Abstract
Almost 30 years ago Gagauzia was granted a special legal status. Gagauzia is a region in southern Moldova that is home to more than 134,000 Christian Orthodox Turkic people (the Gagauz people), with Gagauz and Russian as the main spoken languages. The territorial autonomy of Gagauzia (Gagauz autonomy) is a rare case of non-violent ethnic conflict regulation in the post-Soviet space. It is based on ethnicity and the perils of flexible institutional design. This post highlights the nature of the legal entrenchment of the Autonomous Territorial Unit Gagauzia (also known as Gagauz Yeri) and the uneasy centre-autonomy relations.