of KingCarol I to the Romanian Parliament proclaimed that, after 30 years of“grandiose and fruitful works, … the time has come to extend our constitutionalregime to Constanþa and Tulcea counties.” The slowness of theemancipation process expressed in fact the citizenship dilemma faced bythe Romanian political elites in Dobrogea. Although geo-political considerationsrecommended the en bloc emancipation of Dobrogea’s multi-ethnicpopulation, such a decision would have nevertheless contradictedRomania’s jus sanguinis citizenship legislation. This legal incompatibilitywas utilized by nationalist political forces in order to promote a maximalpolitical agenda in Dobrogea. In 1905, Nicolae Iorga imputed that “theappearance of Dobrogea is still very cosmopolitan, and the Romanian workof colonization is far from being completed.” 80 He criticized the attitude ofthe administration in the province and deplored the insufficient attentiongiven to cultural assimilation. 81 On this basis, in 1908, Iorga opposed thegranting of political rights for the Dobrogeans as premature, considering thatthe restrictive Romanian electoral system would favor the rich non-RomanianDobrogeans, thus undermining the national interest. 82This nationalist political campaign shaped the attitude of Romanianpolitical elites concerning the Dobrogeans’ political rights. Invoking theprinciple according to which “the Constitution grants political rights onlyto Romanians,” Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brãtianu reiterated his determinationto apply the citizenship legislation “in the same spirit on both sidesof the Danube.” 83 In other words, Romanian political elites were unwillingto grant to non-Romanians in Dobrogea those political rights whichwere refused to them in Romania proper. Consequently, on 19 April 1909,the first law on the Dobrogeans’ citizenship, initiated by a Liberal government,granted full political rights: 1) to Ottoman citizens who resided inthe province by 11 April 1878, and to their descendants; and 2) to “Romaniansfrom every state, regardless their place of birth, owners of rural propertiesin Constanþa and Tulcea counties,” and their descendants, providedthat they renounce their previous citizenship. 84 Together with the formerOttoman subjects in Dobrogea, the law granted full citizenship to all ethnicRomanian rural colonists. Nonetheless, the law excluded from politicalrights all post-1878 non-ethnic Romanian immigrants in Dobrogea,either in the countryside or urban areas. It also excluded Romanians withonly urban properties and those without property.These stipulations provoked incendiary reactions among Romanianelites in Dobrogea. In a virulent political pamphlet, Vasile Kogãlniceanucharacterized the 1909 law as “a brutal, anti-liberal and antidemocratic”decision, “which violates already acquired rights, and142