Hungarian Conservative

While Turkish–Hungarian relations are based on mutual interests, Ankara regards Hungary as a strong ally, and a country that is linked to Turkey by a sense of kinship, according to Turkish Ambassador to Hungary Gülşen Karanis Ekşioğlu.

Turkey is an extremely important regional player in terms of security policy, and its voice is indispensable in international conflicts that risk the security of all of us, the Hungarian defence minister said after meeting his Turkish counterpart in Budapest.

Németh stated that the question of Swedish accession is currently before the Hungarian parliament for a final vote, and he believes that the Turkish parliament will follow suit in the coming months, aligning with the Hungarian position.

While Sofia, Prague, Bratislava and Ankara seemed to be eager to send more aid to Ukraine and support the war-torn country in its NATO bid, the NATO summit in Vilnius must have been a disappointing ending to a promising start for Zelenskyy.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs stated at a press conference on Tuesday that Hungary will keep its promise of not holding up Sweden’s joining of NATO, thus it is ready to back it once Turkey is. However, a recent incident of Quran burning in Stockholm may set the process back for some time again.

In a Facebook post on Friday afternoon, Fidesz’s parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said his party is backing Finland’s accession and that the vote in parliament to ratify it would be held on 27 March.

‘We believe in connectivity, relationships, and cooperation based on mutual respect. I think the Organization of Turkic States is an excellent example of all this because it includes Caucasians, Central Asians, and Europeans, and we all know how to cooperate with respect,’ Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told the audience at an event in Ankara, Turkey.

Should search and rescue forces again be dispatched by Budapest for humanitarian relief efforts in ravaged Turkey, they would face dangerous terrain, and not just from the unstable tectonic plates. The Hungarians have to navigate through an exceptionally dangerous geopolitical landscape, but they do have cards to play.

‘For some victims—those killed in the initial impact at 4 a.m. in their homes and businesses—both the story of the disaster and of their lives ended there. For at least 120,000 that survived with injury, or for millions more who escaped bodily harm but are forced to live on with mental scars, shattered livelihoods, or broken families, this quake was merely the opening chapter of a nightmarish story that continues to this day.’

‘The Hungarian people help both domestically and abroad, as we saw during the coronavirus pandemic, in the case of refugees from Ukraine, and now in Turkey,’ Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

Following the two powerful earthquakes at the start of the week, the Hungarian government has confirmed that Hungary is there for Turkey in its hour of need.

The remarks of a senior Turkish official on 14 January imply that it is unlikely Sweden and Finland would be able to join NATO before June.

Turkey’s relations with NATO have been contentious over the years, but this is not unique among the member states and the parties have always managed to resolve their differences.

The EU Commission is considering sanctioning Turkey over its unwillingness to cut economic and political ties with Russia. But Ankara has one card up its sleeve that Brussels either forgets or simply ignores: the ability to open the migration floodgates to Europe.

In this year’s first call for applications, the European Union is giving out 35,500 free passes, with an initial quota of 779 passes for young Hungarians aged 18.

Hungary can play a key role in potentially warming EU–Türkiye relations. This can be achieved through agenda-setting during Hungary’s presidency of the Council. One such topic could be the modification of the illegal migration prevention deal to tighten regulations and increase financial support to Türkiye.

According to General Avivi, Hamas’s brutal attack on 7 October in Israel was possible because of two terrible decisions: the Oslo Accords and the 2005 disengagement of Israeli troops from Gaza. The Oslo Accords implemented in 1994 resulted in the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the major cities of Gaza and the transfer of weapons and control to the Palestinian Authority. This decision resulted in Gaza, previously not considered a significant military issue, becoming a top security problem for Israel.

Discussions will be held in foreign languages, with interpretation provided for the audience by the organizers. Books by the authors will also be available for purchase on the spot, with book signings.

‘Is Pope Francis correct to suggest that this is a war Ukraine cannot win, and so, it should start seeking a truce with Russia? Ending the war, even a ceasefire, is not an act of cowardice, especially when there is no end in sight.’

MITEM and the grand theatrical Olympics have opened a new chapter in cultural diplomacy. Entering its second decade, the meeting bears witness to cohesion, mutual respect, interest, the enriching power of diversity.

The security of the Sahel is the security of Europe as well. If the EU and its Member States, including Hungary, want to avoid having to face irregular mass migration and terrorism at their immediate borders, we have to invest in the security of the Sahel, using all aspects of collaboration, from diplomacy to development and defence.

Suspects in Debrecen, Hungary are being investigated for allegedly counterfeiting work permits for foreign workers, the Ministry for National Economy announced in a public statement.

The annual analysis of media consumption showed that in 2023, the attention of news readers was primarily captured by events such as the papal visit, the earthquake in Turkey, the uprising of the Wagner Group, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the death of Hungarian mountaineer Szilárd Suhajda.

The protracting NATO accession process of Sweden seems to be reaching its conclusion, following the announcement of support for ratification by Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis.

One hundred programmes are being organized this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and Türkiye. The programmes of the 2024 Hungarian–Turkish cultural season will run concurrently in the two countries for one year.

‘Only the West killed God, and they did it twice for good measure: once on the cross, and more recently via the Enlightenment project to transform the world through progress, secularism, and science, rendering religion either rational or irrelevant.’

According to a recent survey, Europeans express greater apprehension towards migration and radical Islamist terrorism than towards the threat posed by Russia. The findings of the poll suggest a significant disconnect between the issues European elites focus on and the genuine concerns of the general populace.

Fears of a potential second presidential term of Donald Trump have allegedly prompted NATO to devise a plan to assume the coordination of arms deliveries to Ukraine, replacing the United States.

Péter Szijjártó welcomed the continuous development of bilateral economic relations and the breaking of export records. He also praised Qatar’s role in the release of some hostages abducted by Hamas, including three Hungarian citizens, and revealed that another Hungarian citizen might be held by terrorist organization and requested assistance from Qatar in facilitating their prompt return.

The Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s application for NATO membership on Tuesday, leaving only the Hungarian ratification to stand in the way of the Nordic country’s full membership.