THE HUNGARIAN QUESTION
THE POLICY OF ETHNIC CLEANSING DIRECTED AGAINST THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL COMMUNITIES LIVING ON THE TERRITORIES SEVERED FROM HUNGARY BY RUMANIA AND THE FORMER CZECHOSLOVAKIA, YUGOSLAVIA AND USSR
© Copyright HUNMAGYAR.ORG
 Foreword
1. Border changes
2. The Hungarians outside Hungary
3. The Hungarians in the
Carpathian Basin
4. Foreign rule and
colonization of Hungary
5. Peaceful coexistence
6. Ethnic conflicts
7. Aftermath of WWI
8. Consequences of the peace
treaties
9. WWII
10.
Hungary's losses resulting from the Czech, Serbian and Rumanian military occupations
(1918-1919) and the partition of its territory imposed by the Treaty of Trianon (1920)
11. The international
legal status of minorities
12. Rights
violations and discrimination against Hungarians
13. Destabilizing factors
14. Conditions for regional
stabilization
15.
East-Central European stability and security problems
16.
Hungary's key role in the collapse of the Communist Bloc
17. Hungarian grievances
18. Hungarian ethnic minority rights
19. The outlook
for the Hungarian ethnic communities
The problem of the Hungarian ethnic communities in the states neighbouring Hungary is not
adequately known outside of Hungary, nor is it given the proper treatment by those states
whose policies led to the problem, namely the major powers responsible for imposing peace treaties with disastrous consequences following the two world wars. It is therefore necessary to increase public awareness and to better inform policy makers, in order to focus their attention on an important factor affecting European stability and security: the
deliberate policy of ethnocide designed to eliminate, by any possible means, the
indigenous ethnic Hungarian population living in the states neighbouring Hungary. Thus,
the objective of this article is to provide an overview of this problem, with its
historical background and the key issues of concern to the Hungarian minorities. It seeks to present the relevant evidence in order to constitute a case in support of the Hungarian position and in order to counterbalance the anti-Hungarian propaganda which has been and still is being disseminated by some of the states neighbouring Hungary.
These states, such as Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia, are among the least democratic
states in Europe, and the worst human rights violators. During WWII, these states have
also perpetrated genocidal atrocities which have been passed under silence and those
responsible for these acts have not been brought to justice. Slovakia has significant Nazi
roots as it was first created by Hitler as a puppet state which willingly and actively
supported Nazi policies during WWII, and which still officially honours its leaders of
that period. Much the same can be stated about Rumania with regards to Nazi collaboration
and the official approval of its Nazi-sympathizing WWII leaders. Unlike Slovakia and
Rumania, Hungary was never a willing satellite of either Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. As
a result, Hungary was invaded by both Germany and Russia. As far as Serbia is concerned,
the nationalists dominating that state have once again shown their true colours in the
atrocity-filled Yugoslav war of the 1990s which they have provoked with Russian support, just as
they have done in the case of the First World War. Thus, the current policies of Rumania,
Slovakia and Serbia represent a serious threat to democracy and peace in that region,
especially since they enjoy the diplomatic and military support of an imperialistic Russia
which persists in seeking to extend its influence in East-Central Europe and the Balkans.
1. Border changes
The ethnic Hungarians living in the states surrounding Hungary did not emigrate from
Hungary, they became minorities as a result of border changes which were imposed by force
after the First World War, whereby Hungary lost three quarters of its territory to the
neighbouring states: Austria annexed a strip of land in Western Hungary
("Burgenland"), the Czechs annexed Northern Hungary ("Slovakia" and
"Ruthenia"), Rumania annexed Eastern Hungary (Transylvania and Banat) and Serbia
annexed Southern Hungary (the "Voivodina" and Croatia). Millions of ethnic
Hungarians were denied the right to self-determination as they became minorities under
foreign rule against their will. The territories severed from Hungary had belonged to that
state for over a thousand years, long before the creation of Rumania (1862), Yugoslavia
(1920) and Czechoslovakia (1920).
