Looking Back: AHF since 1906

AHF and MÁÉRT (the Szabadka Initiative) - by Bryan Dawson

AHF attended this historic meeting and signed a joint declaration by ethnic Hungarian political parties and human rights organizations from successor states in an appeal to the Hungarian Government for more coherent support, coordinated planning, and dual citizenship.

AHF was among fifteen organizations from Europe, North America, and Latin America that met January 5-6, 2005 in Szabadka (Subotica) in the Vajdaság (Vojvodina), a formerly autonomous region in Serbia-Montenegro, and joined forces to persuade the Hungarian Government to coordinate with them efforts aimed at assisting ethnic Hungarians living as national minorities in Rumania, Slovakia, Serbia- Montenegro, Ukraine, Croatia, and Slovenia. The meeting marked the first time ethnic Hungarian political organizations met independently of the Hungarian government.

Participants signed a joint declaration where they:

1. Expessed their disappointment over the failure and low turnout of the Hungarian national referendum on dual citizenship [AHF notes that 51% of those voting, voted in favor of the referendum] and chastised political forces in Hungary that led a negative campaign and used false predictions about the
consequences of extended dual citizenship.

2. Declared their joint belief that the Hungarian nation remains indivisible in its language, culture, and history.

3. Declared their fundamental political goal securing conditions for minority Hungarians to remain and prosper in their ancient homelands and seeking various legal and practical autonomies (local self-government).

4. Founded a new Forum of External Hungarian Organizations to convene whenever the interests of minority Hungarians and the nation as a whole so
warrant. AHF would again participate in the follow-up meeting held in Pozsony (Bratislava) in 2007.

AHF continues to express concern over violence against Hungarians in Vojvodina, and support for autonomy and minority protections in both Vojvodina and Kosovo.

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AHF 100 YEARS DISPLAY
at the AHF Congressional Reception
(click on image for a larger version)

AHF as a watchdog for
human rights in Vojvodina
and the MÁÉRT movement

Read More AHF History

Why so many Hungarians across the border?

Vojvodina was part of Hungary since 896 AD and was awarded to the newly formed Yugoslavia by the French in the "Treaty" of Trianon in 1920 when Hungary lost 2/3 of her territory and 1/3 of her Hungarian population. Large scale evictions, fear of self-reporting, and other Serb progroms, have left only about 300-350,000 ethnic Hungarians in the province. Some, however, estimate this number to be double that since many fear self-reporting as Hungarian exposes them to risk. [more about the Treaty of Trianon]

The American-Hungarian community is increasingly concerned by the recent outbreak of violence in Vojvodina.

"Ethnic Cleansing" in action

How did this region become part of Yugoslavia? Read "The Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia and Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, and the Need for a More Coherent U.S. Foreign Policy" on The Hungary Page and refer to the following demographic maps comparing Vojvodina in 1910 and 1991. Note the decline seen here in Hungarian population does NOT take into consideration the Balkan conflicts and the significant escalation of atrocities against Hungarians over the last decade:

Click images for larger version

AHF Related Links

• The Tragedy of the Treaty of Trianon
• News from Rumania
• News from Vojvodina [I], [II], [III]
• Slovakia and the Benes Decrees
• Hungarian Flags Flying Again in Slovakia
• Rumania's Basescu in the US
• AHF on Dual Citizenship for Hungarians
• The Csango Hungarians of Moldavia

External Links

• Purchase the book, "The Hungarian Kosovo" by Sam Vankin, UPI Senior Business Correspondent
• Institute for War and Peace Reporting
• United Press International (UPI)
• "The Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia
  and Autonomous Region of Vojvodina,
  and the Need for a More Coherent
  U.S. Foreign Policy" on The Hungary Page
• NATO EXPANSION FLASHPOINT NO. 2: The Border between Hungary and Serbia, by Ted Galen Carpenter and Pavel Kislitsyn. A Cato Foreign Policy Briefing No. 45 November 24, 1997

Read additional Stories in HUNGARIAN

• 10/14/2005 - Koszorús Ferencet idézi az újvidéki Magyar Szó: „NEMZETKÖZIESÍTSÜNK”-E VAGY SEM: Tojástánc [tovább]
• 6/10/2005 - A MAGYAROK CSAK TÁNCOLJANAK: Egybehangolt lejáratási kampány a VMSZ ellen [tovább]

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• "Magyarellenes Falfirkák Szabadkán,"
  MAGYAR SZÓ, Novi Sad/Újvidék (in Hungarian) 4/3/2004

• "Temetőgyalázás,"
  MAGYAR SZÓ, Novi Sad/Újvidék (in Hungarian)
  3/29/2004

• See the International Crisis Group Report on Serbia from July 1994: Serbia's Changing Political Landscape, a Briefing. An excerpt regarding Serb violence: "Some Serbs in Vojvodina are demonstrating behaviour reminiscent of that which they so frequently and vociferouslt condemn the Kosovo Albanians."

  

  Monica Seles - (b. in the Vajdaság (Vojvodina), the Hungarian region that was given to Serbia/Yugoslavia.)
  Tennis Superstar - She has won 9 Grand Slam singles titles and bronze in Sydney 2000! 

Seles (pronounced sell-esh and spelled Szeles Monika) won the European junior championship at the age of ten. Born to a Hungarian family in the former Hungarian province of Vojvodina, she moved to the United States in 1986, and in 1989 turned professional. In 1990 she won her first French Open, and in each of the following two years she won the Australian, United States, and French opens. Seles won the Australian Open in early 1993, but later that year, while resting between sets during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was stabbed by a spectator. The incident caused Seles to withdraw from competition in 1993 and 1994. Seles returned to competition in 1995 and won the initial tournament of her comeback, the Canadian Open. In 1996 she again won the Australian Open.

Monica is a fierce competitor and is still going strong into the new millennium including winning the Bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics!  

See: http://www.angelfire.com/tx/MONICASELES/index2.html or a small bio: http://www.bartleby.com/65/se/SelesMoni.html

• See The Hungary Page for more famous Hungarians!