Ignoring Decades of U.S. Congressional and Administration Appeals for “Equitable, Prompt, and Fair” Restitution Romania Re-Confiscates Hungarian Minority School, Persecutes Ethnic Hungarian Official on Fabricated Charges

In a scandalous disregard for the rule of law, as well as religious and minority rights, on November 26, a Romanian appellate court re-nationalized a Hungarian denominational high school in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe) built by the Hungarian Reformed Church in 1873 and confiscated in 1948 by the communist regime. Concurrently, the same Ploiesti Court of Appeals upheld three-year, suspended prison sentences for Attila Markó, Tamás Marosán and Silviu Clim for their 2002 lawful decision, in their official capacity as members of the Special Committee on Church Property Restitution, to restore this property to the aforementioned rightful owner.

In this last of 25 postponements and show trials begun in 2010, the Romanian court has now imposed the final ruling that the Hungarian Reformed Church — which undisputedly established the school in 1859 — has no legal right to its property, never owned the property, and must hand the building complex — for which it incidentally spent $700,000 on restoration — over to “the people,” i.e., the state. The ruling only suspends the three officials’ prison sentences for their alleged offenses, which remain on their criminal records. At the same time, under the ruling, the state will magnanimously “forgive” the Church a fine of $322,000 for“illegally using the building during the last 12 years since restitution.”

The state actions, occurring on the heels of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania resignation from the governing coalition lead by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, have provoked wide-spread protest and universal condemnation by all segments of Romania’s 1.4 million strong Hungarian community. Exhausting all appeals, there is no remaining domestic legal recourse, only international pressure, for the Church and the three individual victims. Bishop Béla Kató of the Hungarian Reformed Church told HHRF that, as “Romania is not governed by the rule of law,” he is ready to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, although the outcome is highly dubious.

Four Years of Harassment and Persecution

The latest chapter in the 66 years of miscarriage of justice this school has suffered began on De-cember 22, 2010, when Attila Markó, Tamás Marosán and Silviu Clim were charged by the Romanian Anti-Corruption Prosecutor with “official abuse of power”and “damaging the interests of the Romanian State” for their 2002 decision to restore the property to its rightful owner. Consequently, the Hungarian Reformed Church faced losing the school and was also fined 1.1 million lei in damages.

In deciding to prosecute, and during the subsequent trials, the state deliberately ignored documentary evidence submitted by the defendants and the Church that irrefutably substantiated the rightful owner’s claim of original ownership and should have cleared the Special Committee members of any wrongdoing. The legitimate question arises: Why?

The True Crime: In 25 Years, Less than 1/3 of Church Properties Have Been Restored

By processing, let alone actually returning use of, a mere one-third (2,400 of 7,568) of all religious property claims in the past 25 years, it is the Romanian government that has committed gross negligence and exhibited systemic contempt for private property, the freedom of religion, civil society and, in particular, minority communities. The cost for the entire country has been incalculable as successive Romanian governments have impeded the country’s full democratization by delaying and obstructing the restitution process with impunity, all so that the state could retain these properties as long as possible.

The failure to nominally return to the four historic Hungarian churches (Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed, Lutheran and Unitarian) only 1,204 of their 2,140 schools, hospitals, orphanages and other humanitarian institutions confiscated between 1945 and 1989 has directly and irrevocably damaged the 1.4 million-strong minority, the country’s largest. For an entire generation , these Churches have been unable to fully carry out their charitable missions, serve their communities, and provide the traditional pillars of civic society they maintained for centuries.

To deflect attention away from this ongoing travesty of justice, the Romanian state has not refrained from turning the victim into the violator: burdening the innocent with criminal records because they faithfully carried out the law, and branding the Hungarian Reformed Church a liar and thief for submitting “false restitution claims.”

Will the Romanian Authorities File Suit against Each Restitution Decision?