2. The Hungarians outside Hungary
The Hungarian ethnic communities living in the states surrounding Hungary are an
integral part of the Hungarian nation which numbers approximately 15 million in the
Carpathian Basin, where it constitutes the largest ethnic group. The ethnic Hungarians
living outside of Hungary in the Carpathian Basin number approximately 5 million and
represent nearly one third of the Hungarian nation. Estimates differ as official
statistics on the Hungarian minorities are unreliable and inaccurate: there are
approximately 2.5 million Hungarians in Rumania, 750 000 in Slovakia, 500 000 in the
former Yugoslav states, 200 000 in Ukraine (Subcarpathia), and 50 000 in Austria (these
figures do not include those people of Hungarian origin who have been forcibly assimilated
into the surrounding ethnic groups). There are also approximately 200 000 Hungarians in
Western Europe, 200 000 in Canada, and 1.5 million in the USA.
3. The Hungarians in the
Carpathian Basin
The Hungarians are the indigenous population of the natural geographical unit of the
Carpathian Basin with which the historical territory of pre-WWI Hungary coincided. The
historical, archeological, anthropological and linguistic evidence has shown that the the
ancestors of the Hungarians were the first permanent settlers of the Carpathian Basin,
arriving in several migratory waves originating from the
Anatolian-Caucasian-Mesopotamian-Caspian region, beginning around 5000 BC and continuing
until the 13th c. AD. At the time of the foundation of the Hungarian state in 896 AD (this
Hungarian state was in fact the successor state to the Hun and Avar Empires of the
previous centuries) there were no significant or long-established non-Hungarian
populations or states within the Carpathian Basin. Claims to the contrary have been
formulated since the late 18th century by certain members of the ethnic groups surrounding
the Hungarians as justification for territorial demands against Hungary.
4. Foreign rule and
colonization of Hungary
During the last five centuries, foreign invasions and military occupations have
resulted in the widespread decimation of the Hungarian population. This was followed by
foreign rule and the massive foreign colonization of Hungary. Also, during these
centuries, Hungary has been a refuge for peoples fleeing from the constant oppressive
conditions of war-torn Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but many settlers came from Western
Europe as well. Under the foreign rule of the Austrian Habsburgs, Hungary was treated as a
conquered colony and the foreign colonization of Hungary took place mostly in the areas
from which the original Hungarian population had been decimated or expelled (and prevented
from returning by the foreign occupying powers). As a result, the ethnic Hungarian
proportion of Historical Hungary's population decreased from 8O% in the 16th c. to less
than 4O% in the 18th c.
5. Peaceful coexistence
During this period, the Hungarians and the newly settled peoples (Germans, Jews,
Gypsies, Slavs, Rumanians) coexisted peacefully as the latter enjoyed the traditional
hospitality and tolerance of the Hungarian people. As a result, the different ethnic
groups were able to freely preserve and develop their culture and language with Hungarian
financial and cultural support, so that the East European and Balkan peoples settled in
Historical Hungary were able to reach a higher living standard and cultural level than
their ethnic relatives who remained outside the Carpathian Basin.
6. Ethnic conflicts
The peaceful coexistence of the Hungarians and the other ethnic groups settled in the
Carpathian Basin lasted until the 18th c., as the Austrian Habsburg rulers applied the
policy of divide and rule by playing off the ethnic groups settled in Hungary against the
Hungarians. Thus, in the age of nationalism and imperialism, the Habsburgs fostered the
antagonisms between the Hungarians and the other ethnic groups in Hungary, and foreign
states seeking territorial expansion - Russia, Rumania, Serbia - also gave support to
those ethnic groups in order to partition Hungary. The exploitation of nationalism and the
incitement of nationalist movements among the non-Hungarian ethnic groups of the
Carpathian Basin by the Habsburgs and by Hungary's neighbours led to the First World War,
the territorial partition of Hungary and the ethnic tensions and conflicts still gripping
the region.
7. Aftermath of WWI
The Treaty of Trianon of June 4, 1920, which transferred Hungarian territories to
Hungary's neighbours, violated Hungary's territorial integrity and sovereignty as it was
imposed by the force of arms following the violation of the Padua Armistice of November 3,
1918, by the Czechs, Serbia and Rumania. The Treaty of Trianon has therefore been imposed
in violation of international law and has also violated the Hungarian people's right of
self-determination. The Western Powers agreed to the Czech, Serbian and Rumanian
territorial demands, which were based on falsified historical claims, on condition that
the latter also sign treaties for the protection of ethnic minorities, and Hungary was
promised that the treaty would be reviewed with the possibility of future border
revisions. However, the newly created Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and the enlarged
Rumania failed to fulfill their obligations to respect the rights of ethnic minorities and
the numerous Hungarian grievances brought to the attention of the League of Nations were
rarely addressed.
