Regarding the Romanian crosses repeatedly erected in the military cemetery in the Uz Valley, Arpad Antal, mayor of Sfantu Gheorghe (Sepsziszentgyorgy), in Szeklerland, eastern Transylvania, has called on local residents to remain calm and emphasized the importance of preserving peace between communities.
"This disgraceful act targets Hungarians in Transylvania, let's not allow subsistence provocateurs achieve their goal,"
the politician of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) wrote on social media, stressing that he wanted to ask everyone to keep calm by sharing a post.
It is important that the tension caused by the Romanian crosses erected once again in the cemetery does not spiral into daily life, Arpad Antal emphasized.
"Let these processes take place in the legal and political space, because preserving peace between communities is of paramount importance at this moment,"
he wrote.
"Those affected are taking the necessary steps and using the instruments of law "even when extremist organisations would push the issue to the level of violence and ethnic conflict," he added.
Arpad Antal said that international organisations had been informed about the events in the Uz Valley, and stated that the political and legal representatives of the Transylvanian Hungarians would continue to seek answers to the problem "through law and justice". "We have had these crosses of disrespect removed once, and we will do it again. Keep patient and hold out," the Szeklerland politician concluded his post.
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, the municipality of Harghita county announced that it will conduct an online and telephone survey among the residents of Szeklerland in connection with the recent events in Uz Valley. County Council President Csaba Borboly justified the survey on his social media page by saying that learning about the community's opinion will enable the county and Sanmartin (Csikszentmarton) officials to"credibly" represent the cause and seek a solution to the situation in Uz Valley. The questions of the online questionnaire are mainly related to the public's assessment of the attitude of the law enforcement agencies on Saturday when the crosses were being put up and how satisfied they are with the actions taken so far by the municipalities of Harghita county and Sanmartin. The questionnaire also seeks to find out whether the public sees it as justified to build a memorial to heroes of other nations in Uz Valley.
Last Saturday, 8 July, activists of the Romanian organisation Calea Neamului (Path of the Nation) erected one hundred and fifty wooden crosses at the international military cemetery to replace the concrete crosses that had been removed on 29 June in line with a court ruling. In addition to the smaller crosses, with ribbons in Romanian national colours around them, a larger cross was also erected, as well as a flagpole with the Romanian flag on it. The organisation's leader, Mihai Tirnoveanu, announced that he would be in talks this week with the Romanian defence ministry about how to officially instate the "Romanian plot".