Bishop Béla Kató’s prophetic words back in December 2010 that“the lawsuit may give birth to a dangerous legal precedent, leading to other instances of re-nationalization of already restituted church properties,” is poised to become a reality. A legal precedent has been set by the November 26 ruling which was predicated on the State Prosecutor’s false allegation that the Székely Mikó High School was somehow a separate legal entity because in the 1870s the local Protestant congregation made small donations to its construction, with the significant costs of construction born by Tran-sylvania’s Governor at the time, the Hungarian Imre Mikó. The institution was given legal title under the protectorate of the Hungarian Reformed Church, a centuries-old tradition even at the time. Since the same legal procedures were followed in other localities to establish schools, the state will presumably not stop at attacking only one restitution decision but will seek to renationalize other buildings it has already restored to all the denominations.

This is provided that the restitution process limps forward at all. From 2010 until July 2013, the Special Committee – composed of five newer members – failed to even convene to process claims. Since then, it meets about quarterly, provided a quorum of four is present. As dismal a record as this is, now, with the unjustified criminal sentencing of former members, can they be expected to make any decisions at all without fear of retribution?

Ignoring Decades of U.S. Congressional and Administration Appeals for “Equitable, Prompt, and Fair” Restitution

On May 22, 2014, eight Members of Congress sent a follow-up letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, asking that the State Department continue to “carefully follow developments in the cases regarding ownership of the Székely Mikó Reformed School and the legal proceedings against Attila Markó, Tamás Marosán and Silviu Clim.” In a prior, June 13, 2013 bipartisan letter, 21 Members had requested that, among others, Mr. Kerry “vigorously engage the Romanian government to end the travesty of justice it has perpetuated by fully restituting properties illegally confiscated,” “protest the latest church property restitution law”which was a regression even compared to the flawed 2002 one, and to carefully follow the case of the Székely Mikó High School.

The State Department’s response of July 9, 2013 underscored that property restitution in Romania is a “key priority” for the Administration which it has “long raised with Romania.” U.S. Embassy officials had also met with Attila Markó and attended his June 27, 2013 Romanian Supreme Court hearing as official observers. “We will continue to advocate for a sound judicial decision based on the rule of law,” affirmed the letter.

Though the State Department stated that “Romanian authorities have assured us they are open to our suggestions and those of various stakeholders for amending and improving restitution legislation,” curiously, the Romanian government not only failed to amend or eliminate the retrograde law No. 165 it had adopted on April 17, 2013, but also continued its prosecution of the Hungarian Reformed Church and the three Special Committee members, hiding behind the alleged independence of the judiciary.

Already in 2005 , under the co-sponsorship of Congressmen Tom Lantos and Tom Tancredo the U.S. Congress had sent a strong message to Romania when it unanimously adopted H.Res 191 on the need to accelerate restitution and remedy the gross injustice suffered by the Jewish community, the four historic Hungarian churches, and the Greek Catholic Church. The resolution—wholly ignored to this day—set forth seven specific actions the Romanian authorities needed to urgently take.

Since all legal recourse has been exhausted in Romania for the Hungarian Reformed Church and the three defendants, their only hope for fair decision rests in the European Court of Human Rights. However, due to the Strasbourg tribunal’s crowded agenda, it might take years until the case is even heard, and justice (further) delayed is justice (continually) denied.
The Romanian authorities are responsible for this injustice. HHRF calls on them to immediately restore legal title of the Székely Mikó High School to the Hungarian Reformed Church by government ordinance and exonerate Attila Markó, Tamás Marosán, and Silviu Clim of all charges. The authorities must further ensure that legal decisions heretofore restoring title and use of properties rightfully belonging to the four historic Hungarian churches are not reversed. The Romanian government must remove all obstacles to fully restoring title to and use of the remaining 5,168 properties, including amending laws as necessary, in consultation with the stakeholders.

Source: hhrf.org

Reklám

December 8, 2014

Senator John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510

Dear Senator McCain:

I have been a Republican all my life and have been a supporter of you from the time you came upon the political scene.  I have the greatest admiration for the courageous way in which you bore the suffering imposed upon you as a prisoner of the Viet Cong.

