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Hungary's Top Diplomat: Illegal Migrants Threaten European Civilization

Misha Gutkin

   This story originated in [1]VOA's Russianservice. Pete Cobus reported
   from Washington. Some information is from Reuters.

   NEW YORK - Hungary's foreign minister is objecting to the treatment of
   ethnic Hungarians in neighboring Ukraine, even as he defends his
   government's goal of preserving Hungary's own ethnic identity by
   shutting out migrants.
   Sitting down with VOA's Russian service in New York, Budapest's top
   diplomat and trade minister, PéterSzijjártó, decried the treatment
   of an estimated 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine's
   Transcarpathia border province, where public schools recently came
   under a nationwide mandate to teach the Ukrainian language.
   Ukraine's April 2019 language law, championed by former President Petro
   Poroshenko, obliges all citizens to know the language and mandates its
   use by civil servants, soldiers, doctors and teachers while performing
   their official duties.

   Hungary, Russia object
   Hungary and Russia have condemned the law as politically divisive,
   saying it denies basic rights to ethnic minorities on Ukrainian soil.
   Hungary, a NATO member, has retaliated by blocking meetings of the NATO
   Ukraine Commission, a regional security consultation forum for alliance
   members and Ukrainian officials.
   "In Ukraine, these laws were passed which violated the rights of
   Hungarians '¦ and this is something that we cannot tolerate," he said.
   "That's why we made the decision that, until this situation changes, we
   [will] block the convention of the NATO Ukraine Commission.
   "But," he added, "we've made it very clear that, immediately after
   rights are given back to the Hungarians, we [will] lift the veto."
   Several days prior to the recent parliamentary elections in
   Ukraine,Szijjártóvisited the country's Transcarpathia region and met
   with members of the Hungarian community there, against the advice of
   the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Kyiv subsequently accused Hungary of
   election interference, a chargeSzijjártórejected.
   "In Hungary, we encourage minorities to live according to [their own
   sense of] national pride and dignity," saidSzijjártó, mentioning
   ethnic Ukrainians, Serbs, Romanians and Slovaks, but not Roma, who face
   widespread discrimination, poverty and exclusion from mainstream
   society throughout vast swaths ofEastern Europe.
   He added that ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine should be viewed as a
   "source of strength" and represent an opportunity for improved ties
   between Budapest and Kyiv.

   Asked if this position contradicts Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
   Orban'shard-linestance on immigration, and whether that stance is
   sustainable for a member of the EU bloc, which calls on all member
   states to accept some migrants, he described it as an entirely separate
   matter.

   'Totally different'

   "It's two totally different issues," he said. "For example, Hungarians
   in Transcarpathia have not moved there, they had been living there for
   centuries."
   After an estimated 400,000 illegal migrants entered Hungary in 2015,
   Budapest deployed troops to the border to erect razor-wire barricades
   and detention facilities.
   Although the border lockdown followed years of anti-immigration
   rhetoric by Orban's ruling Fidesz party, members of the country's
   long-established [2]Roma and Muslim minorities said they were the real
   targets.

   Hungary is home to around 30,000 Muslims, most of whom arrived after
   World War II, and to 800,000 Roma, or gypsies, present in this part of
   Europe since the Middle Ages.
   In March, the European People's Party, the European Parliament's main
   center-right grouping, [3]suspended Fidesz over its anti-immigration
   campaigns, claiming they violated EU principles on the rule of law.
   In May, Fidesz rode the hardline anti-immigration platform to a 52%
   victory in European parliamentary elections, in what Orban called a
   mandate to "protect Christian culture in Europe."

   WATCH:Szijjártó Notes Hungary's 'Clear Policy' on Nation's
   Preservation

References

   1. https://www.golos-ameriki.ru/
   2. https://reut.rs/2Zm7bpy
   3. https://reut.rs/2Tod4id

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