Magyar News, 1991. szeptember-1992. augusztus (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1991-09-01 / 1. szám

Rev. Dr. Sándor Füleki:

THE DAY OF A NEW BEGINNING

At last the Hungarian nation is free. 450 years of foreign exploitation and all political, economic and intellectual domination finally ended on June 30,1991.

THE HISTORY OF 450 YEARS

The Hungarians have been oppressed and persecuted since their forming of a nation in 825 A.D. Hungary has always been harassed by the neighboring nations and until the Turks, they were able to hold them off. The Turks however, proved to be a formidable force which Hungary was unable to handle. Not receiving any outside military and financial aid from the West, they were left to deal with this crisis by themselves. The Church in Rome, only provided a token verbal assistance in which Hungary was declared as a “defender of the pure faith” and with that all responsibilities have been relinquished.

While the Turks were taking over the country, the Hungarians feel into a chaos which gave the opportunity to the Bohemian King, Ferdinand I, to take the thrown. John Zapolya was rightly elected king in 1526, but King Ferdinand I claimed the thrown through a secretly held election. Then King Ferdinand I divided Hungary into two parts. Keeping half to himself and the other half was kept by the Hungarians who were busy fighting the Turks. By this action Ferdinand I weakened Hungary as a nation and the Turks had practically no resistance to take Hungary. On August 30th, 1541, Suleiman took Buda, thus began 150 years of Turkish occupation and domination.

The liberation from the Turks came on November 13th, 1698, when Prince Eugene of Savoy, defeated the Turks at Zenta. But the liberation of Hungary brought no relief to the Hungarians. The spirit of the nation was so crushed by 150 years of oppression that the Magyars were not able to reorganize and rebuild at once.

Leopold considered this time ripe for realizing a long cherished ideal of the Habsburg conquest and changed Hungary from an elective representation into a hereditary monarchy. He treated Hungary as a colony and promptly made it subject to the Habsburg empire.

By the middle of the 19th century the Hungarians were able to gather some momentum to mount a substantial revolution which although was crushed, it granted a high degree of Hungarian identity. The Habsburgs’ political influence did not stop until the end of World War II, and by the means of the Austrian occupation, Hungary was forced to fight with Hitler as a German ally. Hungary did not want to fight in World War II, and officially declared neutrality. None-the-less, they were dragged in due to Hitler’s treacherous maneuverings.

When Hitler lost, Hungary lost too. Immediately after the war the Russians claimed Hungary and brutalized it politically, economically and spiritually.

There was an unparalleled genocide against the nation between 1948-1956, of which, tragically, no one in the West speaks. Churches were closed, and believers were persecuted. The Hungarian culture was crushed and self-determination was suppressed. It is safe to say that 45 years of Communist exploitation was as devastating as 260 years of Habsburg rule.

During 453 years, we had the Turks, the Habsburgs and the Russians exploiting the country and denying the Hungarian intellect and ingenuity , the Christian virtues, the democratic ideals, thus preventing the free and happy Magyar spirit to evolve. We were denied the opportunity to take our rightful place in Western Europe as a truly western country in spirit and in political orientation. Because of this separation, the Hungarians have been thought of as a Slavic nation.

Hungary has finally regained its long awaited freedom and independence in the true sense of the world, due entirely to their own sacrifice and bravery. Hungary has had a long struggle since 1848 and 1956, and we feel that now is the time for Hungarians to establish an identity of which they can be proud, and one that exemplifies the spirit of their struggles.

SILENT “FREE HUNGARIANS”

June 30,1991 was a momentous day in the life of Hungary, and it should have been a day of triumph in the United States as well. The Hungarian communities everywhere had rightfully expected a wider acknowledgment and a more noticeable demonstration of their final triumph.

The American silence at the final liberation of Hungary was strangely noticeable particularly in the light that they are extensively involved in converting the whole

world into “our style” of Democracy. The Americans are bullishly forcing the Democratic idealism on everyone and the famous “favored nation” status will not be granted unless the American style Democracy is carried to its fullest implications.

Much money and human lives are spent and when democracy is finally attained, there is the usual 3-5 second news flash on TV. Three seconds of news time seeks to justify all the blood, sweat, tears, psychological damage, separated families, loss of properties, culture shock and endless smaller feed-backs that we pay for the price of freedom.

B ut even more noticeable was the lack of enthusiasm by the“free Hungarians,” which shows that the Hungarian independence is not off to a good start.

Their non-participation in the final triumph of our heroic struggle over 4 different nationalities for 450 years presented us with an uncalculated psychological jolt.

The absence of the free Hungarians defies logic. For over 40 years, the Hungarian right wing journals and politicians have been mocking “the liberation of Hungary by the glorious Russian Army in 1945, from the evil grips of the Nazis.” They have been calling for the removal of the Russian troops and all Russian influence in our nation. They did not hesitate to call them barbarian savages in describing their treatment of Hungary.

Now we see a strange twist of events. The free Hungarians greeted free Hungary with a universal silence. Our poets who have lamented 40 years of Russian atrocities are strangely quiet. Our musical composers did notwriteanew symphony of the free,proud and sacrificing Magyars, and our intellectuals, writers and journalists have retreated like a fattened lion walks away from a carcass.

Over