Hungary and Ukraine Discuss Repression of Hungarian Minority in Ukraine
Not much progress
Editor’s Note: Péter G. Fehér is based in Hungary and writes for Magyar Hirlap (Hungarian Gazette). The relationship between Hungary and Ukraine has been deteriorating for some time. Hungarians living in Ukraine, mainly in the Transcarpathia region, are being suppressed in various ways, just as Russians are elsewhere in Ukraine. Some in Hungary say that if Ukraine loses the war, and breaks up, then Hungary should claim the Transcarpathia region. ]
In Uzhhorod, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, held a meeting with leaders of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia and representatives of the churches. (https://odessa-journal.com/in-uzhhorod-andriy-yermak-dmytro-kuleba-and-peter-szijjarto-meet-with-leaders-of-the-hungarian-community-in-transcarpathia-and-church-representatives)
The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine, Péter Szijjártó from the
Hungarian side and Dmytro Kuleba from the Ukrainian, met in Ungvár (Uzhhorod), on
Ukrainian territory, on January 29. The purpose of the talks was to improve the
rather strained relationship between the two countries. The talks concerned the
treatment of Hungarians living in Ukraine and on economic issues, including
deliveries of Russian oil and gas to Hungary, coming through pipelines in
Ukraine.
The conflict between the two countries is caused by the fact that 150,000
Hungarians live in Ukraine - pre-war data - close to the Hungarian border
whose minority rights have been continuously taken away since 2015.
Hungarian schools are liquidated or Ukrainianized, exams cannot be taken in
Hungarian, official affairs cannot be handled in Hungarian, patients in hospital
cannot speak Hungarian to Hungarian doctors. The situation for the Hungarian
minority got worse and worse after the Euromaidan, in 2014.
During these protests in Ukraine, the crowd chased away the then president,
Viktor Yanukovych. Unfortunately, this also meant that a wave of extreme
nationalism swept over Ukraine. People who committed crimes against the
people in the Second World War began to be honored. We saw the incident in
Ottawa parliament building, when the dark past was revealed. Canada declared
that a Ukrainian man who served in one of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS units,
during the Second World War, was a hero. Yaroslav Hunka received two
standing ovations and touched off a firestorm in parts of Europe and Russia.
This was indicative of a process in Ukraine where the public mood has returned
to the concept of a “united” Ukraine: there are only Ukrainians in Ukraine. This
ideology has taken root and, let’s add, extreme nationalism has taken politics
hostage.
No one in Ukraine dares to go against this today. However, Ukraine is still a multi-
ethnic country, with the largest minority being Russian. If we want to be factual, the
laws restricting the rights of minorities were passed primarily against the Russians.
But it was extended to other minorities as well.
That is why the foreign ministers meeting did not reach a breakthrough in
Hungarian-Ukrainian relations. After the negotiations, the Hungarian Foreign
Minister stated: “We came here with the aim of rebuilding the atmosphere of
trust in our bilateral relations. I think we can agree that we have taken
encouraging steps in this direction. We still have a long way to go.”
There are also deeper reasons for the Hungarian-Ukrainian bad relationship.
Since the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, there has been serious geopolitical
tension with Hungary and the European Union, as well as with NATO.
Originally, the Hungarian position was that this war broke out between two
states of the post-Soviet region, and that the conflict should be localized and not
globalized. However, this Hungarian position lost its relevance after a while.
At that time, Hungary suggested that a cease-fire should be concluded as soon as
possible, after which the peace negotiations should begin. But we see what
happened: the conflict escalated, the collective West committed itself to helping
Ukraine. This also applies to material and armament support.
Hungary’s position is that it does not deliver weapons to Ukraine and does not
allow weapons and ammunition shipments to pass through its territory and
airspace. At the same time, Hungary provides humanitarian aid to Ukraine and
accepts Ukrainian refugees. So far, approximately 1.5 million refugees have
arrived in Hungary, 10 percent of which stayed in Hungary, the rest left for other
countries. In addition, Hungary sends food, medicine, hospital equipment,
warm clothing to Ukraine.
Hungary is the only EU member state and NATO member state that has refused
Ukraine military support. The Hungarian position: This war cannot be won at
the front.
The losses of the Ukrainians are enormous. Kiev does not issue an official
statement about this, but according to some calculations, it may have lost up to a
million people. Ukraine has no reserves, and the state can only function with
help from the West. Losses on the Russian side are also high, but Moscow has
significant human and material reserves.
One of the problems is that the EU has already adopted the 12th package of
sanctions against Russia. In several cases, Hungary had to threaten a veto,
because there were plans on the table that would destroy the Hungarian
economy. For example, they wanted to ban the delivery of Russian natural gas
and crude oil to the EU. In the end, with great difficulty, the EU understood that
Hungary could not get energy sources from anywhere else therefore the
sanctioning obligation for these matters was not applied to Hungary.
On the other hand, the EU’s top agenda was to start negotiations with Ukraine on
joining the European Union. This was voted on at the last EU summit, 26 of the
27 EU member states voted yes, and the Hungarian Prime Minister left the room
before the vote.
The Hungarian position: Ukraine is at war, so it can drag the entire Union
directly into the conflict. A country whose borders we do not know cannot join
the EU. We don’t know how many people Ukraine has. Cheap and low-quality,
contaminated Ukrainian grain dumping would destroy the agriculture of the
Union, etc. Overall, Ukraine does not meet the EU conditions.
For this reason, at this summit, Hungary vetoed the EU’s plan to give Ukraine
50 billion euro from the EU’s current budget. This caused a huge uproar in
Brussels. There will be another summit on February 1st. The EU has threatened
Hungary that if it does not vote for this plan, it will start an economic war
against Hungary and Hungary’s right to vote in the EU will be suspended.
The relationship between Budapest and Brussels is still strained, because
Hungary does not allow migrants and does not allow LGBTQ activists into
schools. That is why the EU froze 20 billion euro in payments legally due to
Hungary.
In concrete terms: The EU is blackmailing Hungary.
Hungarian position: Hungary does not give in to blackmail.
Ukraine interprets these conflicts as Hungary being its enemy and wanting Ukraine
to lose the war. But that’s not what it’s about. Hungary represents its
own interests.
So. Hungary is the only country in Europe with independent values that put it’s people first. And lets us know what those values are so we can analyze our own countries harm on it’s people. From Canada. Thank you, Hungary.
And we Hungarians support the government wholeheartedly, that's why we elected this government to carry out this policy, which they are doing now ! Unlike Western countries, we have politicians who represent the interests of the country and the Hungarian people, we don't need a policy that Klaus Schwab and Alex Soros want to impose on us. The Brussels elite do not understand us Hungarians, the miserable people think that if they threaten us, they can break us. The more they try, the more we will resist ! Sooner or later, even the comfortable Western citizens will realize that traitors and bought agents have been appointed as prime ministers and ministers, who follow orders from overseas that are contrary to their national interests, as an example, it is enough that Chancellor Scholz accepted with an idiotic grin that the Biden government would blow up the main gas pipelines with which cheap Russian gas helped the German economy !