It is only fair to you that I introduce myself.  I am the 86- year old son of Hungarian immigrants who worked very hard in their small bakery to raise and educate my sister and me in Cleveland, Ohio.  I was fortunate enough, through hard work, to graduate from Ohio State University and Harvard Law School and become the Principal Corporate Counsel of The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company.  I retired in 1987.

I am deeply puzzled as to how you could allow yourself to be bamboozled by left wingers at home and abroad that the Hungarian constitution is not based on democratic principles and that the Prime Minister of Hungary behaves like a dictator.  What happened to your ability and responsibility as a Senator to examine the facts for yourself, knowing as you surely do, where the politically motivated accusations against Hungary have been coming from?  I fully endorse what my friends Steve and Susan Szappanos state in their letter to you.  Perhaps your staff has failed to do its homework and has misguided you.

The Hungarian Constitution eloquently spells out the protections of our Bill of Rights for the benefit of Hungarians and establishes a British type of parliamentary government.  Please read it for yourself as the letter below suggests.  Is it perfect?  Not entirely.  The Hungarian Constitution expressly guarantees religious freedom, but the provision allowing registration of religions is a negative .   So far, this authority has not been abused as far as I can tell.  Charges of anti-Semitism by the Hungarian Government, not only by the left, but also by the U.S. State Department, are unfounded.    Of course, there is a minority of Hungarians who have that view, as do a minority of Americans (and a minority of Americans also love to hate Negros and various other ethnic groups).  Words alone do not wipe out prejudice taught by parents to their children.  Surely you recall how many Jews the Hungarian people helped escape the insanity of Hitler before and during World War II while the western world looked the other way.  The Hungarian Constitution also seems to prohibit abortion.  Well, there are a lot of Republicans (with whom I disagree) who would like to see such a provision in our Constitution.

What we see is that Hungarians are committed to the Bill of Rights and democratic government, like Americans and others in the democratic west; and, like we in the democratic west, are wrestling with many of the same issues we struggle to resolve.  It is the duty of Americans, and yours as a member of the American Government, to support the efforts of Hungarians to develop a mature democracy and to fight off politically motivated efforts of left wing socialists and communists to subvert and kill off freedom in Hungary.

Regarding the pipeline issue.  When the U.S. and the European Union decide to get tough enough with Russia, the Hungarians will be right there.  Don’t expect Hungary or any other small European nation dependent on Russian gas and oil to throw itself under the Russian bus.  Also, maybe if the American Government treats the Hungarian Government with a bit more respect for what it has accomplished since the Communists were driven out, there might be better results.

The United States puts up with all kinds of non-democratic countries where it needs their help.  Why pick on democratic Hungary?  The answer is that left wingers want to do in the Hungarian experiment with democracy.  Senator McCain, please just look at the facts and do your homework.

Sincerely yours,
Theodore J. Horvath

Reklám

The Gift Shop of the Cleveland Hungarian Heritage Society will reopen in its new location Saturday, December 13th. During the holidays, the Gift Shop will be open from 11-3, Monday through Friday between December 15-30th. It will be closed on December 25th and 26th but will be open 11-2 on the 24th.

The new Gift Shop is on the 1st floor in the northeast area of the Galleria. If you come up from the garage by elevator, turn right and walk to the escalators. It is right there to you left.

We have many, many items for Christmas such as “szalon cukor”, pralines with cherry,  Christmas cards and tree ornaments, “csiga” noodles and a book of Hungarian Christmas poetry.

We hope to see many of you.

Kellemes Karácsonyi Ünnepeket és egy Boldog Új Évet Kívánok

Eva Szabo
Hungarian Museum

Reklám

The tenth stop of the Equestrian Theatre of Komárom’s North American tour was in our white, snow-covered city, Cleveland. The organization and preparation of many months prior brought the news of the program to the wider Hungarian community, from which many had already ordered their admittance tickets in advance.

