William Penn Life, 1990 (25. évfolyam, 2-10. szám)
1990-02-01 / 2. szám
Page 4, William Penn Life, February 1990 Hungarian Human Rights Part Four: Hungarians in Rumania By Andrew Ludanyi The Hungarians of Rumania are mostly located in the province of Transylvania, which composes the western two-fifths of the country. They settled in this region more than a thousand years ago when Arpad conquered the Carpathian Basin in 896 A.D. From then until the 1540s Transylvania was a part of the Hungarian realm. From the 1540s to the end of the 17 th century it was an independent principality and tributory of the Ottoman Empire. While from the late 17th century to World War I it was part of the Habsburg and Austro- Hungarian Empires respectively. Rumania acquired the region only after World War I with the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. However, when it annexed Transylvania it also gained a large Hungarian and a large German (Saxon and Swabian) minority and increased its large Jewish minority population. Since that time the German population of the region has been drastically reduced (from about 550,000 to less than 200,000) by the forced deportations following World War II and the "voluntary” emigration of many during the 1970s and 1980s. A similar fate befell the large Jewish population of the country. Of the roughly 400,000 who remained alive after World War II, most emigrated to Israel and there are now less than 20,000 left in Rumania. Only the Hungarian population has not been eliminated by the triple scourge of minority oppression, war, and emigration. According to "official” statistics there are 1.6 million Hungarians in Rumania, but independent sources say the actual count is 2.4 million. Why have the Hungarians survived? They have survived because they did not have the escape route available to the Jews and the Germans. For the latter two groups emigration was possible because they could pay a "head tax” to the Ceausescu dictatorship in Western currency. For each German or Jewish emigrant, depending on the level of their education, the Rumanian conducator received anywhere from $5,000 to $14,000. This kind of ransome money was beyond the reach of most Hungarians. Those that were truly desperate (about 25,000), crossed the border "illegally” mainly during the past two years (1988-89). If we were to specify the most important Hungarian settlement areas in Rumania, we would have to mention the lowlands facing the Hungarian border, parts of the Transylvanian plateau known as the Mezöség, and the traditional Szekely counties of eastern Transylvania. There are also important Hungarian settlements in most large Transylvanian cities, in the Rumanian capital, and in Moldavia in Bacau (Bakó) county. With the overthrow of the Ceausescu administration in December 1989, the prospects of the Hungarians have greatly improved. The present Rumanian leadership is aware that the discontent sparked by the persecution of the Hungarians is what led to the initial confrontation between the people and the Securitate (Rumanian security forces) on the streets of Timisoara (Temesvár). It will be remembered that the Rev. László Tőkés barricaded himself in his church to protest policies that threatened the very existence of the Hungarian and other remaining minority populations. Nicolae Ceausescu had set out to demolish 8,000 of Rumania’s villages — including very many Hungarian settlements — in order to force the evicted populations into newly constructed concrete-block housing units in about 500 "agro-industrial centers.” Tőkés’ public denunciation of this plan led to the efforts to try to replace him as the pastor of the Hungarian congregation in Timisoara (Temesvár). Tőkés was supported by his parishioners, who locked arms and surrounded the church so that the eviction order could not be carried out. This confrontation led to the Timisoara massacre which spread discontent to the Rumanian population and sparked the nationwide rebellion that then toppled Nicolae Ceausescu. While the heavy-handed policies of Ceausescu are a thing of the past, the future of the Hungarians and other minorities is not yet assured. Although the new government under the direction of the "Council of National Salvation,” Ion Iliescu and the Rumanian army has begun to dismantle the oppressive state-party structure, so far it has neither rescinded nor repudiated the discriminatory published and secret directives of the Ceausescu era. Actually, the discrimination against Hungarians is even older than the 24 years of Ceausescu’s administration. It can be traced back to the years immediately after World War I when the promises of the Alba-Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) resolution were first violated. From this time onward the minorities had to contend with efforts to Rumanianize them. This policy affected most aspects of life, including the discriminatory effects of the land reform, the colonization of Rumanians into Hungarian and German inhabited areas, limitations on the political and social opportunities of the minorities, and restrictions on the cultural and educational institutions of all minorities. Although these policies hindered Hungarian solidarity, the existence of strong Hungarian churches and other private institutions — combined with a lackadaisical and corruptible Rumanian administration — enabled Hungarians to survive as a distinct community within Rumania. After World War II conditions changed dramatically. While at first some steps were taken to guarantee minority rights under the slogan of Marxist-Leninist nationality policies and "Socialist Internationalism,” these were soon abandoned with the consolidation of the Stalinists under the leadership of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. This faction of the party purged the top leadership of minority representatives and Rumanianized even the rank and file membership by the middle of the 1950s. Parallel to this development, the churches were no longer allowed to administer schools, and all private cultural organizations were eliminated. This meant that henceforth the minorities would have only such rights as the Stalinized and Rumanianized party would allow them. From 1956 onward (the date of the Hungarian Revolution in Hungary) these rights were hedged in or eliminated (as the case may be) in practically all aspects of life. Just two years after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution, the U.S.S.R. withdrew its troops from Rumania as a reward for Gheorghiu-Dej’s support in 1956. Almost immediately, a systematic campaign unfolded ostensibly to eliminate the "isolation” and Continued on Page 5
