Over 100 Szeklerland Settlements Light Watch Fires to Signal Demand for Autonomy

Bonfires were lit in more than a hundred settlements in Szeklerland on Sunday evening to indicated that the indigenous population of the region is demanding territorial autonomy, Zoltan Gazda, president of the Szekler Council of Sepsi (Sepsiszek) and the main organizer of the demonstration, told MTI.

Csíkrákos, 2023. október 29. Õrtûz ég Erdélyben, a Csíkrákoshoz tartozó Bogát-hegyen Székelyföld autonómiájának napján, október 29-én. A Székely Nemzeti Tanács (SZNT) 2015-ben nyilvánította a Székelyföld autonómiájának napjává október utolsó vasárnapját, ezen a napon Kárpát-medence-szerte õrtüzeket gyújtanak. MTI/Veres Nándor Fotó: Veres Nándor

In response, he said, he expects to receive reactions they have given in the past: some kind of threat, insisting that Romania fully respects the rights of minorities, no response, or a diplomatic reply indicating that the manifesto has been forwarded to the relevant committees.

He added that there is only one Romanian dignitary who has never responded to SZNT's submissions: the president of Romania. "They should be obliged to reply. This is a show of such arrogance and disrespect toward us that it is simply humiliating," said the Szekler National Council official.

SZNT, which was re-established twenty years ago and founded more than a century ago, declared back in 2015, the last Sunday in October to be the Day of Autonomy for Szeklerland, when churches pray together for the autonomy of Szeklerland and in the evening light bonfires to make the region's demands for self-determination visible.

Cover photo: a watch fire burns in Transylvania on Bogat Hill in Racu (Csikrakos) on Autonomy for Szeklerland Day on October 29. The Szekler National Council (SZNT) in 2015, declared the last Sunday in October as the Day of Autonomy for Szeklerland, a day on which bonfires are lit across the Carpathian Basin. (Photo: MTI/Nandor Veres)