Tighina

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Tighina or Bender (Russian: Бендеры; Moldovan Cyrillic: Тигина) is a city in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova. It is located in Tighina County. Its population was 97,027[1] at the 2004 Census in Transnistria.

Along with Dubasari and Grigoriopol, Tighina is one of the Transnistrian cities with a very large Romanian population. Aleksander Ivanovich Posudnevsky is the city's mayor.

[edit] History

Image:Tighina.Fortress.jpg

The Tighina Fortress was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by Moldavian hospodar Alexandru cel Bun to merchants from Lviv on October 8 1408. The document is written in Old East Slavic and the place is named "Тягянакача" (Tyagyanakacha). The name Tighina is seen in documents since the second half of the 15th century.

In 1538, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the fortress and renamed it Bender. In the 18th century, the fort's area was expanded and modernized by the prince of Moldavia Antioh Cantemir, who carried out these works under the Ottoman supervision. In 1713, the fortress was the site of a skirmish (kalabalik) between Charles XII of Sweden, who had taken refuge there with Cossack leader Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa after their failed attack on Russia, and Turks who wished to take him hostage and exploit the political difficulties of central Europe. Tighina fell three times to the Russians during the Russo-Turkish Wars, was annexed alongside with Bessarabia to Russia in 1812 and remained in Russian hands until 1917. As a part of Bessarabia, Tighina belonged to Romania between 1918 and 1940, and also between 1941 and 1944. During the War of Transnistria most of the fighting was concentrated in the city for its key strategic location on the right bank of Dniester river, 10 km from Tiraspol. Tighina is formally in the demilitarized zone established at the end of the conflict in 1992, but is controlled by Transnistria.