 Gagauzian nationalism remained an intellectual movement during the 1980s, but strengthened by the end of the decade, as the Soviet Union began to embrace democratic ideals.In 1988, activists from the local intelligentsia aligned with other ethnic minorities to create a movement known as the "Gagauz People".A year later, the "Gagauz People" held its first assembly in which a resolution was passed to demand the creation an autonomous territory in southern Moldova, with the city of Comrat as its capital.