 11/7/2010 - Báthory Award for American Hungarian Federation President
Frank Koszorus, Jr. On the recommendation of the Bolyai Committee (BKB), the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania (EMNT) bestowed the Bathory Award upon 15 awardees, including Frank Koszorus, Jr., President of the American Hungarian Federation. Previous awardees include US Congressman Tom Lantos and Gov. George Pataki [Visit the Bolyai University for a full list].
 The Bathory Award is given to those outstanding individuals who contributed to cause of Hungarian-language higher education in Rumania. EMNT president Tőkés László, who was instrumental in the 1989 Rumanian revolution that ousted Ceaucescu, presented the awards. In his opening comments, Mr. Tokes commented on how, even after 20 years of post-communism, the Rumanian government political and cultural elite fears calls for human and minority rights for ethnic Hungarians and how they try to convince the public about the Babes-Bolyai University's fake multiculturalism. Despite constitutional guarantees relating
to the right to an education in the mother tongue, Rumania has failed
to restore the independent Hungarian state university.
 In a 2006 statement, the American Hungarian Federation called attention to an egregious violation of human rights when two Hungarian
professors – Peter Hantz and Lehel Kovacs – were expelled
from Babes-Bolyai University for placing parallel Hungarian inscriptions
below Romanian language signs at the so-called multicultural institution.
Professor Hantz can be seen here in the video placing a Hungarian no-smoking sign. Mr. Koszorus was instrumental in drafting the statement. Peter Hantz, BKB Vice President, attended the ceremony. He said, "we cannot accept that one of Europe's largest national minorities suffer such a violation of rightsespecially when it comes to higher education." (Nem szabad elfogadnunk, hogy Európa egyik legnagyobb nemzeti kisebbsége ekkora
jogsértéseknek legyen az áldozata, ami felsőoktatását illeti.)
”It’s both a humbling experience and a great honor to have been considered for the Bolyai Award,” said Koszorus. ”While I am most grateful to BKB and EMNT for bestowing this honor upon me, it is the Hungarian people of Erdely who truly deserve our special recognition and focused attention,” he added.
The Koszorus family originally hails from Nagyvarad and moved to Debrecen 300 years ago, while his mother’s family has a Szekely background. Koszorus is an attorney, government relations advisor and consultant in Washington, D.C. In addition to pursuing his professional career as an attorney, government relations advisor and business consultant, Koszorus has championed the rights of minorities, including the Hungarian minority in Romania, for over thirty years on a pro bono basis. Below is a brief summary of selected activities undertaken by Koszorus in this regard.
- Koszorus served as a public member of the U.S. delegation to the Paris meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe on the Human Dimension. In that capacity he assisted in the drafting of the U.S. intervention regarding minority rights in a plenary session of the Conference and participated in bilateral meetings with, among others, the Romanian delegation.
- He has lectured or served as a panelist on foreign policy, public diplomacy, human rights and minority rights issues (relating to Hungarian minority matters) at colleges, universities and other entities, including the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy of Georgetown University; Syracuse University College of Law; The American University (School of International Relations); Ohio Northern University; University of Indiana; Shepherd University; George Mason University; the International Monetary Fund; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; and the Hudson Institute’s Center for European Studies.
- Koszorus testified before several congressional committees and other bodies, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Committee on Ways and Means, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on issues such as MFN and Romania and NATO enlargement and minority rights.
- He briefs government officials on policy issues, including matters affecting the Hungarian minority in Romania. Koszorus debated NATO enlargement and the situation of Hungarian minorities on The Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU and has been interviewed by print and broadcast media.
- Koszorus is the author of numerous position papers and articles, including a chapter on The League of Nations Minority Protection System and an article in Foreign Policy Review, Autonomy: The Path to Democracy and Stability in Romania. He co-authored an article (with C. K. Zoltani) in “The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs,” Collective Rights Defuse Tensions. He also participated on an advisory panel for a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace project which culminated in the publication Self-Determination in the New World Order. Numerous letters and articles written by Koszorus have been published by various newspapers and other media outlets.
- He participated in a number of organizations that address issues concerning Central and Eastern Europe, U.S. policy toward the region and Hungarian minorities. For instance, Koszorus helped found the Committee for Danubian Research, which assisted with the establishment of the Teleki Laszlo Institute, co-sponsored and disseminated scholarly books, and invited visitors from CEE to Washington, D.C. His decade-long involvement with the Washington-based International Human Rights Law Group focused on the Hungarian minority in Romania.