With great interest, we followed the program series organized by Pongrátz Entertainment from their very first performance, and our radio program’s employee, Zsolt Molnár, continually kept in touch with the group. We were able to reach the operetta’s director and group’s head, György Derzsi, between performances via telephone, when Zsolt Molnár also spoke with him. (in Hungarian language)

In light of what has been said, we tried to finalize every little detail surrounding our role in the Cleveland performance with the utmost attention, and we awaited Saturday evening with much excitement. The finishing touches were witnessed by a few spectators who had arrived early and who, together with us, were looking forward to the upcoming performance with impatient curiosity and anticipation.

Behind the stage, the Cleveland Scout Ensemble stood ready together with the performers, who were only waiting for the signal to begin. To the enchantment of one’s eyes and spirit, one could see from behind the curtains rows filled with viewers, which helped us to decide that the time to begin had arrived.

In the auditorium, the lights dimmed, upon which the clamor in the hall immediately faded and the first voices of the Scout Ensemble arose. Afterwards, the spotlight was centered on John the Valiant. In the hall, all eyes, from those of the little ones to those of the older ones, focused solely on the happenings upon the stage.

At the end of the last song, five hundred men sprang to their feet at once, cheered, and applauded for several minutes with gratitude and appreciation for this tribute to the perpetual masterpiece of our Hungarian literature that was worthily portrayed by this performance. The actors, in turn, came down from the stage in their authentic costumes, to the great delight of many children, who were able to take pictures with their favorite cast members.

The audience slowly, very slowly trickled home, with many people forming groups around each of the actors while talking, taking pictures, and inquiring about their lives. Komárom Equestrian Theatre is a very genial, endlessly humble, modest, truly professional group of actors, artists, and singers. We are very thankful to everyone for offering such a memorable experience for both young and old alike.

More pictures can be viewed on the Bocskai Radio’s Facebook page. The pictures were taken by Zsolt Molnár.

Post translated by Nicholas Boros

Reklám

25 years ago, Hungary was being toasted in the West for opening its border with Austria to East Germans, in a move which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now the Western elites are not happy with Budapest which they consider far too independent.

The refusal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party to join the new US and EU Cold War against Russia, which has seen the Hungarian parliament approving a law to build the South Stream gas pipeline without the approval of the European Union, in addition to the populist economic policies Fidesz has adopted against the largely foreign owned banks and energy companies, has been met with an angry response from Washington and Brussels.

Hungarian officials have been banned from entering the US, while the European Commission has demanded that the Hungarians explain their decision to go ahead with South Stream. That’s on top of the European Commission launching legal action against the Hungarian government for its law restricting the rights of foreigners to buy agricultural land.

The bullying of Hungary hasn’t made many headlines because it’s so-called “democrats” from the West who have been doing the bullying.

Viktor Orban is not a communist, he is a nationally-minded conservative who was an anti-communist activist in the late 1980s, but the attacks on him and his government demonstrate that it doesn’t matter what label you go under – if you don’t do exactly what Uncle Sam and the Euro-elite tell you to do – your country will come under great pressure to conform. And all of course in the name of“freedom” and “democracy.”

Fidesz has been upsetting some powerful people in the West ever since returning to power in 2010. The previous “Socialist”-led administration was hugely popular in the West because it did everything Washington and Brussels and the international banking set wanted. It imposed austerity on ordinary people, it privatized large sections of the economy, and it took out an unnecessary IMF loan. Ironically, the conservative-minded Fidesz party has proved to be much better socialists in power than the big-business and banker friendly “Socialists” they replaced.

One of the first things that Fidesz and its coalition allies, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, (KDNP) did was to introduce an $855m bank tax – the highest such tax in Europe – a measure which had the financial elite foaming at the mouth.

Orban clashed with the IMF too, with his government rejecting new loan terms in 2012, and paying off early a loan taken out by the previous government, to reduce interest payments.

