VARIOUS: Ethnic Hungarians remember how their families were divided by the Trianon peace treaty of 1920

Record ID: 478169

  • Title: VARIOUS: Ethnic Hungarians remember how their families were divided by the Trianon peace treaty of 1920
  • Date: 7th June 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) ERZSEBET FARAGO CSOMOR SAYING: "We were and still are Hungarians at heart. I often tell my relatives that we are greater Hungarians than they are, because we have had to struggle a lot for our identity."
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVAERB33UMOCDOHMKIXAMP62RLDB
  • Story Text: The Slovak village of Velke Ludince 24 kilometres from the Hungarian border was part of Hungary until the Trianon Peace Treaty of 1920 redrew borders in Central Europe. Most of the village's residents still belong to the ethnic Hungarian minority today. Most gravestones in the village cemetery show Hungarian names, and villagers speak mainly Hungarian.
    Ninety years after the Trianon treaty that stripped Hungary of two-thirds of its territory and more than half of its population, many Hungarians are still shedding tears over it even today. A taboo topic for decades, the new Hungarian government declared that June 4th, the date the treaty was signed, would be a "national day of unity" for Hungarians.
    Parliament holds a special session on Friday (June 4) to mark the anniversary of the 1920 Trianon treaty as part of Hungary's new Prime Minister Viktor Orban's efforts to restore Hungary's strength and national pride.
    Such a remembrance day along with Hungary's new law on dual citizenship for more than two million ethnic Hungarians in Central Europe are symbolic steps aimed to strengthen bonds between the Hungarian minorities living outside the country's borders and Hungary.
    Five million ethnic Hungarians live beyond Hungary's borders mostly in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine.
    The citizenship amendment went down well with voters in Hungary and also pleased many ethnic Hungarians like Erzsebet Farago Csomor, who lives in Velke Ludince.
    "We were and still are Hungarians at heart. I often tell my relatives that we are greater Hungarians than they are, because we have had to struggle a lot for our identity," she said.
    Csomor said that like many other ethnic Hungarians, her family suddenly found themselves in a new country where they were a despised minority. She faced discrimination at school and had problems finding jobs. Contact with relatives in Hungary was difficult. Hundreds of thousands of families escaped to Hungary after Trianon and after World War II thousands were forcibly resettled in large-scale population exchanges. The Csomors were lucky, deportations stopped before their village.
    Other families lost houses and properties that they could not claim back, such as the family of Katalin Lovas in Budapest. Her family split after Trianon, one part ended up in Hungary, the other remained in Czechoslovakia. The two parts of the families grew apart as nationalist conflicts grew between the two countries.
    "My grandfather and his brother really loved each other. They were very good brothers and when they were young they were both passionately Hungarians. But my grandfather ended up in Hungary and his brother remained and he became a real wild Slovak," she said.
    Trianon is still a source of tensions between Hungary and its neighbours who suspect revisionism when Hungarians speak of Trianon. For Hungary's neighbours, the Trianon treaty brought new territories and the birth of their new countries.
    "What was a collapse, pain and tragedy for historic Hungary and Austria was the moment of birth for the neighbouring countries and of course a joy," said historian Miklos Zeidler.
    For decades after World War II, the issues of national minorities and nationalist tensions were suppressed in the Socialist bloc by the ideology of Communist internationalism. The topic of Trianon was silenced.
    After the regime change of 1989, Hungary - and especially its conservative governments - took up the issue of Hungarian minorities.
    "The mother nation always feels that in some way it must help those who got stuck across its borders. In the same way as Serbia or Romania looked after those who got stuck beyond their then borders before the First World War, similarly now the Hungarian government feels that it is their duty to provide support in a spiritual, political and cultural way for those beyond the borders," historian Miklos Zeidler said.
    A new dual citizenship law angered neighbouring Slovakia and Bratislava reacted to the Hungarian law by threatening to strip seekers of a second citizenship of their Slovak one.
    Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has said Hungary's Trianon memorial day was a case of "historical revisionism".
    Analysts said that with the Trianon memorial day, Hungary's ruling Fidesz party also wanted to take the wind out of the sails of the rightist Jobbik party, which has attracted young voters with its nationalist agenda.
    Hungary's row with Slovakia over citizenship rights signals a shift to a more assertive foreign policy stance by the new government after years of polite diplomacy.
    Analyst Zoltan Kiszelli said Fidesz's position is that Hungary has its own policies on the issue.
    "It should not have to observe what Washington, Bratislava or Brussels have to say about them, or only to the necessary extent. Of course Hungary will have to explain why they are acting the way they are, but the new government will not take the so-called "sensibilities" of the neighbouring countries into such consideration as the left-liberal governments did," he said, adding that the dual citizenship and Trianon memorial day were signals that Hungary was willing to face conflicts.
    Hungary will take over the rotating EU presidency in 2011, which will be a good opportunity to build closer ties with Poland and Romania, which Fidesz sees as allies, analysts said.
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