- Koszorus was an initial founder of the Hungarian American Coalition, and he vigorously spoke out in support of minority rights while serving on the Executive Committee and as Chairman of the Information Committee of that organization.
He currently serves as President of the more than one hundred year old American Hungarian Federation where he continues to raise minority rights issues, such as autonomy, the restoration of the Babes/Bolyai University as a Hungarian institution, and the present-day impacts of the Treaty of Trianon. In November 2010 he represented the Federation at the MAERT conference in Budapest. Several of his writings can be found on the Federation’s website. Honors received by Koszorus for his work on behalf of Romania’s Hungarian minority also includes the International Human Rights Law Group’s pro bono Service Award (also honoring his law firm).
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|  "A Báthory Díjat a Bolyai Kezdeményező Bizottság (BKB) javaslatára az Erdélyi Magyar Nemzeti Tanács (EMNT) oktatási szakbizottsága adományozza évente legfennebb tizenöt személyiségnek vagy szervezetnek, akik az adott évben, vagy a megelőző időszakban a legtöbbet tették a romániai, állami finanszírozású magyar felsőoktatás megteremtése érdekében."
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2010 Bathory Award Recipients:
2010. évi díjazottak:
· Antal András, nyugalmazott agronómus professzor
· Ádám Valérián, a Marosvásárhelyi Orvosképzésért Alapítvány ügyvivője
· Deák Ernő, a Nyugat-Európai Magyar Szervezetek Szövetségének elnöke
· Duna Televízió
· erdely.ma hírportál
· Koszorús Ferenc, az American Hungarian Federation elnöke
· Kossuth Rádió, Határok nélkül műsora
· Krónika napilap
· M2 Kárpát Expressz műsora
· Smaranda Enache, a Pro Europa Liga elnöke
· Székely Levente, a Genfi Magyar Misszió első beosztottja
· Szilágyi Zsolt, egykori parlamenti képviselő
· Szőcs Géza, költő
· Vincze László, újságíró
· Wanek Ferenc, a Bolyai Társaság egykori elnöke
· Zsembery Ferenc, mérnök-vállalkozó
Why so many Hungarians Across the Border?
 Count Apponyi pleading to the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference:
"In the name of the great principle so happily phrased by President Wilson, namely that no group of people, no population, may be transferred from one State to another without being consulted,- as though they were a herd of cattle with no will of their own,- in the name of this great principle, an axiom of good sense and public morals, we request, we demand a plebiscite on those parts of Hungary that are now on the point of being severed from us. I declare we are willing to bow to the decision of a plebiscite whatever it should be. Of course, we demand it should be held in conditions ensuring the freedom of the vote." [more on Count Apponyi]
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
brought to the innocent.” We are sad to report that they were
right.
AHF Statements:
Shortcuts to Trianon Resources Below:
Ethnic Distribution in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1910 (Hungarians shown in red)
[download extra large image 4962x3509]
[download large image 1000x707]
Hungarian populations declined significantly after forced removals such as the Benes Decrees and other pograms, the effects of WWI, and Trianon in 1920. With continued pressure and discriminative policies such as the 2009 Slovak Language Law, this trend continued over the past 90 years.
- In Upper Hungary (awarded to Slovakia, Czechoslovakia): 1,687,977 Slovaks and 1,233,454 others (886,044 Hungarians along with Germans, Ruthenians and Roma) [according to the 1921 census, however, there were 1,941,942 Slovaks and 1,058,928 others]
- In Carpathian Ruthenia (awarded to Czechoslovakia): 330,010 Ruthenians and 275,932 others (mostly Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, and Slovaks)
- In Transylvania (awarded to Rumania): 2,831,222 Rumanians (53.8%) and 2,431,273 others (mostly Hungarians - 1,662,948 (31.6%) and Germans - 563,087 (10.7%)
- In Vojvodina 510,754 Serbs and 1,002,229 others (mostly Hungarians 425,672 and Germans 324,017)
- In Vojvodina and Croatia-Slavonia combined (awarded to Yugoslavia): 2,756,000 Croats and Serbs and 1,366,000 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
- In Burgenland (awarded to Austria): 217,072 Germans and 69,858 others (mainly Croatian and Hungarian)
About
the Treaty
by Bryan Dawson
 One
thousand years of nation building successfully delineated groups
based on culture, religion, geography, 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, founded in 896, was a peaceful multi-ethnic state for a
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 French, despite American protests and calls for
plebiscites, sent their troops to Northern Hungary in violation of the
cease fire, and then pushed through the Treaty
of Versailles (Trianon). Although Rumania, herself created only in
1862, switched to the French side almost at the very end of the war, she
gained all of Transylvania and majority of the Banat, but claimed the
river Tisza. The Czechs were awarded all of Northern Hungary (now Slovakia),
despite equal numbers of Hungarians and Slovaks in the region, to create Czechoslovakia. The Serbs got Southern
Hungary (Vojvodina), Slavonia, and Croatia
(confederated with Hungary for 700 years) to create the unlikely "Yugoslavia,"
which, like Czechoslovakia, effectively, no longer exists. Perhaps most
amazingly, the Austrians who were responsible for getting Hungary into
the war in the first place, got Western Hungary (Burgenland).