In 2013, Orban took on the foreign-owned energy giants with his government imposing cuts of over 20% on bills. Neoliberals expressed their outrage at such “interventionist” policies, but under Orban, the economy has improved. Although it’s true that many still look back nostalgically to the days of“goulash communism” in the 1970s and 80s when there were jobs for all and food on the table for everyone. Unemployment fell to 7.4 percent in the third-quarter of this year; it was around 11 percent when Fidesz took power, while real wages rose by 2.9 percent in the year up to July.

The man his enemies called the “Viktator,” has shown that he will pursue whatever economic policies he believes are in his country’s national interest, regardless of the opinions of the western elite who want the Hungarian economy to be geared to their needs.

His refusal to scrap his country’s bank tax is one example; the closer commercial links with Russia are another. Russia is Hungary’s third biggest trading partner and ties between the two countries have strengthened in the last couple of years, to the consternation of western Russophobes. In April, a deal was struck for Moscow to loan Hungary €10 billion to help upgrade its nuclear plant at Paks.

Orban’s policy of improving trade and business links with Russia, while staying a member of the EU and NATO, has however been put under increasing strain by the new hostile policy towards Moscow from Washington and Brussels.

Orban again, has annoyed the West by sticking up for Hungary’s own interests. In May he faced attack when he had the temerity to speak up for the rights of the 200,000 strong Hungarian community living in Ukraine.”Ukraine can neither be stable, nor democratic, if it does not give its minorities, including Hungarians, their due. That is dual citizenship, collective rights and autonomy.” Hungary’s Ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Kiev. Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, the US’s most obedient lapdog in Eastern Europe, called Orban’s comments “unfortunate and disturbing” as if it was anything to do with him or his country.

In August, Orban accurately described the sanctions policy of the West towards Russia as like “shooting oneself in the foot.”“The EU should not only compensate producers somehow, be they Polish, Slovak, Hungarian or Greek, who now have to suffer losses, but the entire sanctions policy should be reconsidered,” Orban said.

In October, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also questioned the sanctions on Russia, revealing that his country is losing 50 million forints a day due to the policy.

Hungary has made its position clear, but for daring to question EU and US policy, and for its rapprochement with Moscow, the country has been punished.

It’s democratically elected civilian government which enjoys high levels of public support, has ludicrously – and obscenely – been likened to military governments which have massacred their opponents. “From Hungary to Egypt, endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly target civil society,” declared US President Barack Obama in September.

Last month there was another salvo fired at Hungary – it was announced that the US had banned six unnamed Hungarian government officials from entering America, citing concerns over corruption- without the US providing any proof of the corruption.

“At a certain point, the situation, if it continues this way, will deteriorate to the extent where it is impossible to work together as an ally,” warned the Charge D’Affaires of the US Embassy in Budapest, Andre Goodfriend. The decision and the failure to provide any evidence, understandably caused outrage in Hungary. “The government of Hungary is somewhat baffled at the events that have unfolded because this is not the way friends deal with issues,” said Janos Lazar, Orban‘s chief of staff.

The timing of the ban has to be noted, coming after the Hungarian government had criticized the sanctions on Russia and just before the national Parliament was due to vote on the South Stream pipeline. The pipeline, which would allow gas to be transported from Russia via the Black Sea and the Balkans to south and central Europe without passing through Ukraine, is a project which Russophobes in the West want cancelled.

“I am inclined to think that it is a punishment for the fact that we talk to Russia,” said Gabor Stier, the head foreign policy editor of the leading Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet.

“America thinks that we are corrupt, but we are a sovereign state, and it is our business. Many people in the United States do not like that Viktor Orban is very independent…..Corruption is just an excuse.”

It’s hard to disagree with Stier’s conclusions. Of course, there is corruption in Hungary, as there is in every country, but it pales in comparison with some countries who are faithful US allies and who Washington never criticizes. The 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International, reveals that Latvia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina are all below Hungary, as indeed is Italy. Yet it’s Hungarian officials that the US is banning.

