Romania-Hungary Relations

Romanian – Hungarian Relations:

·        1984: Hungarian criticisms begin to surface in the media, and Hungarian leaders begin to develop their own position on minority nationalities.

·        1985: At the Cultural Forum of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe a Hungarian representative revealed that Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union, and East Germany prepare a proposal “about the assertion by national minorities of their cultural rights” in which Romania did not participate.

·        1988: Thousands of ethnic Hungarians were fleeing from Romania to Hungary to escape Ceausescu’s political oppression. Romania razed 7,000-8,000 villages, causing minorities to suffer. This razing led to Hungarian demonstrations outside the Romanian embassy in Budapest. Hungarian and Romanian leaders met to discuss relations between the countries. The talks lasted eight hours but did not produce any tangible results. In November Romanian police arrested Karoly Gyorffy, the Hungarian commercial counselor in Bucharest.

·        1989: Protests break out in Timisoara, Romania after the government tries to evict a dissident, Hungarian Reformed Church pastor Laszlo Tokes. This event contributed to the Romanian revolution of 1989. Following the revolution ethnic based political parties in Romania arose such as the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania .

·        1990: Demonstrations by ethnic Hungarians demanding cultural and linguistic autonomy were attacked by Romanian nationalists in Tigru Mures, a town in Transylvania and several people were killed. In May Hungarian Premier J. Antall said that it was “inconceivable” for Hungary to maintain good relations with a state that suppressed the Magyar minority.