Today, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia in and the creation of Slovakia, many of the towns and villages of southern Slovakia are still overwhelmingly Hungarian. For historically-minded Hungarians, even sites including the cathedral and castle that dominate Bratislava, the Slovak capital, are symbols of their own nation and were once used by Hungarian kings. Although the current left-of-center Hungarian government is much less nationalistic than its Slovak counterpart, Hungary does have its own extreme nationalists.
Jobbik vents most of its rage against gypsies, but is also dedicated to supporting the rights of Hungarian minorities in other countries. The pressing Sudeten problem led the government to take another step which displeased some Slovaks-it created a "Czechoslovak" nationality.
Such an idea, in itself, was not an expression of Czech chauvinism. Masaryk was himself partly Slovak, he loathed chauvinists of any kind and, moreover, "Czechoslovakism" had the support of many leading Slovak personalities.
It was simply a pragmatic device created to deal with the Sudeten Germans' rejection of the new Republic. By lumping Czechs and Slovaks together, official statistics could show that in a country of But there was another factor which led Masaryk, Benes and others to think in terms of a Czechoslovak nationality.
It is not clear that a full-fledged Slovak nation existed in a Slovak higher educational system, a Slovak middle-class, and a Slovak intelligentsia had not been allowed to develop during the centuries under Magyar rule.
They emerged only gradually during the interwar period - with a great deal of financial and logistical help from Prague. The Czechs assisted in developing Slovak schools of all levels, Slovak culture, and Slovak public institutions; they even contributed to the mapping out of the Slovak language.
They did so partly out of pragmatic concerns: they thought that by building up the Slovaks they would strengthen themselves for the confrontation with the Sudetens. Czechs also offered assistance based on the somewhat romantic view that the Slovaks were their twin brothers.
Ultimately, the "Czechoslovak" scheme appeased no one. In , more than two thirds of the Sudeten Germans embraced Nazism and cheered the incorporation of the Sudetenland in the Third Reich. This weakened the Prague government and contributed to the emergence of separatism in Slovakia, a new development which took most Czechs - peroccupied as they were by the crisis with the Third Reich - by surprise.
They had failed to notice that while the existence of a viable Slovak nation in could be debated there was no question that it existed twenty years later. At the end of September , Slovak separatists were emboldened by Czechoslovakia's diplomatic defeat at the Munich Conference and the loss of the Sudeten territory which the Conference imposed.
By early , Slovak leaders were faced with the possibility that Hitler would destroy the rest of Czechoslovakia. Understandably, they listened attentively to signals from Berlin that the Third Reich would be prepared to support the emergence of a Slovak state.
Since the only alternative to forming the new state was going down with the Czechs, it would have been irresponsible for Slovak politicians not to consider the German offer. On 14 March , just a day before the Nazis marched into the Czech lands to commence their bloody six-year long occupation, Slovakia declared its independence, thereby escaping from the category of states occupied by the Third Reich.
The tragedy was that Slovak nationalists received the coveted Slovak state as a present from the most soiled hands in recorded history: those of Adolf Hitler. Czechoslovakia had been formed twenty years earlier by Masaryk, Benes, and their collegues who had secured the help of such democrats as Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and Lloyd George. By contrast, the Slovak state came into existence as an explicitly fascist entity under the protection of Hitler's Third Reich.
Characteristic of the new state's modus operandi is an order issued on the first day of Slovakia's existence by Pavol Carnogursky, chief of the Hlinka Guards: "Escaping Czechs and Jews are to be searched and their money and jewelry confiscated. Without much obvious pressure from Berlin, the country's president, Jozef Tiso, a priest, presided over the build-up of a quasi-Nazi state in Slovakia. Especially repulsive was his handling of Jews.
The newspaper Slovak of 16 June boasted that the Tiso government had shifted the definition of Jew from religious to racial. The paper was pleased that this would allow a sharper separation of Jews from other citizens. When Goebbels came to Slovakia in August , he had only praise for his ally: "After the victory in this great war, its history will be written.
And in this history Slovakia will be given a special, honorable place. You Slovaks were the first to join Germany. And you did so at a time when others looked at us with mockery, contempt, and fear. Of these, Tiso exempted about ten thousand from destruction because they were deemed irreplaceable for Slovak economic life.
