Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Annex
Most Frequent Stereotypes Concerning Slovak-Hungarian Relations... Noies 1 In the case of Štúrovo, for instance, posting a sign featuring the name of the municipality in Hungarian is not even an option because the valid law forbids using bilingual names of municipalities that were in 1948 renamed after Slovak national revivalists. The same goes for parts of municipalities (Nová Stráž is part of the town of Komárno). 2 For ethnic Hungarian pupils, Slovak language is simply the second, different language, even though we may for any reasons refrain from using the term of ‘foreign language’, which members of Slovakia’s political elite do not like to hear in this context. 3 There has been only one case of an EU member state banning a political party based on ethnic criteria when Bulgaria outlawed a party representing ethnic Turks. Bulgarian authorities were subsequently forced to revise the decision because it contradicted the European Human Rights Convention. After all, proving a concrete party’s ‘ethnic’ basis is extremely problematic as there arc no objective criteria. For instance, SMK-MKP statutes do not explicitly limit party membership to citizens of Hungarian origin. True, almost 100% of its members are ethnic Hungarians but the same may be said vice versa about ‘Slovak’ parties, especially their candidates’ lists. 4 Please see the Constitution of Kosovo, Article 59. 5 Please sec Divičanová, Anna: “Situácia Slovákov v Maďarsku v 20. storočí a dnes” [‘Situation of Slovaks in Hungary in the 20th Century and Today’] in Petó'cz, Kálmán (cd.) Slováci v Maďarsku. Zborník z medzinárodnej konferencie [Slovaks in Hungary: Proceedings from an International Conference], (Šamorín: Fórum inštitút, 2007). 6 The Slovak colonization of territories of contemporary Hungary, Serbia and Romania was part of the process of resettling areas depopulated in the aftermath of occupation of Hungary’s central part by the Ottoman Empire. Its beginnings may be placed to the mid- 18th century. 7 All data on schools in the Hungarian Kingdom or the Republic of Hungary are taken from: Glatz, Ferenc (ed.), Magyarok a Kárpát-medencében, Budapest, Pallas 1989. 8 Kusý, Miroslav: “Politika voči menšinám” [‘Minority Policy’] in Mescžnikov, Grigorij - Kollár, Miroslav: Voľby 2006. Analýza programov politických strán a hnutí [Elections 2006: Analysis of Programs of Political Parties and Movements], (Bratislava: Inštitút pre verejné otázky, 2006, pp. 103-119). 297
