The events that occurred in Romania in December 1989 were interpreted in Harghita and Covasna counties – areas mostly inhabited by a Szeckler and Magyar population – in a deeply anti-Romanian manner. The new democracy and freedom gained by the Romanians living humiliations, threats, ill-treament, and banishment from their own motherland.These were not conjectural happenings – as many tried to infer – but a continuous attitude manifest towards the Romanians in this area along history. At times of crises, the true feelings of the Szecklers and Magyars took violent, nationalistic, chauvinistic and irredentist forms. The 1848 revolution, the First World War, the Second World War are only a few examples going to prove the existence of such exclusivistic racist attitudes from those who consider themselves – using false historical arguments – the first to have settled in Transylvania.
Right after December 22, 1989, in Harghita and Covasna counties, violent deeds and bestial crimes were perpetrated in the conditions when the former Militia and Securitate bodies openly sided with the new regime, making no attempt to defend the totalitarian system.
35 militia and securitate stations were laid waste by so-called revolutionaries, with heavy losses of over 10 million lei. The same thing happened with the documents found in the respective places. The destructive spree initiated by the Szecklers and the Magyars was also directed at the residences of the militiamen and security staff – most of them Romanians – over 2000 houses being destroyed, with damages amounting to over 6 million lei. Those guilty of these acts have not been found, the deeds being supposedly perpetrated by unknown offenders.
In that terrible chaos, the Magyars and the Szecklers started the reorganization of education, following which most of the Romanian schools were dismantled, total separatism being the only formula accepted. Hundreds of Romanian professors and teachers were forced to leave in the dead of the winter for other counties, to find new jobs. Many of them were actually banished from the schools where they had taught, being deemed “tarnished” by the communist regime. In this anti-Romanian climate entire sections of Romanians were removed from Odorhei, to other towns – Brasov, Toplita. Many Romanians could not bear the humiliation and offences permanently hurled at them.
Wide-scale demonstrations were staged in the two counties, of a definite anti-Romanian character. Offensive slogans were shouted: “Stinking Romanians!”, Transylvania to Hungary”, “Horthy”, Horthy”. A psychological warfare was waged against the Romanians living in the towns of the two counties. This new form of terrorism led to the emergence of an intolerable atmosphere. The purpose was indeed attained as three or four thousand Romanians left for other counties to escape ill-treatment, threats and humiliation. The UDMR and other organizations of the Szecklers and Magyars masterminded these actions, as well as other subtle mechanisms to remove all Romanian elements in the area.
Churches and historical monuments of the Romanians were desecrated, Orthodox priests were banished since they were styled fascists, Iron Guardists or Vatra Romaneasca proxies.
Inscriptions in Romanian were destroyed, signs were trampled under foot, and replaced dy ones written in Magyar.
During various events, the Hungarian flag was hoisted, and cockade rosettes and other red, white and green materiel was used to decorate schools and social-political institutions.
Romanians in leading posts were relegated as “compromised communists”, while many Szecklers or Magyars with important positions in the former regime were maintained.
The Magyar-language press, over 15 publications issued numerous articles that fuled the tension in the area, exacerbating the anti-Romanian feelings of the majority population in the two counties.
The reconstruction of the former Magyar Autonomous Region was attempted through various means, whit a view to discarding all the Romanians in the area.
After the Targu-Mures; events, Szecklers and the Magyars stepped up their activities within and without the country, citizens coming from Hungary further enhancing interethnic tension.
After the departure of Romanians from the two counties, the Szecklers and the Magyars declared themselves ready to make amends for several errors by setting up Romanian language sections, by receiving back Orthodox priests and hanging sings in Romanian as well. The main purpose of their action had attained: the Romanians had left other counties.
While Szecklers and Magyars enjoy all freedoms in Romania, here is what a well-known U.S. professor, James Patterson, said about the Romanians in Hungary, in a study titled “The Romanian Minority about to Disappear in Hungary”. There are about 20.000-25.000 Romanians in Hungary, official censuses record only 12.000 while official documents of the Orthodox church mention 25.000-30.000.The Romanian inhabitants have 13 schools with tuition -in many of them – only in Magyar; some are bilingual. IN Gyula there is a high-school with tuition in Magyar, although there are courses in Romanian. As noted, the Romanians there have never dared raise the question of total separatism, accepting the situation created by the Magyar state.
What happened in the Harghita and Covasna counties after December 22, 1989 represented serious breaches of human rights, the Romanians’ rights – by the majority population in the respective area.