Consequently, "only" 80, were subject to deportations. Tiso also insisted in Berlin that Slovak Jewish families should not be ripped apart upon arrival at the camp. Hitler listened and, therefore, 2, babies and toddlers went to the gas chamber in their mothers' arms. Eventually, 57, Jews from Slovakia 7, of whom were less than ten years old perished in the Holocaust.
Incredibly, present-day defenders of war-time Slovakia now argue that there was nothing anti-Semitic about the Slovak state of The aforementioned Pavol Carnogursky, who returned to politics for a short time after the Velvet Revolution and who was the father of a family that remains politically active to the present, asserted that the Slovak Constitution under President Tiso "was based on the Christian principle which was uphold in all laws.
Among other evidence, it contains communications between the Vatican charge d'affaires in slovakia, Msgr. On 5 September , Burzio reported to the Holy See that Tiso had recently invited Slovak citizens - with quotations from the Gospels - "to regenerate themselves in the water and spirit of National Socialism. Burzio "sharply" criticized this view, but the Slvoak president remained untouched. On 9 March , Burzio called the Vatican with news of the planned mass deportations of Jews to death-camps.
This cruel plan, he said, was being implemented without German pressure. In fact, Berlin demanded Reich marks and food for two weeks for each Slovak Jewish deportee by the end of he war, Slovakia had paid RD40 million to the coffers of the Third Reich.
Burzio said that he had spoken with the Slovak Prime Minister, "and he took the liberty to say he who displays his catholicism to much that he found nothing inhumane or undemocratic about it all. To deport those 80, persons to Poland, and to hand them over to the Germans, means for many of them a certain death [equivale condanmarne gran parte morte sicura].
Burzio suggesting that Tiso should be reduced to the lay state ad statum laicalem because what he was doing to the Jews exsuperavit omnem inhumanitatem, and was in fact reminiscent of Bolshevik barbarism. It was "a conversation with a madman" he reported. Tuka kept repeating that Slovaks were going to rid the country of the Jewish "plague, that band of criminals and gangsters. The prime minister swore that it was exclusively Slovak "will and initiative.
On Christmas Eve , the president stated in a sermon that Germany was "the flag bearer of the most progressive social ideas. Army in Austria. The law also suspends elections. Hungary has recently completed a cycle of elections parliamentary, European Parliament, and municipal with no other major elections scheduled until In the meantime, by-elections and referenda are prohibited.
The law, which lacks a sunset clause, may only be repealed by a two-thirds vote of parliament, or terminated by the Prime Minister himself. The agreement includes specific provisions on states of emergency. Since , Viktor Orban has systematically dismantled a system of checks and balances, facilitating the consolidation of control by the Fidesz government.
In April , the Helsinki Commission hosted a briefing to explore developments in Hungary, including issues related to the rule of law and corruption. European leaders were reluctant to pick a fight with Prime Minister Viktor Orban a day after he secured powers to rule by decree indefinitely. But it was a muted first response from the one institution that can take on Mr. Orban, and it appeared aimed at balancing the political imperative of cooperation in the era of the coronavirus with the risk of emboldening him.
Orban or Hungary. But Mr. Orban has long been in an open struggle with parts of that treaty. The severe measures adopted Monday in Budapest may dramatically ratchet up the confrontation between the Orban government and European Union institutions in Brussels. That new tool that may allow Mr.
Orban to further curb the press freedoms long in his cross hairs. To be sure, in the face of the epidemic, European countries have all to lesser or greater extent adopted emergency measures curbing liberties, including measures that require citizens to register any movement and observe curfews.
And rights experts, political analysts and academics say that, given Mr. European Union officials believe that the statement issued Tuesday, which came from Ms. Orban — even without naming him.
But they said that now — as Europe battles to stem the spread of the virus and mitigate its catastrophic economic damage, and with many nations suspending some liberties — was not the moment to pick a fight with just one member. That measured approach surprised some observers, despite the fact that the commission often takes a conciliatory stance toward wayward members in a bid to entice them to reform voluntarily.
That has never worked with Hungary. Freund said. Daniel Kelemen, a professor European Union politics and law at Rutgers University, said the epidemic could prove an opportunity for the Hungarian leader. In practical terms, Mr.
Orban and his allies already controlled the legislative and executives branches of government, and had stacked the Constitutional Court. With Mr. Lengthy and cumbersome European Union legal proceedings could not stop Mr. Orban and his allies from taking over the Hungarian media landscape, weakening the independence of the judiciary, levying a special tax on nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding, or ejecting the Central European University from the country.
