26th Weekly Media Review of Hungarian Communities Abroad Heti nemzetpolitikai összefoglaló (26.hét)

1. Weekly Media Review
of Hungarian
Communities Abroad
26/2011

2. National Register of Hungarians around the world
Hungary
In September the government will launch a “national register” in an effort to reach out to
Hungarians around the world, announced the deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén at the
meeting of the inter-ministry parliamentary committee for Hungarians living abroad.
The aim of the register, to be managed by the Ministry of Justice and Public
Administration, is to provide information to Hungarians dispersed around the world,
initially via the 2,500 Hungarian global organizations that are already known. The
ministries were asked to prepare information packages to be distributed to Hungarians
abroad during the summer. The pieces of information will also be available in English in
the autumn and later in Spanish, to be sent out to those third and fourth generation
Hungarians who speak only little Hungarian. The national register is planned to be a
website aimed at reaching and keeping in touch with Hungarians around the world. It
will provide content about Hungary, including weekly bulletins, analyses and press
reviews, some of which will be made available after registration. The aim is also to help
Hungarian organizations abroad use the homepage to inform local community members
of their events.
Assault against a Hungarian rector temporarily cools relations
Transylvania - Erdély
All Hungarian political parties condemn the attacks against Hungarians in
Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia that is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese. A Hungarian
catholic weekly reported online that three drunken Romanian men had beaten Zoltán
Oláh, the dean of the local Roman Catholic Theology Institute with baseball bats on 18
June. The three men had allegedly shouted anti-Hungarian slurs during the attack. The
dean suffered blows to the head and back after he tried to photograph the three men as
they threw stones at the institute’s windows. Another Hungarian man, who tried to help
Oláh, was also assaulted. The Hungarian foreign ministry was shocked to learn about the
recent anti-Hungarian incidents in the Romanian city. The incidents are in sharp contrast
to openness and close cooperation that characterized Hungarian-Romanian relations
over the recent period, said the ministry. However, it welcomed that the Romanian police
had identified the perpetrators and arrested two of them shortly after the attacks.
Postponed territorial-administrative reform
RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen called for the debate over the re-design of Romania’s
administrative regions to be postponed, since the outcome, for lack of proper
preparation, could be unacceptable for the Hungarian community, and this could lead to
the break-up of the ruling coalition. “The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania
(RMDSZ) still has important work to carry as a member of the Romanian government,
but it can only remain in the coalition as long as the interests of Hungarians are not
harmed” - said RMDSZ head Hunor Kelemen. The RMDSZ leader said he did not want to
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3. provoke a political crisis since the whole of Romania would witness the resulting
damage. As a result, the ruling coalition leaders decided in their weekly session to
postpone the implementation of a wide territorial-administrative reorganisation project
after failing to reach consensus between all parties. A special commission will be set up
to analyse the reorganisation project until this autumn. RMDSZ rejected all the
organisation proposals put forth by the ruling Democrat Liberal Party (PDL). This move
was widely expected.
Hungary welcomes Venice Commission’s acknowledgments
Slovakia - Felvidék
Hungary welcomes the recently published position of the Council of Europe’s European
Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, which
states that Hungary is a well-functioning parliamentary democracy and that its new
Fundamental Law does not weaken the rule of law, said the deputy state secretary of the
foreign ministry Gergely Prőhle. Representatives of the Venice Commission visited
Hungary on 17 May to assess the new constitution approved on April 18 and scheduled
to come into effect on 1 January, 2012. It is clear that the Venice Commission found it
lawful that the Hungarian government wants to take responsibility for Hungarians living
abroad and confirmed that the new supreme law had no extraterritorial nature. Slovak
foreign minister Mikuláš Dzurinda’s statement that the Venice Commission’s stance
represented a serious warning to Hungary is a “unique and individual interpretation” of
the Commission’s report, said Prőhle. The Hungarian foreign ministry deemed
Dzurinda’s further statement that the Venice Commission had called on Hungary to
amend its policies “baffling and inexplicable”. It is obvious that ethnic minorities abroad
are primarily the responsibility of the country where they live, but there are no
international documents that would ban the kin-state from also taking on
responsibilities. The Venice Commission recalls in its Opinion that “while states may
legitimately protect their own citizens during a stay abroad, as indicated in its Report on
the Preferential Treatment of National Minorities by their Kin-State, “responsibility for
minority protection lies primarily with the home-States”. Furthermore, the Commission
indeed added, in that Report, that “kin-States also, lay a role in the protection and
preservation of their kin-minorities, aiming at ensuring that their genuine linguistic and
cultural links remain strong”. The Commission notes in the Opinion that “unilateral
measures by a State with respect of kin-minorities are only legitimate if the principles of
territorial sovereignty of States, pacta sunt servanda, friendly relations amongst States
and the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the prohibition
of discrimination, are respected”. The Commission makes reference in this respect to
Article 2 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, to which
Hungary is a contracting party. It this connection, it welcomes the provisions of Article Q
of the new Fundamental Law stressing the importance of ensuring “harmony” between
international law and Hungarian law.