8. Consequences of the peace
treaties
The peace treaties which were imposed by the Western Powers and their allies following
the First World War created the conditions which made the Second World War possible. The
newly created multiethnic states (Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia) were highly
unstable and antagonistic towards their neighbours because of the newly created numerous
ethnic minorities, generating a constant high level of international tension and
instability. These small Central and East European states were also economically weak and
unviable, and they were geographically and culturally incoherent. Thus, from an economic,
cultural and human rights point of view, the new international borders represented a
considerable deterioration of the living conditions of all the peoples concerned,
regardless of whether they were an ethnic majority or minority. This situation effectively
paved the way for the rise of totalitarian nationalistic dictatorships and for the
expansion of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia into the region. These conditions still exist
today in Central and Eastern Europe.
9. W.W.II
Following the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, whereby Germany obtained the
Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, the Western Powers effectively surrendered the role of
East-Central European arbitration to the Axis Powers (Germany and Italy). This was
followed by the Vienna Arbitrations of 1938 and 1940, whereby the Axis powers granted
Hungary the retrocession of some of the territories which it had lost to Czechoslovakia
and Rumania. Following the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and the break-up of
Yugoslavia in 1941, Hungary recovered some more of its lost territories, exercising its
right of self-defense as the aggressed nation after the conclusion of WW I. These new
borders reflected more accurately the geographical distribution of the various ethnic
groups in the region and considerably reduced the number of ethnic minorities.
By the Yalta agreement of 1945, the Western Allies effectively relegated East-Central
Europe to the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, thereby violating the sovereignty and
right of self-determination of the peoples concerned. It was in this context that the
drastic and controversial territorial provisions of the Treaty of Trianon were reimposed
upon Hungary at the Treaty of Paris in 1947, as a result of which Hungary lost the
territories it had regained between 1938 and 1941.
10.
HUNGARY'S LOSSES RESULTING FROM THE CZECH, SERBIAN AND RUMANIAN MILITARY OCCUPATIONS
(1918-19) AND THE PARTITION OF ITS TERRITORY IMPOSED BY THE TREATY OF TRIANON (1920)
Sources: Apponyi, Justice for Hungary; Illés-Halász, Hungary before and after
the War in Economic-Statistical Maps; Ronai, Atlas of Central Europe.
- 72% of its territory (232 000 km2)
- 64% of its population (13 370 000 inhabitants)
- 60% of its agricultural lands
- 70% of its livestock
- 74% of its roads
- 62% of its railways
- 65% of its navigable waterways
- 88% of its forests
- 60% of its coal reserves
- 85% of its iron ore
- 100% of its salt and copper mines
- 95% of its quarries
- 82% of its machine industry
- 60% of its iron and steel factories
- 64% of its chemical works
- 95% of its water-power
- its only outlet to the sea, the port-city of Fiume (Rijeka), along with all its
fleet, and all trade and industry connected with maritime activities
- State property amounting to 3.5 billion Hungarian Gold Crowns (1920)
- 210 million Gold Francs (1920) as well as other imposed crippling war reparations in
kind
- losses estimated at 6.5 billion Swiss Francs (1919) due to the Rumanian occupation
alone
- over 3000 villages, towns and cities with majority Hungarian populations and
irreplaceable historical buildings, monuments, cultural artifacts, art collections,
churches, museums, libraries, and educational and cultural institutions: Kolozsvár
(Cluj-Napoca), Nagyvárad (Oradea), Marosvásárhely (Tirgu Mures), Szatmárnémeti (Satu
Mare), Temesvár (Timisoara), Szabadka (Subotica), Arad (Arad), Brassó (Brasov), Pozsony
(Bratislava), Nagybánya (Baia Mare), Kassa (Kosice), Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfintu Gheorghe),
Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc), Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc), Beregszász
(Beregovo), Komárom (Komárno), Újvidék (Novi Sad), Zenta (Senta), Ungvár (Uzhgorod),
Munkács (Mukachevo), are some of the major cities and important towns lost by Hungary.
These losses have been compounded by the equally great human and material losses
suffered by Hungary as a result of WWII - Allied bombings, Nazi and Soviet occupations -
and under the Communist regime. Hungary has not yet been compensated for its losses
resulting from enemy aggression and occupation since WWI.
