09.12.2020, Moscow.
The aggravation in the Ukrainian-Hungarian relations in Transcarpathian region of Ukraine is a direct consequence of Ukrainian authorities’ totalitarian policy aimed at total Ukrainianization of population of Transcarpathian region and all country. Political scientist and Ukrainian historian Eduard Popov expressed this opinion on December 9 in a conversation with a Rossa Primavera News Agency’s correspondent.
Commenting on the searches conducted on December 5 by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the offices and homes of the Hungarian (Magyar) community’s leaders, Popov reminded that this was not the first such aggravation.
“In November 2017, Ukrainian border-security forces, SBU, and police conducted a large-scale operation in Transcarpathia, allegedly aimed at combating smuggling. But the representatives of the Hungarian minority were mainly searched and detained. This operation can be called a military exercise to suppress ‘Hungarian separatism’,” the expert said.
He also recalled the diplomatic scandal that took place in 2020, when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán defiantly postponed his visit to Kiev because of unfriendly cultural and linguistic policy pursued by Ukraine towards the Hungarian minority of Transcarpathia.
According to the historian, at that time the matter was the law on basic education adopted in 2019 by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament – translator), which actually displaces all languages (and first of all Russian) except Ukrainian from the basic education.
“Hungary, in turn, pays Ukraine back in its own coins. It blocks the negotiation process for Ukraine’s accession to NATO and actively criticizes Kiev at various venues for its discriminatory policy against the non-Ukrainian population. In Transcarpathia itself, Budapest has been actively working for many years to support the Hungarians, who feel themselves to belong to Greater Hungary than a weaker and more aggressive Ukraine,” said Eduard Popov.
According to him, representatives of the Rusyn movement in Transcarpathia (Subcarpathian Rus) talk about at least 200 thousand Hungarian passports – and these are the most modest estimates. Ukrainian neo-Nazis respond with acts of intimidation. For example, in March 2015, “smoloskip” (in English “torch”) – a torch procession of Ukrainian radicals under the slogan “Knife the Hungarians!” – was held in Uzhgorod.
Commenting on Ukrainian political analysts’ statements that the conflict in Transcarpathia could turn into a full-fledged civil war, Popov said that such threats have so far been delayed.
“‘Similar forecasts have already been made in 2014 and 2015. Numerous statements by Peter Getsko, the so-called Prime Minister of the Republic of Subcarpathian Rus’, about Rusyn ‘guerrilla divisions’ reportedly ready to open a ‘second front’ against Ukraine in Transcarpathia made a stir in the Russian mass media. Ignorance of the situation or even deliberate attempts to mislead the public opinion in Russia caused such hasty ‘forecasts’ to appear,” the expert believes.
The Hungarians are one of the national minorities living on the territory of contemporary Ukraine since the 9th century (A.D.). At present, they are compactly settled in Transcarpathian region on the territory directly adjacent to the Hungarian border.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
