Hungary Grants Citizenship to Hungarian across the borders in Historic Hungary

Update 6/3/2010: The American Hungarian Federation issues statement Supporting Hungarian Dual Citizenship Law, Rebukes Unjustified and Baseless Criticism: "Slovakia, home to more than 500,000 ethnic Hungarians (10% of the population), has condemned this law. The Slovak condemnation is hypocritical, unjustifiable, and only consistent with the pattern of xenophobia and scapegoating for political expediency." [read more]

5/27/2010 - Hungary grants citizenship to Hungarians living in historic ethnic Hungarian communities across the present-day borders. The American Hungarian Federation has long called for such a measure and feels that all Hungarians, wherever they may be, should have the right to claim citizenship. The law restores rights to millions of ethnic Hungarians that were stripped of their citizenship by various Hungarian communist regimes as late as 1979.

The newly elected center-right Fidesz Civic Party, who recently won a 2/3 majority in parliament, had long promised such a measure. According to the bill, “all Hungarians and Hungarian communities are part of a unified Hungarian nation, which exists over state boundaries and is an essential element of the Hungarian identity.”

In 2004, the Hungarian parliament, then controlled by the socialists under Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, put the matter to a public referendum. The measure failed to get enough votes to validate the results, despite getting more "yes" votes. Although AHF felt the referendum was unneccessary as citizenship for Hungarians is a moral and ethical issue that should never have been questioned, it issued a statement urging voters to vote "yes."

The new citizenship law comes at a time of tension between Hungary and Slovakia over a number of issues such as the Slovak Langauage Law under which the use of the minority language in official communication would be punishable in towns and villages where the ethnic community makes up less than 20 percent of the total population. The amendment also stipulates that all documentation of minority schools should be duplicated in the state language. Some of the bravado could be attributed to the fact that general elections are set for june 2010, and the right-wing nationalist government of Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose parliament inexplicably reaffirmed the horrific Benes Decrees, is seeking re-election.

It is important to note that it wasn't the Treaty of Trianon, nor the post-WWI victorious powers, nor the dictatorial regimes of newly formed Rumania, Slovakia, and Yugoslavia / Serbia, but rather the communist Hungarian government itself that cancelled citizenship for the millions of Hungarians living across newly drawn borders after Trianon.

Whether or not neighboring countries accept dual citizenship, many see this is a long overdue symbolic measure. AHF Executive Chairman, Bryan Dawson, who has family in Hungary and Transylvania, remarked, "these [Hungarian] communities didn't move. Artificial borders were created around them, their lands taken, and, despite beatings, decrees and language laws, and lack of support from consecutive Hungarian governments, they survive and hold on to 1000 year-old traditions in Central Europe and Carpathian Basin. I hope their despair can be replaced with the hope that they too can be part of one magyar nation again."

Why did Hungarians lose Citizenship?

While the tragic Treaty of Trianon forced Hungarians to choose new citizenship or leave their ancestral homelands in the newly formed countries of Rumania, Slovakia, and Yugoslavia (Serbia), they were still considered part of the Hungarian nation until the communist takeover in 1949. Adding insult to injury, it was the communist Hungarian governments that renounced millions of Hungarians living across newly drawn borders after Trianon and cancelled any right to claim citizenship as late as 1979. ("Nem a felettünk győztes hatalmak, nem Románia és nem az utódállamok, hanem a magyar állam fosztotta meg a külhoni magyarokat az állampolgárságuktól." - Dr. Tamás Árva.)

When did Hungarians lose Citizenship?

In a show of "Socialist" brotherhood, the Hungarian communist government signed an agreement with Ceaucescu's Rumania in 1979 renounced Transylvania's 2.5 - 3 million-strong Hungarian community. Previous communist regimes did the same thing with Hungarians living and working in East Germany in 1969, Poland in 1961, and Czechoslovakia in 1960. Read the full article in Hungarian at Index.hu

Ethnic Distribution in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1910 (Hungarians shown in red)
[download extra large image 4962x3509]
[download large image 1000x707]

Hungarian populations declined significantly after forced removals such as the Benes Decrees and other pograms, the effects of WWI, and Trianon in 1920. With continued pressure and discriminative policies sucha s the 2009 Slovak Language Law, this trend continued over the past 90 years.

• In Upper Hungary (awarded to Slovakia, Czechoslovakia): 1,687,977 Slovaks and 1,233,454 others (mostly Hungarians - 886,044, Germans, Ruthenians and Roma) [according to the 1921 census, however, there were 1,941,942 Slovaks and 1,058,928 others]
• In Carpathian Ruthenia (awarded to Czechoslovakia): 330,010 Ruthenians and 275,932 others (mostly Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, and Slovaks)
• In Transylvania (awarded to Romania): 2,831,222 Romanians (53.8%) and 2,431,273 others (mostly Hungarians - 1,662,948 (31.6%) and Germans - 563,087 (10.7%)). The 1919 and 1920 Transylvanian censuses indicate a greater percentage of Romanians (57.1%/57.3%) and a smaller Hungarian minority (26.5%/25.5%)
• In Vojvodina 510,754 Serbs and 1,002,229 others (mostly Hungarians 425,672 and Germans 324,017)
  
• In Vojvodina and Croatia-Slavonia combined (awarded to Yugoslavia): 2,756,000 Croats and Serbs and 1,366,000 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
• In Burgenland (awarded to Austria): 217,072 Germans and 69,858 others (mainly Croatian and Hungarian)

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• Felhivas - Szavazzunk IGEN!
  11/24/2004

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  Related Links

• Dual citizenship for transborder minorities? How to respond to the Hungarian-Slovak tit-for-tat. - by with a foreward by Rainer Bauböck, co-director, the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre, European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship
• Current Citizenship Requirements (Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC)
• The Tragedy of the Treaty of Trianon
• Dual Citizenship for all Hungarians across the borders in Historic Hungary
• News from Rumania
• News from Slovakia
• News from Vojvodina [I], [II], [III]
• Slovakia and the Benes Decrees
• Hungarian Flags Flying Again in Slovakia
• Rumania's Basescu in the US
• The Csango Hungarians of Moldavia

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