The Opinion of the Venice Commission is available at:
jdaság
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4. Vojvodina - Vajdaság
http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2011/CDL-AD(2011)016-E.pdf
Hungarian-Serbian committee on minorities
Last week, the Hungarian-Serbian mixed committee on minorities held its scheduled
meeting in Budapest. Both the Serbian and the Hungarian partners valued the one-day
committee meeting highly constructive and friendly. The deputy state secretary
Zsuzsanna Répás assured the Serbian co-chair Bojan Pajtić that the Hungarian
government would find a solution for the parliamentary representation of the Serbian
minority in Hungary. Inter alia, Répás appreciated the frame of the law on the Hungarian
National Council. The chairs agreed on supporting the minority educational and cultural
institutions of both countries. Pajtić emphasized that minorities living in Serbia were
allowed to take over issues that were of great importance regarding the preservation of
Austria Transcarpathia - Kárpátalja
their identity.
Ukrainian Prosecution: unconstitutional Hungarian anthem
The far right Szvoboda party demands the intervention of the authorities against the
resolution of the district council of Beregszász/Berehova that endorsed the playing of the
Hungarian anthem beside the Ukrainian one at the beginning of the sitting of the body of
representatives. In response, the district council’ prosecution lodged a complaint.
According to the prosecution, the resolution runs counter to the Ukrainian constitution,
namely to article 20 on the usage of symbols, such as flag, bearings and anthem and to
the law on local self-governance. President of the district council of Beregszász András
Bihari pointed out that the law on national minorities makes the usage of the Hungarian
anthem beside the Ukrainian one before the council meeting and of national symbols as
well possible.
Government to deal with ethnic groups of Austria
Ethnic groups of Austria have had recourse to the Hungarian EU Presidency, namely to
deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén to examine the planned modification to the Austrian
State Treaty. The ethnic representatives sent documents in which they raised their
objections with regard to the proposed re-wording of articles 6 and 7 of the State Treaty.
According to their standpoint, the change would impair the official usage of minority
languages. Furthermore, the representatives of Hungarians, Croats and Slovenians highly
criticized that they were omitted from the negotiation process. The Hungarian
government tackled to study the issue and initiated the foreign ministry as well. It was
not only the ethnic groups of Austria that asked the intercession of the Hungarian EU
Presidency but also the Polish minority in Lithuania sent its letter to the Hungarian
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5. prime minister Viktor Orbán to raise their plight on political forums during Hungary’s
leadership of the European Council.
Canada, USA, Australia
Slowly forgetting our language
According to a recently published statistical report, whilst earlier the majority of second
generation immigrants of Canada spoke rather English, the new immigrants preserve
their native language in a higher proportion. In 1981, 41 percent of children of Canadian
immigrants spoke the language of their parents. The ratio was substantially higher in
2006, standing at 55 percent. The reasons for this phenomenon are many. First of all,
second generation immigrants were mostly of European origin, and through the cultural
similarities it might have led to easier assimilation and language shift. According to
statistics, merely 20 percent of children of Dutch or Italian parents speak the parent’s
mother tongue, whereas the newest immigration wave of Armenians, Punjabi people,
Chinese, Persian, Turkish, Bengali and Urdu is featured by a 70-percent language
maintenance. Another relevant cause for this change is obviously Canada’s last 30-year
population policy that has placed emphasis on family-reunion programs, allowing the
immigration of parents and grandparents. The use of the native language within the
family greatly facilitates the endurance of the language for the next generations. A
startling figure of the report pertaining to Hungarians shows that among the studied
languages, Hungarian is unfortunately the least preserved language within third
generation immigrants (3 percent).
Church leaders in Budapest
Australian and American reformed church leaders active in the Hungarian diaspora
visited Hungary. They held consultations with state secretary for church, minority and
non-governmental relations László Szászfalvi, Zsuzsanna Répás deputy state secretary
for Hungarian communities abroad and vice-president of the parliamentary committee
on national cohesion Katalin Szili. The reformed bishops expressed their concerns over
the closure of Hungarian Roman Catholic churches in the USA. The bishop of the
American Calvinist Diocese Béla Poznan said that they had touched the actual issues of
Hungarian church life and the possibilities of co-operation. The bishop referred to an old
community building in Pennsylvania that may serve in the future as a Hungarian cultural
centre aimed at collecting the historical documents of the last 100 years. Poznan
appreciated the Hungarian government that thought, felt and acted in national terms.
Bishop of the American Reformed Church Sándor Szabó said that in the course of the last
100 years, Hungarian churches and organizations were the preservationists of the
Hungarian identity like as a rescue-service for the nation. The bishop added that
missionary work was valued high, since the majority of Hungarians lived dispersed
throughout the States. The deputy state secretary and the bishop touched upon the
possibility of a travelling pastor from Hungary to reach out to smaller communities.
Szabó noted it would be a considerable gesture on part of the Hungarian state. The
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6. Australian church leader Csaba Dézsi emphasized that Hungary was finally concerned
about the fate of Hungarians living far from the kin-state.
Obama’s greetings on 20th anniversary of HAC
US President Barack Obama greeted the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC) on the
occasion of its 20th anniversary. “I send greetings to all those celebrating the 20th
anniversary of the Hungarian American Coalition. The fabric of America is woven
together and enriched by the diversity of our people. Our legacy as a Nation of
immigrants is part of what makes America strong, and the achievements of Hungarian
Americans touch all our lives. As doctors and scientists, lawyers and engineers, public
servants and service members, they are helping to write the next chapter of our
country’s story. Organisations like the Hungarian American Coalition help us celebrate
the rich history and vibrant culture Hungarian Americans have brought to our shores.
These efforts connect individuals to their past, and reaffirm our founding ideals for
future generations.” Obama said he wished HAC all the best for its continued success in
the years to come as it marked a special milestone.
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