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.” The statement continued: “On June 4, 1920, over 3 million Hungarians were transferred to foreign rule and forced to renounce their Hungarian citizenship as a result of the punitive Treaty of Trianon. By the terms of that diktat, Hungary also lost 72% of its 1000-year old territory and countless natural resources. Borders were arbitrarily redrawn around historic communities, lands confiscated, and families separated for generations. As we see in the recent Slovak language law, the blatant discrimination and minority rights abuses continue to this day.” [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.”
3/1/2006 – Hungarian Voting Rights Abroad – Dr. Horváth János Washingtonban: Amerikai Magyar Szövetség Kitüntetése
A Washington DC környékén élö magyar közösség nagy érdeklödését kiváltó fórumot tartottHorváth János a Fidesz -Magyar Polgári Szövetség országgyulési képviselöjén a Kossuth Házban 2006. március 1-én. A találkozó célja az volt, hogy a magyar Országgyülés korelnöke felhívja a figyelmet a közelgo magyarországiországgyülési választások jelentöségére és tájékoztatást adjon arról, hogy a választójoggal rendelkezö magyar állampolgárok milyen eljárás során kérhetik, hogy szavazataikat a Magyar Köztársaság külképviseletein adhassák le. [tovább]
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Related
Slovak Constitution: “no one must be deprived of the citizenship of the Slovak Republic against his will.”
The Slovak Citizenship Act, specifically targets Hungarians and was amended to combat Hungary granting citizenship freely to Slovaks, was adopted last year shortly after Hungary announced its plans to grant citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad. The law in force in Slovakia clearly states that anyone accepting the citizenship of another country will be stripped of their Slovak citizenship.
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]
Coverage of the Oliver Boldoghy Case
12/5/2011 – American-Hungarian Federation turns to US Congress over widening Slovak citizenship row. The American-Hungarian Federation has turned to the US Congress Helsinki Commission with an appeal for it to take action in the case of a Slovak of Hungarian origin who has been stripped of his citizenship on the ground that he took up Hungarian citizenship, the alliance’s chairman told MTI. [read more]
Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic to the case of Olivér Boldoghy. While complying with general principles and norms of international law concerning citizenship, every state has a sovereign right to set its own legal regulation of citizenship. The current situation and the Oliver Boldoghy-case result from non-standard Hungarian citizenship regulation granting the Hungarian citizenship on the basis of ethnicity without any real ties of the person to the state. [read more]
11/28/2011 – The citizenship of an ethnic Hungarian resident of the Slovak town of Komarno causes a political row between Hungary and Slovakia over Hungary’s dual citizenship law. “Many people have taken up the Hungarian citizenship but they did not notify the Slovak interior ministry about it. The reason why myself with several others have openly admitted this is to take a conscious civilian action. We would like to create a precedent. We began a signature collection on the day of the Slovak constitution on September 1st and referring to the constitution we would like to achieve that this Fico law, this anti-dual citizenship law should is annulled,” Boldoghy said. [read more]
11/30/2011 – Ethnic Hungarian should appeal citizenship case in European courts, says Deputy PM. The Slovak constitution declares that no one can be deprived of their Slovak citizenship against their will, Semjen said, adding that this is the legal argument that should be followed in Boldoghy’s defence. The Slovak authorities had acted against universal human rights and the ethos of the European Union, Semjen said, adding that Hungary offers its full support to Boldoghy’s case. [read more]
Slovak Language Law Related Articles
Under the Slovak Language Law, 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 requires that all documentation of minority schools should be duplicated in the state language. The law stipulates that the names of streets and buildings anywhere in Slovakia must be stated in the Slovak language [despite 1100-year-old tradition] and it also introduces sanctions of up to €5,000 ($7,000) on those who break rules promoting the use of Slovak in public and for municipalities and public offices for not using the Slovak language “properly.”
“Álláspontjának Tisztázására Szólította Fel az EBESZ Kisebbségügyi Főbiztosát az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség” – MTI 2011. szeptember 30., péntek 1:14
[ MTI cikk magyarul]
Hovorte po slovensky!* Slovakia criminalises the use of Hungarian: The Economist, Jul 30, 2009
<< Go to AHF’s Coverage of the Slovak Language Law
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
- 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
- The Slovak Language Law
Clinton fellépését sürgeti a szlovák nyelvtörvény ügyében az AHF
AHF calls upon Vice President Biden to discuss Slovakia’s language law with Hungarian Prime Minister Bajnai
- AHF Submits Letter Regarding Intolerance in Slovakia
- Use of Hungarian ILLEGAL in Slovakia – Hungarian FM expresses regret
- The American Hungarian Federation’s call for greater cooperation among Hungarian American organizations in raising the ill-advised and discriminatory Slovak language law published in Heti Valasz
- “Halál a magyarokra!” / “Hunok a gázkamrába! Magyarok a Dunába!“
- 168 Óra Online írása: A ‘Halál a magyarokra’ Amerikában is kiverte a biztosítékot
- Amerikai magyar szervezet küldött levelet Kubišnak
- Slovaks Confirm Benes Decrees: Called “Cancer of the Slovak Nation.” AHF issues statement.
- The Benes Decrees – a shameful act of ethnic cleansing
- The Treaty of Trianon – A Nation Dismembered
- Vojvodina – More ethnic cleansing in historic Vajdasag
- News from Rumania – Home to the largest Hungarian “minority”
- Hungarian National Flags fly again in Hungarian churches in today’s Slovakia
- AHF Supporting Dual Citizenship
- www.vilagmagyarsag.com – includes English and Hungarian resources and petition
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