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seklerland bejegyzései 
The Szekler people under Romanian oppression
The Szekler people under Romanian oppression
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Dear Sir,
We would like to bring to your kind attention the plight of the Szekler people living under Romanian oppression.
Szeklerland,
a country slightly larger than Lebanon with a population more than
twice that of Iceland, is situated in the south-eastern part of
Transylvania. The Szeklers are a people related to the Hungarians who,
although they lost their own language hundreds of years ago, they still
retain their own specific script. The country is mentioned already in
the Middle Ages as "Regnum Siculorum" (i.e. The Szeklers' Kingdom),
having its own separate National Assembly, customs and laws, under the
over lordship of the Hungarian kings, who recognised their autonomy in
change of their military services.
In 1918, at the end of WWI,
the Szeklers tried to establish their own state, the Republic of
Szeklerland, but were hindered by both the politicians of the
collapsing Hungary and the invading Romanians helped by the French.
Today
Szeklerland is still under Romanian occupation, accomplished against
the will of its inhabitants. Its people is subject to human right
abuses, discrimination, persecuted and deprived of land and national
resources.
The founding and activity of genuine Szekler
organisations is hindered by both the intolerant Romanian government
and by the leaders of the Hungarians of Romania, whose organisation,
the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania is part of the
governing coalition. Presently the Szeklers are denied not only the
exercise of self-determination but even the official use of their own
script and their own ethnic name.
In the same time it seems that
Romania's accession in 2007 will be accepted by the EU in spite of its
incomplete and retarded process of democratisation and regardless of
the Szeklers' plight. Thus Romania will bring into Europe the unsolved
case of the last of the small European nations lacking any collective
rights. This is likely to transform Szeklerland - where the tension is
already increasing, in a trouble-generating spot with serious
implications for the European security.
In order to promote the
Szeklers cause, on 25 June 2005 it was constituted in Belfast the group
of the Friends of Szeklerland. If you would like to obtain more
information about Szeklerland please do not hesitate to contact us.
We hope that this information will be useful whenever you will have to take decisions related to Romania and/or Szeklerland.
In the name of Friends of Szeklerland, yours respectfully,
Levente B***.
Eduardo Rózsa-Flores
www.szekely.tk
