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The 87th Anniversary of Trianon:
June 4, 2007
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The 87th Anniversary of Trianon:
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6/4/2007 - "Trianon: Tragedy,
Dissolution, and Remedy." Frank Koszorus, Jr. and the AHF International
Relations Committee release essay on treaty's 87th anniversary.
6/7/2006 - "Trianon Binds No One Except Hungarians," AHF Issues Statement on the 86th Anniversary of the Trianon Tragedy. Hungarian American communities join in protest. AHF's Assoc. President Frank Koszorus, Jr., writes, "Two of the new states cobbled together by the victorious Entente “peacemakers” at Versailles ceased to exist years ago, and even part (Moldova) of the third successor state succeeded to gain its independence it never had before. Ironically, the winds of change that swept through the region and rearranged the old Cordon Stalinaire after 1989, left untouched the very people who have suffered the most under a punitive treaty – the thousand plus year old indigenous Hungarian communities living under the rule of states that are mostly different from those stipulated at Trianon 86 years ago...Even as Montenegro declares its independence and Kosovo’s status remains on the front burner, Budapest appears content to sit on the sidelines and conspicuously refrains from espousing the democratically expressed aspirations of autochthonous Hungarian minorities for autonomy in Vojvodina, Transylvania, Slovakia and Karpatalja (Ruthenia)." [download] Continuing news - A
Centennial Celebration! The American Hungarian Federation turned 100
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One thousand years of nation building successfully delineated groups based on culture, religion and other attributes to create the countries with which we are so familiar. While some Western European nations would continue power struggles and princely battles and civil wars, Hungary was a peaceful multi-ethnic state for those 1000 years and her borders were unchanged. Until 1920... The Treaty of Trianon in 1920... in the aftermath of WWI, was extremely harsh on Hungary and unjustifiably one-sided. The resulting "treaty" lost Hungary an unprecedented 2/3 of her territory, and 1/2 of her total population or 1/3 of her Hungarian-speaking population. Add to this the loss of up to 90% of vast natural resources, industry, railways, and other infrastructure. This was done to a nation whose borders were established over a thousand years earlier (896 A.D.) and one who, as the "Saviors of Christianity," lost millions of lives defending the rest of Europe from numerous invasions from the likes of the Mongolian Tatars and the Ottoman Turks. Hungary, along with Germany and Austria, experienced rapid economic expansion during the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th. This challenge alarmed France and Russia. Each needed a way to stave off German-Hungarian economic competition. With the advent of WWI, France had her chance and began fostering anti-Hungarian sentiment among non-Magyar speaking Hungarian nationals. It is important to note that for over a thousand years, Hungary never experienced ethnic civil war. France, eager to weaken Hungary, offered to reward those nations and groups that assisted them in the war with large pieces of territory. The "Little Entente" of Rumania (who switched sides in the last minute), Czechoslovakia, and Serbia took that opportunity and got very lucky. The United States has never ratified this treaty. At the time President Wilson said: “The proposal to dismember Hungary is absurd” and later Sir Winston Churchill said: “Ancient poets and theologians could not imagine such suffering, which Trianon bought to the innocent.” We are sad to report that he was right.
The dictators in these successor states began to foster nationalism and teach a less-than-accurate history to help bring legitimacy to their regimes. These claims are based on some seriously unfortunate state propaganda-cum-history about an ancient Roman province called Dacia. In Rumania, this revised history, accelerated by Ceaucescu, has become the accepted state historical doctrine even today, making the process of reconciliation much more difficult. In the newly formed Czechslovakia, Eduard Benes and his infamous "Benes Decrees" forcibly expelled tens of thousands of Hungarians and confiscated personal and church properties. See the additional steps the Slovak Government has more recently taken against the Hungarian minority. AHF's efforts to guarantee anew the rights of the Hungarian "minorities" continues. Though the United States recommended a slightly more liberal approach in regards to Hungary, it did not prevail. The "self-determination of the nationalities" posited by President Woodrow Wilson resulted in only one plebiscite in Sopron, in Western Hungary. The vote was overwhelmingly pro-Hungarian and Sopron remained within the new borders. Oddly enough, although Austria was also a loser in the war, she also received a part of Hungary, and Sopron became a border city.
Related AHF Links
Congressional Resolutions & Records
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"...Ostensibly
in the name of national self-determination, the Treaty dismembered
the thousand-year-old Kingdom of Hungary, a self-contained, geographically
and economically coherent and durable formation in the Carpathian
Basin and boasting the longest lasting historical borders in Europe.
It was imposed on Hungary without any negotiation by vengeful leaders
who were ignorant or ignored the region’s history, and mercilessly
tore that country apart. By drawing artificial borders in gross violation
of the ethnic principle, it also transferred over three million indigenous
ethnic Hungarians and over 70% of the country's territory to foreign
rule. Following the war to make the "world safe for democracy,"
the Treaty even denied the affected populations the right to choose
under whose sovereignty they would live. Only the city of Sopron in
western Hungary was allowed a plebiscite to decide its future, and
it opted by a large margin to remain in Hungary. Although the peacemakers
included provisions for the protection of minorities in various international
instruments they insisted the successor states sign, the latter generally
ignored their promises and the individual and minority rights of ethnic
Hungarians were violated.
The
essay includes selected statements relating to some of these issues
that shed light on the context, attitudes and practices that affected
Hungarians eighty-seven years ago and which still impact and to some
extent poison the region, as evidenced by the Successor States’
refusal to grant their Hungarian historical communities the right
to autonomy. The last excerpt is another solution for a tragedy that
affected the entire region." [
Rebecca
McEldowney's "Soul of Flesh: A Novel of the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution" [
Dr.
Katalin Kadar Lynn's "Tibor Eckhard in His Own Words: An
Autobiography" [
The
maps here not only show graphically the extent to which the Treaty of
Trianon dismembered Hungary, it shows how much Hungarian-majority areas
were arbitrarily "reassigned." Hungarians today are the one
of the largest minorities in Europe and face oppression and violence.
Numbering in the millions, Hungarian minorities are second only to the
Russians who became "minorities" with the dissolution of the
Soviet Union. Hungarians live under harsh persecution in the new states
created by the treaty. The Helsinki Watch Committee called Romanian
efforts to "purify" Transylvania as "Cultural Genocide."
