Transylvania Today:
January 2017
Founded over 100 years ago, the American Hungarian Federation (“AHF”) has for decades promoted human and minority rights, including the rights of Hungarians living in the countries neighboring Hungary.
AHF’s International Relations Committee is proud to announce, consistent with and in furtherance of its continuing and long-standing tradition and mission, the launching of a new initiative — quarterly updates relating to the Hungarian minority in Transylvania.
Overcoming the Odds: Ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania
The largest minority in Europe without autonomy are the ethnic Hungarians of Transylvania. The states of Central-Europe evolved from the detritus of four major empires, the Russian, the Ottoman, the German, and the Austro-Hungarian. Major wars destroyed each of them but in their footprints the resident ethnicities, buoyed by the possibility of the establishment of ethnic nation-states, convinced the major powers that they too, should have the right to govern. Boundaries of newly created entities were drawn by the victors in two world wars based on their perceived needs in case of armed struggle in the future. The wishes of the minorities, including the use of the minority languages in official capacity and in the educational setting was not considered.
Transylvania, for over a millennium, was culturally and in various forms, an integral part of Hungary or was administered by Hungarians. The Treaty of Trianon of 1920 transferred Transylvania to Romania without a plebiscite. The new rulers instituted laws and regulations to assimilate the large minority populations of the acquired territory with the intent of creating a unitary state. One hundred years later, this aim was not realized and was made more difficult with the requirement of adherence to European Union norms.
Primary tools for assimilation and the creation of the unitary state concept rely on the restriction of the freedom of speech, refusal of the restitution of previously illegally seized minority property, barriers to higher education in minority tongues and hindering activities that remind minorities of their ethnicity. The voiced discontent of minorities is expressed in these issues.
Related
Transylvania Today Issues:
- June – August 2017
- January 2017
- July 2016
- AHF Statements on Trianon
- Related AHF Articles on Rumania
- Articles and Essays by AHF Members
- Congressional Resolutions and Records
AHF Book Review: “Transylvania Today: Diversity at Risk,” edited by Csaba Zoltani. Written by noted experts, describes the issues faced by minorities in Transylvania in their effort to retain their identity in an adverse environment. Minorities, according to the official census, constitute nearly one-quarter of the population of Romania. Contributors include Amb. Geza Jeszenszky, Prof. Andrew Ludanyi, Tilhamer Czika, Viktor Segesvary, and Andreas Bereznay. [read more]
- 6/17/2014 – AHF Book Review: “Transylvania Today: Diversity at Risk,” edited by Csaba Zoltani. Written by noted experts, describes the issues faced by minorities in Transylvania in their effort to retain their identity in an adverse environment. The essays of the book capture some of the fault lines in Transylvania, created by the incorporation of a territory with western traditions into one of Byzantine culture. Minorities, according to the official census, constitute nearly one-quarter of the population of Romania. Contributors include Amb. Geza Jeszenszky, Prof. Andrew Ludanyi, Tilhamer Czika, Viktor Segesvary, and Andreas Bereznay. [read more]
Congressmen Frank R.Wolf (R-VA) and James P. McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chairmen of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the United States Congress, echo AHF’s call, and send a letter to Traian Basescu, President of Romania, in connection with Bishop Tokes and the threatened revocation of the Order of the Star of Romania. [read more]
1/15/2014 – In 2009, PBS Television presented a documentary film on the planned open pit cyanide gold mine at Verespatak in Transylvania, now called Rosia Montana. In 2014, the Unitarian Church of Transylvania produced this English-language video entitled “Life over Gold – a Unitarian stand for Roşia Montană.” [read more] and view both videos.
11/24/2013 – Romania revokes the Knight’s Order of the “Star of Romania” from hero of the Romanian Revolution, Bishop László Tőkés. AHF writes to the US Helsinki Commission on this latest anti-Hungarian measure: “The Federation respectfully and strongly urges you to publicly on behalf of the Helsinki Commission raise Romania’s most recent anti-Hungarian phenomenon – the revocation of the Medal Star of Romania previously awarded Bishop Laszlo Tokes for his extraordinarily courageous role in toppling the Ceaucescu dictatorship during the 1989 revolution. And what was Bishop Tokes’s transgression resulting in the revocation? Exercising his constitutional rights by standing up for the interests of the Hungarian minority in Romania. The revocation should be reversed.” The revocation comes years of a coordinated smear campaign against him. [read more]
6/19/2013 – Kiállást vár az amerikai Helsinki Bizottságtól az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség: Az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség feljegyzésben szólította fel ismételten a szervezetet, hogy június 27-ig “nyilvánosan és bizalmasan is vesse fel” a romániai egyházi és közösségi javak, beleértve a levéltárak igazságos és azonnali visszaszolgáltatásának kérdését. [tovább]
Miért támadja Magyarországot az amerikai szenátor? [tovább]