Long live the Hungarian-Romanian friendship!

A leopard can't change its spots and Transylvania will never be a Romanian administrative unit

Úzvölgye, 2019. május 17. A Magyar Királyi 10. Honvéd Gyalogezred miskolci katonáinak a sírjai fölé dormánfalvi önkormányzat által emelt betonkeresztek a Székelyföld határán fekvő Úzvölgye átalakított magyar katonai temetőjében 2019. május 17-én. A román nyelvű felirat jelentése: Ismeretlen román hős. A román hősi emlékművet és sírokat május 17-én szerette volna felavatni a dormánfalvi önkormányzat, de az ünnepség a magyarok tiltakozása miatt elmaradt. MTI/Veres Nándor Fotó: Veres Nándor

The Romanian Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest on Monday to explain its earlier demand that Prime Minister Viktor Orban "show restraint" at the free summer camp in Balvanyos. In their view, he did not. I think he did.

The foreign ministry in Bucharest is rather upset, or at least pretends to be, because the Hungarian prime minister informed the audience about the Romanian demarche, which was conveyed to him orally through diplomatic channels. "The inappropriate public statements made on this occasion are not in line with the objective, which the Romanian side has consistently defended, of promoting constructive, pragmatic, good neighborly relations and cooperation between the two states," they complained.

In my opinion, what is not in line with 'constructive, pragmatic and good neighborly relations' is the fact that Romania wants to tell the Hungarian prime minister what and how he can and cannot talk about, what issues he can and cannot raise. Such demands are neither constructive nor good neighborly. On the contrary, they are infinitely disrespectful. To put it bluntly, they are insolent. But anyone who has studied, even superficially, the history of Romania, a 146-year-old state, will not be surprised. If only Romanian politicians were just insolent... But most of the time they are also unscrupulous and lacking in character. Let's recall some of their 'glorious acts' without attempting to be comprehensive.

During the Balkan wars, they attacked their ally Bulgaria from behind and were rewarded with three thousand square kilometers of Bulgarian land. Then, in the First World War, they betrayed the Austro-Hungarian monarchy by invading Transylvania in 1916, breaking the neutrality treaty. It happened despite the fact that the Romanian King Ferdinand I had previously given his word of honor that they would not attack us. The Hungarian prime minister, Istvan Tisza, foolishly believed him. Then Romanian Prime Minister Ion I.C. Bratianu made a secret treaty with the Entente powers, and in exchange for crazy territorial promises (Romania would receive all the territory of Hungary east of the Tisza river), he agreed that Romania would attack its ally from behind. On 27 August 1916, war was declared on the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but Romanian troops, who had been lurking at the foot of the Carpathians for some time, had already moved against the mostly poorly guarded passes before the declaration of war.

Bratianu justified the sneak attack by claiming that their armies were fighting to "liberate their oppressed Transylvanian brothers" (it's worth remembering this, it might be a good reference point one day.) The Romanians, hungry for our territories, set their sights on taking Budapest, but failed. In the first few weeks, the 370,000-strong Romanian army captured a few Transylvanian towns, burned down Csikszereda (Miercurea Ciuc) and inflicted heavy damage on Brasov, but the attack soon lost its momentum. The Hungarian, Austrian, German, Bulgarian and Turkish forces, which had been at war for two years and were engaged on several fronts, soon counter-attacked the Romanians. From Transylvania, the 1st Austro-Hungarian and 9th German armies, led by General Erich von Falkenhayn, counter-attacked the Romanians in early September and by the end of October completely crushed and chased out the invaders.
 

Meanwhile, an attack was launched from Bulgaria under General August von Mackensen, which was a swift and resounding success despite the Romanians' superior numbers. Mackensen was supported by an Austro-Hungarian fleet of monitors that sailed up the Danube to Dobruja, and thanks to this they took Constanza. Less than two months after the attack, Romania was on the verge of collapse. Transylvania was liberated by German and Austro-Hungarian forces on 25 October, and by 6 December they entered Bucharest. After capturing the capital, the Romanians, supported by the Russians, Serbs and French, held the north-eastern part of the Regat (the territory of the Romanian Old Kingdom) for another year, but finally called an armistice in December 1917 and made a special peace with the Central Powers.