Map sources: I. Homonnay, Justice for Hungary 1920-1970; II. Ronai, Atlas of
Central Europe; III. & IV. Borsody, The Hungarians: A Divided Nation.
I. The shaded area represents Hungary's pre-WWI territory, the post-WWI borders
are indicated in black.
II. Hungarian territories annexed by: Austria (1), Czechoslovakia (2), Poland
(3), Rumania (4), Yugoslavia (5),
Italy (6). Territory left to Hungary: 7.
III. The area of Hungarian majority within pre-WWI Hungary is indicated in
black. The white lines represent the current borders.
IV. The area of Hungarian majority within pre-WWI Hungary is indicated in
black. The white lines represent the border changes during WWII.
V. Map showing the territories Hungary regained between 1938-1941, but lost after
the Soviet invasion of 1944.
11. The
international legal status of minorities
The Charter of the United Nations affirms the universality of human rights which
include ethnic minority rights, thus the status of ethnic minorities is no longer
exclusively the internal matter of a state. The protection of minority rights was
reaffirmed by the Helsinki Accord of 1975, making it a matter of collective international
concern and responsibility. The Helsinki Accord also states that in case of non-compliance
with the provisions concerning ethnic minority rights, state borders can be modified
through peaceful means. Hungarians therefore have the right to raise the issue of the
Hungarian communities in the states surrounding Hungary, and the major powers have a
responsibility to guarantee the respect of the rights of these Hungarian communities.
These rights have been further confirmed and defined by various documents established
within the framework of international organizations such as the Council of Europe and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
12.
Rights violations and discrimination against Hungarians
The Hungarians living in the territories detached from Hungary have been and are still
subjected to wide-ranging discrimination due to the anti-Hungarian policies pursued by
such states as Slovakia, Rumania, and Serbia, where the right of the Hungarian communities
to preserve their ethnic identity is not recognized or respected. The list of confirmed
and documented cases of violations committed against the rights of the Hungarian
communities is lengthy:
- the restriction and dismantling of the Hungarian-language educational system;
- the restriction of the use of the Hungarian language in public and in official
places;
- the restriction of Hungarian-language media and publications;
- the restriction of contacts between the Hungarian communities and Hungary;
- the confiscation of property belonging to Hungarian communities, institutions and
individuals;
- harassment, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, torture and assassination of Hungarian
community members;
- forced relocation of Hungarians and settlement of non-Hungarians in ethnic Hungarian
areas in order to artificially alter the ethnic composition of areas where the Hungarian
community constitutes a local majority;
- redrawing of administrative boundaries in order to reduce the proportion of the
Hungarian ethnic constituencies;
- promoting hatred and defamation against Hungarians in state-sponsored propaganda
campaigns, domestically through the mass-media and the educational system, and
internationally through diplomatic channels;
- the restriction of the cultural, administrative, local and regional autonomy of the
Hungarian communities.
Detailed information on these violations has been gathered by various international
human rights organizations, including the New York-based Hungarian Human Rights Foundation.
Serbia, Rumania and Slovakia are pursuing such nationalistic and discriminatory
policies mainly for domestic political and economic reasons, claiming that Hungary and the
Hungarian ethnic communities are the cause of their domestic problems and a threat to
their security and territorial integrity. The aim of these ethnocidal policies is
therefore to eliminate the ethnic Hungarian communities, either by physical extermination
(genocide), as was the case during WWII, by forced assimilation, or by forcible expulsion
("ethnic cleansing"): since the end of WWI, hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Hungarians have been expelled, deported, or slaughtered by Rumania and the former
Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
13. Destabilizing factors
The anti-Hungarian policies of Slovakia, Rumania, and Serbia are a major source of
tension and destabilization which threaten the region's security. The nationalist parties
dominating Slovakia, Rumania, and Serbia are opposed to democratization, the respect of
individual and collective human rights, the granting of autonomy to minorities, and the
economic and political integration of the region because this would weaken their influence
and increase the political, economic, and cultural influence of the Hungarians in the
region. Due to its geographical situation, Hungary has the potential of becoming
a major center of political and economic integration in East-Central Europe, and Hungary
has been actively promoting regional cooperation and cultural and economic exchanges with
its neighbours. As this would increase contacts between Hungary and the
Hungarian-inhabited regions in the neighbouring countries, the Slovakian, Rumanian, and
Serbian nationalist parties seek to curtail the development of cultural and economic
relations with Hungary as well as the development of democracy and of human and minority
rights in their own states. These parties have demonstrated their anti-democratic
tendencies as well as their ineptitude and unwillingness to solve the serious political
and economic problems confronting them and have instead relied on the exploitation of
nationalism as the source of their political power and legitimization. Without political
and economic instability and without ethnic tensions in the region, these parties could
not exploit nationalism and ultimately remain in power. It is therefore in the interest of
the Slovakian, Rumanian, and Serbian nationalist parties to destabilize the region by
generating ethnic tensions. These parties seek to preserve their influence by promoting
nationalistic anti-Hungarian propaganda and discriminatory policies.
