TODAY IN HISTORY
March 27, 1918: The National Council of the Moldavian Democratic Republic proclaims Bessarabia’s union with Romania. I realize that’s a lot to process, but the summary is that the National Council of Bessarabia declared independence and the formation of the Moldavian Democratic Republic after the 1917 Russian Revolution. It then declared a merger with Romania in March 1918, though that didn’t become official until December. The newly augmented Romania survived that way until 1940, when under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact the Soviet Union rolled into Bessarabia while Romania’s German ally did nothing. Bessarabia is today mostly in Moldova and partly in Ukraine, but not in Romania.
March 27, 1941: Elements of the Yugoslav Royal Army Air Force undertake a successful (well, briefly) coup, overthrowing the pro-Axis regency led by Prince Paul Karađorđević in favor of a government nominally led by 11 year old King Peter II in his own right, alongside a junta led by new Prime Minister Dušan Simović. The Axis in short order invaded Yugoslavia and drove Peter and his government into exile before carving Yugoslavia up into a Croatian puppet state and several protectorates that were either effectively or actually annexed by Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. The Yugoslav Partisans, a predominantly communist group led by Josip Broz Tito, resisted Axis occupation and, with Soviet help, had driven the Germans and Italians out of Yugoslavia by May 1945.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
A new report from the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic has found that the conflict between government security forces and Druze militias in southern Syria’s Suwayda province left at least 1707 people dead and displaced almost 200,000. Most of those killed were Druze civilians and as many as 155,000 of those who were displaced are still displaced. The report suggests that all parties to the violence—the militias, the government forces, and informal auxiliaries fighting alongside the government forces—may potentially have committed war crimes.