This truce was remarkable because the Romanians had previously promised in a secret treaty with the Entente that they would never make a truce with the enemy. So, like most of their treaties and promises, they broke this one. They also broke their special peace with the Central Powers because one day before the end of the First World War, on 10 November 1918, they declared war on Germany again and officially declared themselves 'victors'. Then they invaded Transylvania again, and after then Prime Minister Mihaly Karolyi, who had lost the nation, largely disarmed the Hungarian army, they easily occupied and plundered our country. (The Hungarian left has since regarded Karolyi as an icon: this is how the game of foreign takeover of Hungary is played. They still can't get over the fact that the statue of the Red Count was removed from the parliament square by the Orban government).

Typical: despite the Entente ban, a statue of the Romanian general who marched into defenseless Budapest and executed dozens of Hungarian civilians was erected a few years ago in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvar). I suppose this would signify the 'constructive, pragmatic and good neighborly relations' that the Romanian Foreign Ministry talks about. Or the fact that a few days ago, Romanian Nazis destroyed the Hungarian military cemetery in Uz valley for the second time, while Romanian gendarmes looked on without taking any action.

Long live the unbreakable Hungarian-Romanian good neighborly relations!

In the Second World War they did it again, they changed sides again, they stabbed their allies in the back again. Of course, nobody raised an eyebrow by then. (If I were the Americans, I'd be a little worried that Bucharest is now one of their staunchest allies...)

Good neighborly relations? Hardly a month goes by without a statue of Avram Iancu being unveiled somewhere in Transylvania. Who was he? Let's see.

"On the orders of Dobra [Romanian lawyer and agitator Petru Dobra], the defenseless people were first stripped, looted and then lined up. As soon as this was done, they were attacked from all sides and slaughtered. By dawn, 645 corpses of the people of Zalatna littered the field of Presaka. The destruction of Zalatna and its inhabitants was not without precedent. [From mid-October to mid-November 1848, dozens of Hungarian settlements met a similar fate," writes historian Robert Hermann. In January 1849, Aiud (Nagyenyed) followed, where eight hundred unarmed Hungarians were massacred. Then it went on.

While Jozsef Bem and the other generals of the Hungarian liberation struggle were looking for the regular imperial army to fight with, the Romanian 'people's fighters' were hunting down unarmed men, women, old people and children. One of the leaders of this bloodthirsty horde was Avram Iancu. He is a Romanian national hero. To this day, the descendants of the murdered Hungarians are made to celebrate this satanic figure. And they preach about reconciliation and good neighborliness...

I suppose it's part of good neighborly relations that December 1 is a national holiday in Romania. On this day, even the public toilets of the smallest village in Szeklerland are tastefully decorated with red-yellow-blue flags, so that the Hungarians can celebrate that 105 years ago on this day, some Romanian separatists in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehervar) declared that Transylvania would join Romania. Among other things, they promised the other Transylvanian nationalities autonomy, which they have been unable to deliver in the past 105 years. When they worry about the territorial integrity of Romania or talk about Szekler separatism in Bucharest, let us remember 1 December 1918!

It is not a value judgment, it is simply a matter of fact: Romania's history is one of betrayal of the allies, sneak attacks, breaches of treaties, genocides, intrigues. This is the context in which the Romanian Foreign Ministry's demarche, followed by its feigned indignation at Viktor Orban’s words, must be interpreted.

History has not ended. A leopard cannot change its spots. And Transylvania will never be a Romanian administrative unit.

Cover photo: Concrete crosses erected by the municipality of Dormanfalva over the graves of soldiers of the 10th Hungarian Royal Infantry Regiment in the Hungarian military cemetery in Uz Valley on the border of Szeklerland (Photo: MTI/Vándor Nándor Veres)