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 taken against the Hungarian minority.
AHF's efforts to guarantee anew the rights of the Hungarian "minorities"
continue.
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.
The dismemberment and instability brought economic collapse and governmental
crisis. The Rumanians, also in defiance of the armistice agreement with
their new-found French allies, took advantage of the turmoil in Hungary
and moved troops into the defenseless nation and occupied Budapest and
beyond. To this day, the Greater Rumania Party and other in Rumania still
claim territory that includes the river Tisza and even Budapest. A mini-communist
takeover, a republican government, finally gave way to Royalist Admiral
Miklos Horthy who took over as "Regent" of Hungary and brought
some stability back to the country. The new government got to work on
trying to revise the unjst treaty. Sadly, the US with its growing isolationist
stance, pulled out of the League of Nations and Western Europe wanted
no part in re-opening the case. France was focused on making sure Germany
was punished. The Hungarians got a sympathetic ear from only Italy and
Germany. This tragic alliance initially gained Hungary part of her northern
territory from Czechoslovakia and Northern Transylvania from Rumania.
But this alliance would only to plunge her into another disaster and occupations
by first Nazis and later Soviet communists. Her land was again taken.
One part of northern Hungary was then transferred from Czechoslovakia
and became part of the Soviet Union and is today part of the Ukraine.
 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." Read
the Treaty in full text
Additional AHF
Links
External
Links on Trianon
Related
Downloads
 You will need the free Adobe Reader to open the following
files. Click the image to download.
- Hungary's
Accession to NATO: An expanded report - 7/17/2007
- "NATO Enlargement" by Frank Koszorus
Jr. March 29, 2004 - Remarks on the Occasion of the
Enlargement of NATO, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [download]
- AHF Memorandum
on Romanian President Iliescu Visit - 10/24/2003
- "Nato Enlargement And Minority Rights: Prerequisites To Security" by Frank Koszorus, Jr.
, April 2003 - A
memorandum that was submitted to Robert A. Bradtke, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Heather A. Conley,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs during
a roundtable discussion on "NATO Enlargement and the Current State
of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance." This submission follows several
other intiatives, including submissions to Lord Roberston, Secretary
General of NATO. [download]
- “Nato Enlargement: Promoting Western Values, Strengthening The
Alliance” by Frank Koszorus, Jr.
, April 29,
2003 - A Statement Before The United States Senate Committee
On Foreign Relations.
[download]
- "U.S. Senate Unanimously Ratifies Nato Treaty; Senators
Raise Rights Of Minorities: Federation Supports Efforts Aimed
At Encouraging Romania And Slovakia To Respect Rights Of Hungarian Minorities
And Restore Communal Properties" - Press
Release by Zoltan Bagdy, May 9, 2003 [download]
- An Essay on the foundations of Rumanian Identity, Nationalism and
Ethnic Cleansing - CONCEPTUAL CONFUSIONS CONCERNING THE ROMANIAN
IDENTITY: NEAM AND POPOR AS EXPRESSIONS OF ETHNO-NATIONALISM (PART 3) - "...the motivation and the goal was common: racially determined
mass murder." (Appeared in RFE/RFL Newsline, 6/5/2005 By Victor
Neumann, professor of history at the West University of Timisoara, Romania.)
[download]
- Transylvanian
Monitor #14: Property Restitution.
Congressional
Resolutions & Records
- H.RES 191 - A RESOLUTION urging the "prompt and fair
restitution of church properties by Romania and Slovakia - TOM LANTOS
/ TOM TANCREDO (April 6th 2005) in the House of Representatives
[download]
- A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE ISSUE OF TRANSYLVANIAN HUNGARIANS
-- HON. DONALD E. `BUZ' LUKENS (Extension of Remarks - February
26, 1990) in the House of Representatives [download]
- VIOLENCE IN TRANSYLVANIA -- HON. DON RITTER (Extension
of Remarks - March 22, 1990) in the House of Representatives [download]
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