Hungarians in Romania find the new, illegal erection of crosses with Romanian flags in Úz Valley abominable, and condemn it.Continue reading
Árpád Antal, mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy, (Sfântu Gheorghe, in today’s Romania), appeals for calm in view of the new Romanian crosses placed at the military cemetery in the Úz Valley, stressing the importance of keeping peace between ethnic communities.
“The Hungarians of Transylvania are the addressees of this insulting act, let’s not allow the professional provocateurs to reach their goal,” the politician of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) wrote on his social media page. He stressed that he wanted to call for calm with his posting.
Árpád Antal stressed that it is important that the tensions caused by the new Romanian installation of crosses do not spill over into everyday life. “Let’s let these processes take place in the legal and political space, because maintaining peace between communities is more important than anything else at this moment,” he wrote.
He added that the parties concerned will take the necessary steps, using the law and the rule of law, “even if extremist organizations would take the matter to the level of violence and ethnic conflict.”
Antal stated that international organizations had been informed about the events in the Úz Valley and that the political and legal representatives of the Hungarian community in Transylvania would continue to seek answers to the problem by means of “law and justice.”
We have removed these impious crosses before, we will do it again. Patience and perseverance!”,
the politician from Szeklerland concluded.
The Harghita County Council announced in a press release Tuesday evening that it will conduct an online and telephone survey of county residents about the recent events in the Úz Valley. County Council Chairman Csaba Borboly justified the survey on his social media page, saying that county and affected municipality officials can only “credibly” make the case and find a solution to the Úz Valley situation if they know the public’s opinion.
The questions in the online questionnaire mainly relate to the public’s perception of the attitude of law enforcement officers during Saturday’s incident and their satisfaction with the actions taken so far by the county and the municipality. The creators of the questionnaire also wanted to know whether the population thinks it is justified to erect a monument to the fallen of other nations in the Úz Valley.
On Saturday, July 8, supporters of the Romanian organization Calea Neamului (Way of the Nation) erected 150 wooden crosses at the International Military Cemetery to replace the concrete crosses removed on June 29. The smaller crosses, which had Romanian national ribbons, were joined by a larger cross and a flagpole with the Romanian flag on it. Their leader, Mihai Tîrnoveanu, announced that he would hold talks with the Romanian Defense Ministry this week to make the “Romanian parcel” official.
The remains of 444 Hungarian, 121 German, and 11 Romanian soldiers rest in the graveyard, according to the Romanian War Graves Commission.
The 150 heroes’ graves claimed by Romanian nationalists are, with very few exceptions, not located in the annexed cemetery at all, but after a reburial that took place in the interwar period, in a small town on the Moldavian side of the Carpathians or under a reservoir. These mortal remains, however, came from the Heroes’ Cemetery of another village in the valley.
Via Ungarn Heute; Featured image: MTI/Veres Nándor