THE SHADOW OF TRIANON OVER EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE
by János Szekeres
As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day, it is instructive to look
back even further to World War I: a war in which American intervention
proved critical for the ultimate victory of the western allies against the
Central Powers. The Great War of 1914-18 was a watershed event not only
because of the un-precedented bloodletting, but also because, as a result
of the war, Europe lost her historic preeminence in conducting world
affairs.
The punitive peace treaty of Versailles that followed the armistice
created bitterness among the defeated nations, particularly Germany. A
lesser-known, but even more punitive peace treaty was imposed upon Hungary
on June 4, 1920. The Treaty of Trianon, while proclaiming
self-determination for the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, excluded
Hungary from that principle. The arbitrary redrawing of the borders of
the historic Kingdom of Hungary forced one-third of its Hungarian
inhabitants to become citizens of mostly newly created hostile neighboring
states: Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. As a result of the
treaty, Hungary ^Ö a country almost the size of Montana ^Ö was reduced to
the size of the state of Indiana. The legacy of Trianon, a dictated peace
treaty imposed by western democracies, lives on to this day. The fate of
ethnic Hungarians in Hungary ^Ňs neighboring countries has not been
resolved; Hungary^Ňs neighbors largely refuse to grant ethnic Hungarians
an institutionalized communal identity. Although the dictated treaty of
Trianon of 1920 and subsequent international agreements contemplated
observance of the rights of the Hungarian minorities, many of the
fundamental rights of Hungarian minorities were and are still disregarded.
With the expansion of the European Union in May 2004 to include 10 East
Central European countries, the Hungarian nation ^Ö divided among seven
states in Central Europe – is again at a crossroads. While most ethnic
Hungarians are citizens of countries that now belong to the EU, a
substantial part of the Hungarian nation remains outside of the Union and
faces new challenges in retaining its ethnic identity.
The article by Mr. Miklós Duray, is based on a speech he delivered on
March 21 in the Hungarian city of Pécs. Mr. Duray is a human rights
activist and one of the leading political figures of the Hungarian
community of Slovakia. While resisting the communist dictatorship in the
1980^Ňs, he was twice imprisoned by the authorities for his advocacy of
the rights of the Hungarian minority.
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Please look at Mr. Duray's paper on the Hungarian American Coalition's web
site:
www.hacusa.org
Please see HACNEWS section (red color)
Thank You Peter Soltesz