14. Conditions for regional
stabilization
The elimination of ethnic tensions is therefore a key element in the stability and
security of East-Central Europe. If the problem of the ethnic minorities is to be settled,
then minority rights must be fully guaranteed and respected, including not only individual
human rights but also collective rights: the cultural, educational, administrative, local
and regional autonomy of ethnic minorities. Furthermore, in the interest of stability, the
democratization and the economic and political integration of East-Central Europe is also
essential. As a result, the borders would become more permeable and the personal,
cultural, and economic contacts between ethnic groups could develop without restriction.
These conditions would be highly favourable for the entire population of the region. The
economic development and integration of the region is therefore also essential for
conflict resolution and stabilization.
15.
East-Central European stability and security problems
The present situation in East-Central Europe is untenable because it is fundamentally
unstable: the unresolved ethnic problems and related border disputes constantly threaten
the security of the region, as illustrated by the Yugoslav conflict. The problem of the
stability and security of East-Central Europe can only be solved within the framework of a
comprehensive territorial political rearrangement which would definitively settle the
ethnic and border disputes of the region.
A solution would be to detach ethnically mixed territories and form autonomous units
where the various ethnic groups would enjoy equal rights. But if various ethnic groups are
unable to live peacefully together, then they should be separated. This can only be achieved
through border changes and population transfers. An effective solution to these problems
cannot avoid the issue of the revision of borders and of peace treaties, as the principal
cause of the region's instability is its territorial political division imposed by the
peace treaties following the two world wars which resulted in the Balkanization of the
Carpathian Basin, and in the creation of a multiethnic Yugoslavia and Rumania,
disturbing the regional balance of power and disintegrating a larger political-economic
unit in Central Europe (Austria-Hungary), and generating tensions with the forced
assimilation and ethnic cleansing of the minorities.
These ethnic minorities should be placed under international protection until their
problem is solved. Given the conditions of East-Central Europe, the only viable solution
would be to redraw the borders in order to reduce the number of ethnic minorities, as
illustrated by the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. If a
serious international conflict involving the Hungarian ethnic communities is to be
avoided, then the only rational solution would be to return the Hungarian-inhabited
territories to Hungary. This is the most fundamental prerequisite for long-term peace and
stability in the region.
16.
Hungary's key role in the collapse of the Communist Bloc
Hungary's decision to open its border with Austria and to allow free passage to the
East German refugees in 1989 was the single act which triggered the fall of communism in
East-Central Europe and led to the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and the demise of the
Warsaw Pact. As a result, Germany was reunified, but the Hungarians, who were forced by
Germany to participate in the two world wars on its side, still remain territorially
divided.
17. Hungarian grievances
Hungarians justifiably feel that they are the victims of an undeserved punishment for
which they have not yet been justly compensated: the loss of one third of their
co-nationals and of three quarters of their territory is unacceptable for the Hungarians.
This situation has been imposed and can be maintained by force, but it cannot guarantee a
lasting peace: it can only be the source of future conflicts. The Hungarian communities
living as ethnic minorities are condemned to a slow death by assimilation and ethnic
cleansing, while those remaining in Hungary have effectively been hemmed in on a
militarily weak and vulnerable reserve surrounded by considerably more powerful hostile
and aggressive neighbours. Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia are known to be in diplomatic and
military collaboration aimed against Hungary, with plans to invade and partition the
remainder of Hungary. The Hungarian Question will therefore remain an unsolved problem as
long as the Hungarian nation's grievances are left unaddressed and the Hungarian
communities' right to self-determination is denied, and as long as the West does not
fulfill its responsibility to guarantee that fundamental right. The consequences of the
failure to bring a timely solution to such problems have been clearly illustrated by the
Yugoslav conflict.