In the end it may be Mr. Trump would love to have the powers of his Hungarian counterpart. A congressional delegation visited Hungary last year to investigate democratic backsliding. Since returning to power in , Viktor Orban has systematically dismantled a system of checks and balances, facilitating the consolidation of control by the Fidesz government, which is now in its fourth third consecutive term.
This has included introducing significant changes to the legal framework for parliamentary elections; stripping hundreds of faiths of their state recognition in and then channeling money to religious groups that do not challenge government positions increasing dependence of those groups on the state ; overseeing the consolidation of most Hungarian media, first into the hands of government-tied oligarchy and then into a single foundation exempt from anti-trust regulation; and eroding judicial independence by, for example, expanding and packing the constitutional court.
At the same time, civil society organizations have become the targets of escalating rhetorical attacks and legislative restrictions, including laws that significantly lower the bar for what it takes to jail people who seek to exercise their freedoms of speech, assembly, and association. The Government of Hungary must not allow such a tragedy to occur again.
On September 26, the center also was attacked and vandalized by extremists. Hungary also adopted amendments to its "law on aiding illegal migration" that make handing out know-your-rights leaflets punishable by up to one year in prison. In , Hungary adopted a Russian-style "foreign agent" law which, according to the U. In , armed police carried out raids on 13 civil society organizations, seizing computers and documents for alleged financial misconduct.
No charges were ever brought against the NGOs. Between and , at least six people were murdered, many others were injured, and whole communities were terrorized in a series of attacks by right-wing extremists. Maria Balog was shot in her own home in a middle-of-the-night raid that also wounded her year-old daughter. Jeno Koka was shot as he got in his car to go to work. Five-year-old Robert Csorba and his father were killed by sniper fire while attempting to escape an arson attack on their home.
Unique about the HDIM is the inclusion and strong participation of non-governmental organizations. The United States has been a stout advocate for the involvement of NGOs in the HDIM, recognizing the vital role that civil society plays in human rights and democracy-building initiatives.
OSCE structures allow NGO representatives to raise issues of concern directly with government representatives, both by speaking during the formal working sessions of the HDIM and by organizing side events that examine specific issues in greater detail. Members of the U. Gilmore, U. Johnson, Chief of Staff, U. Helsinki Commission. Steny H. On the thinnest of pretexts, the rule of law in Hungary is being hijacked to serve one party's political interests.
Aurora and organizations like it should be protected, not targeted. Cardin, and Rep. Marom, a Hungarian Jewish association, established and runs Aurora Community Center, an umbrella organization that provides office space to other small civil society groups in Budapest, including the Roma Press Center, migrant aid, and Pride Parade organizers. Hungary also adopted amendments to its "law on aiding illegal migration" that makes handing out know-your-rights leaflets punishable by up to one year in prison.
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Freedom of Movement. Freedom of Speech and Expression. Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion, or Belief. Speaking as a member of the Hungarian community in Slovakia, I have no qualms with the treatment we receive. I think that for the most part, Hungarians live the same lives as Slovaks, with slight disagreements resurfacing from time to time, which is understandable when both communities live side by side in the same region.
Ethnic Hungarians have always had proper representation in the Parliament, whether through the SMK or Most-Hid parties, the former headed by Bela Bugar in the past, and the latter still under his leadership.
Even though some nationalist parties, like SNS, often propose legislation to limit and restrict the rights of ethnic Hungarians, they enjoy the same rights as the rest of the population, and are also granted a safe-space to preserve their own culture in Slovakia: Hungarians have their own schools, newspapers and TV stations, while the Slovak national television sometimes broadcasts news in Hungarian.
Despite the controversial law banning the use of minority languages in public contexts public administration, post office, etc. In my opinion, this is the kind of healthy promotion and integration process that should be exercised and promoted worldwide.
However, there are also some downsides. Even though ethnic Hungarians have these rights, an underlying challenge persists: many people in mostly Hungarian-inhabited regions do not learn Slovak language properly, even though Hungarian schools teach it.
I know this from experience, remembering how, during my kindergarten and elementary school years, many of my classmates did not learn Slovak even those enrolled at a Slovak establishment. In my case, I only started to properly learn Slovak after being transferred to Bratislava, because my parents insisted that I learn the language.
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