True to form, the attacks on Orban and his government in the Western media have chimed with the political attacks. ‘Is Hungary, the EU’s only dictatorship?’ asked Bloomberg View in April. The BBC ran a hostile piece on Orban and Fidesz in October entitled Cracks Emerge in leading party, and which referred to “government corruption” and “the playboy lifestyle of numerous party officials.”

The piece looked forward to the end of Fidesz rule.

While earlier this week, the New York Times published an OpEd by Kati Marton, whose late husband Richard Holbrooke, was a leading US diplomat, entitled Hungary’s Authoritarian Descent. You’d never guess that the Hungarian government wasn’t the flavor of the month in the West would you?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at their meeting in Budapest (RIA Novosti / Eduard Pesov)

The question which has to be asked is: will Hungary be the next country to be the target of a US/EU sponsored regime change?

We all know what happened to the last Viktor who refused to sever links with Russia. Will Orban suffer the same fate as Ukraine’s Yanukovich? There are good reasons for believing that he won’t.

Fidesz did make a mistake by announcing the introduction of a new internet tax last month, which brought thousands onto the streets to protest but they have since dropped the plans and the problem for the US and EU is that Orban and his government remain too popular. In October’s local elections Fidesz won 19 of Hungary’s 21 larger towns and cities, including the capital city Budapest, not bad for a party that‘s been in power since May 2010.

Orban’s brand of economic populism, combined with moderate nationalism, goes down well in a country where people remember just how awful things were when the neoliberal “Socialists” were in power. His style of leadership may be authoritarian, but Hungarians prefer having a leader who has cut fuel bills and reduced unemployment to one who mouths platitudes about “liberal democracy” but who imposed harsh austerity measures and leaves them unable to afford the daily essentials.

Moreover Hungary, is already a member of the EU and NATO unlike Ukraine under Yanukovich and isn’t about to leave either soon. On a recent visit to America Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told the US TODAY newspaper “US is our friend, US is our closest ally.” The US clearly wants more from Hungary than just words, but while both Washington and Brussels would like to see a more obedient government in Budapest, the “liberal” and faux-left parties they support simply don’t have enough popular support for the reasons outlined above. And things would be even worse for the West if the radical nationalist party Jobbik, the third largest party in Parliament, and which made gains in October’s local elections, came to power- or if there was a genuine socialist/communist revival in the country. The fact is that Orban is in a very strong position and he knows it. That’s why he feels able to face down the threats from abroad and maintain a level of independence even though total independence is impossible within the EU and NATO.

We can expect the attacks on Orban and his government to intensify but the more the West attacks, the more popular Orban, who is able to present himself as the defender of Hungary’s national interests, becomes.

Hungary gave the West everything it wanted in 1989, and, as I pointed out here, its “reform”communist leadership was richly rewarded. But in 2014 it’s a very different story. In the interests of democracy and small countries standing up to bullying by powerful elites, long may Hungary’s spirited defiance continue.

Hajra, magyarok! Hajra Magyarorszag!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Source: rt.com

Reklám

The Aftermath of the 100^th Anniversary of WW I (1914 -1918)

A bi-lingual (Hungarian/English) DVD with Professors, Historians, Intellectuals, and Poets that review the various national interests leading to the Treaty of Trianon, signed at the Grand Palace in Versailles, France on June 4, 1920.

Also, bonus part of the DVD – ‘The Hungarian Spark in America’; a previously released video of the many accomplishments of those of Hungarian descent in the field of art, music, theater, sports, science, medicine, etc

The DVD Menu allows the selection of Hungarian or English version, as well as, ‘The Hungarian Spark in America’.

Included with the DVD is a 22 page manual of the complete English dialog and maps contained in the video.

The TRIANON DVD is reproduced, released, and financed by The American Foundation For Hungarian Youth And Culture, Inc. at the request of the Kazinczy Ferenc Society of Hungary. Copyright with the US Copyright Office/Library of Congress.

Order From: Magyar Marketing – Phone #1-800-786-7851.

E-mail: liz@magyarmarketing.com

Bulk discounts available for Hungarian organizations, clubs, and churches.

Reklám