18. Hungarian ethnic minority
rights
The Hungarian ethnic communities are not seeking any new or additional privileges but
only what is rightfully theirs in accordance with international law and which has been
illegally taken from them: their linguistic, cultural, religious, political and legal
rights. It should also be pointed out that an important distinction has to be made between
immigrant and indigenous ethnic communities: the latter are sovereign entities which have
the right to independence. The Hungarian communities belong to the latter category. As the
states surrounding Hungary continue to violate the rights of the Hungarians and refuse to
recognize their collective rights including cultural, administrative and territorial
autonomy, the Hungarian communities have the right to determine their political status in
accordance with the right of peoples to self-determination, and therefore, they may choose
to separate from those states which violate their rights and to reunite with Hungary. By
failing to fulfill their international obligations to respect minority rights, Serbia,
Rumania and Slovakia have forfeited their claims to the lands inhabited by the ethnic
minorities placed under their sovereignty. Hungary's neighbours have no right whatsoever
to rule over Hungarian-inhabited territories and to alter the ethnic composition of these
lands by implementing policies aimed at reducing the proportion of their Hungarian
population.
19. The outlook
for the Hungarian ethnic communities
The historical trends indicate that the situation of the ethnic Hungarian communities
has continuously deteriorated since they were forced under foreign rule in 1918. Since the
end of WWI, the states surrounding Hungary have sought to create ethnically homogenous
national states in which there is no place for ethnic minorities. The record shows that
the states in question have failed to fulfill their obligations to respect minority rights
and their promises to comply with these obligations cannot be taken seriously. As long as
the current policies are in force, there is no possibility for the improvement of the
situation of the Hungarian communities: if a government or a party in one of these states
were to initiate measures which would be favourable to the Hungarian community, it would
immediately come under attack from the nationalist parties and public opinion, and would
be forced to retract these measures or to step down. The Slovakian, Rumanian, and Serbian
governments cannot afford to treat the Hungarian communities more tolerantly because of
their own political interests. The rights of the Hungarian communities will not be
respected as long as the policy to create ethnically homogenous states remains in force.
In such states minorities have no future.
Judging from past experience and the current situation, it does not seem likely that
states such as Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia will change their policies which violate the
human and ethnic minority rights provisions included in their constitutions and in
international treaties to which they are signatory parties. The fundamental reason which
prevents these states from respecting the principles of democracy, human and minority
rights, is the very nature of their artificial creation or expansion by territorial
annexations at Hungary's expense, a factor which generates intense insecurity and
resentment on all sides. As long as these states are in possession of Hungarian
territories inhabited by Hungarians, they will never feel secure, and internal and
external tensions will remain. The existence of large Hungarian communities in the
countries surrounding Hungary constitutes a problem which these states are unable to
solve, but which they seek to eliminate by any possible means. As long as there are
Hungarians in the states surrounding Hungary, Hungary's neighbours will feel compelled to
eliminate the presence of these Hungarian minorities because their very existence provides
Hungary with grounds for territorial claims against its neighbours. However, according to
this logic, the existence of a Hungarian state also represents a threat in the eyes of its
neighbours, and as a result, the dominant nationalistic parties in those states have been
advocating their version of a "final solution" to the Hungarian Question.
Thus the choice is clear: if another genocidal conflict is to be avoided in that
region, then the Hungarian ethnic communities' right to self-determination must be
recognized and implemented in full equality of rights, as co-equal national communities.
Since this appears to be impossible within the states surrounding Hungary, then it must be
achieved by the reattachment of the Hungarian-inhabited territories to Hungary. The
Hungarian border revisions implemented between 1938 and 1941 should serve as a basis for
future border modifications and should constitute the minimal Hungarian demands, based on
the pre-WWI ethnic composition of the territories in question. All non-Hungarian
populations settled on these territories since WWI should be resettled so as to avoid
creating more ethnic minorities. These border revisions and population transfers could be
implemented through international arbitration at the request of the Hungarian State on
behalf of the Hungarian communities whose rights have been violated. The Hungarian State
has the right and the constitutional obligation to protect the interests of all ethnic
Hungarians living in and outside Hungary.
Return to History Page
|