To buttress up our arguments we will provide a few excerpts from international treaties on this matter. Thus, the International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 16, 1966, reads, in article 13: “They/the states/agree that education shall foster understanding, tolerance and friendship among all the nations and racial, ethnic or religious groups…” Article 20 stipulates: “ Any instigation to national, racist or religious hatred that represents incitement to discrimination is forbidden under the law: “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights law down that: “Education should foster understanding, tolerance, friendship among all peoples and all racial religious or groups.” In the same order of ideas, the Convention on the struggle against discrimination in education specifies: It is necessary to acknowledge the members of the ethnic minorities the right to exercise their own educational activities, including that of opening schools, and, in conformity with the policy of each state in matters of education, to have tuition in their own language on condition this right be not exercised in a manner that prevents the members of the minorities from understanding the language and culture of the entire community, and taking part in its activities, or impair national sovereignty.”
Before December 1989, the Szecklers and Magyars were represented at all levels of leadership – the data we presented are most revealing in this sense – holding most of the top positions.
Internationally, a continuously increasing number of conferences and symposia on the past and present of Transylvania have been held, with participation of Szecklers and Magyars from Romania, of Magyars from the emigration or from Hungary. The question of revising the frontiers was openly tackled, on grounds that the respective area belonged to Hungary. This appears to be the first stage of a long-haul operation which aims at convincing international public opinion, with the help of false historical arguments, that the Szecklers and Magyars are harassed in Romania, and the only solution to this is the revision of the frontiers, to Hungary’s benefit.
The late 20th century has been for the communist states in Central and Eastern Europe a highly tensional period of upheavals, directed at removing dictatorship in the organization and administration of the socioeconomic and political life. The states making up the former communist camp removed, violently or peacefully, the barriers separating them from other political structures. They are now trying to integrate themselves as quickly as possible in the world political system, the only chance for peaceful coexistence. The sanitary belt – as Stalin dubbed the states that to protect the USSR from an unexpected attack from the Western powers – has completely disappeared, making room for a Europe dominated not by spheres of influences but spheres of abstention. The silence and quiet of the past 45 years was replaced by a cavalcade of radical changes, with deep-going effects on the thinking and action of many. And if in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the former German Democratic Republic, the changes were carried out on the go, with no big political or social shakeups, in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania the switch to a different world was punctuated by violent events that tended to destabilize the respective states. A civil war has flared up in Yugoslavia, which may degenerate into another Lebanon: in the ex-Soviet Union the tendency of the former republics to have autonomy and real independence antagonizes Moscow; in Romania the radical anti-communist movement is about to pulverize everything, even national interests. Albania is abandoned by its citizens who are desperately searching salvation in other states.
The best phrase to characterize this situation would be a changing world, and hopefully the evolution of political events should not tilt to a succession of open regional conflicts that would annual the peace and quiet of this part of Europe.
From this vantage, the ethnic minorities who live in various states – in bigger or smaller numbers – play an important role in calming troubled waters. It would be ideal that the struggle for democratic liberties get not mixed up with the apologia of empires that represented domination, oppression and exploitation for many peoples.
The Romanian people has proved over the centuries its hospitality and tolerance vis-à-vis other nationalities. But from here to suffering offences and humiliation, false accusations made for specific purposes- one of the being to disparage it before European public opinion- there is a long way. This has not been too well grasped by those who have enjoyed equal conditions of work and life in the Romanian state. We are faced with a period of brisk preparations for territorial revision in this part of Europe, for the time being propaganda being the means used. The peace treaties of Paris, concluded after the first world war, are deemed absolute, and certain states are ready to pursue revisionistic policies.
Doomed for so many centuries by the neighbouring powers to live separated by artificial boundaries, the Romanians are resolved never again to admit this. The Austro- Hungarian Empire is a thing of the past, of the late 19th century, and those who hope that a certain situation will be reiterated at the start of the third millennium are utterly wrong. This island of Latinity – Romania – in a sea of Slavic people, will never allow itself to be submerged by those who thing the Romanians are tolerated in their own country. The Romanian State respects the ethnic minorities and it has granted them rights and freedoms in conformity with international treaties on human rights, on the rights of citizens, and the measures taken in this sense after December 22, 1989 stand proof to it.
These facts about the concrete historical situation have never been made known – in the form of a memorandum, a collection of documents or a volume addressed to the European bodies in charge of the defence of human rights. Most of them are the result of the research made by the Parliament of Romania, and have been released to the public as official documents of the Romanian State.
In recent years, representatives of the UDMR – the ethnic party of the Magyars in Romania – have repeatedly forwarded to the Council of Europe, to other European bodies, numerous memorandums accusing the Romanian authorities of failing to grant rights to the Magyar minorities, and of orchestrating a deep-going process of “Romanianization” of this population.
We therefore believe that the publication of this book is apt to present a singular case in the world – the oppression of the majority by the minority – infringing the law, and the country’s Constitution.
Facts are self-evident: the Romanians in two counties – Harghita and Covasna – two counties of Romania, are hunted down in their own country.