Marcela Szymanski of the charity Aid to the Church in Need also welcomed the announcement. ‘It is absolutely extraordinary that six years after Hungary created a department in charge of persecuted Christians, another country finally joins them in acknowledging this reality. Not one single other nation with a Christian majority has dared to do so.’
The Institute for Economics and Peace, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, released its latest Global Peace Index report, in which Hungary is ranked the 13th most peaceful out of 163 nations. In terms of militarisation, however, we are ranked even higher, at fourth place globally.
The best example of how pointless it is to interfere in these debates from abroad is the obvious difference between the Hungarian and Israeli legal systems, as Hungary has a written constitution, while Israel has no constitution at all, the minister pointed out.
The US became an imperial power in its own right by the end of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1898 to 1901, when it claimed territory or influence over no fewer than five islands outside its territorial boundaries: Cuba, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines…Under the guise that is was America’s duty to spread the light of civilisation and democracy to the ‘backward’ people of the world, the former British colony took it upon itself to govern the peoples of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not.
The Foreign Minister pointed out that the higher the risk of terrorism, the greater the chance of increased migration pressure on Europe, adding that Hungary is now among the first to face waves of migration, as the Western Balkan route has become primary. ‘Therefore, combating terrorism is a key issue for Hungary,’ he stated.
I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.
Hungary has recently been making its presence known in the world of international aid, with its most recent efforts being in earthquake-ravaged Turkey. The small nation has focused its initiatives on providing aid to oppressed Christians, which now face record-level highs of global persecution today. Global aid has poured in to relieve the suffering of the region’s minorities following the end of the war against ISIS, during which the region’s Christians, along with other minority communities such as the Yezidis, suffered barbaric crimes.
Although today violence is no longer the primary form of persecution Christians face in the country, they still endure other serious forms of discrimination. Among the most pressing issues are economic problems, incompetent legislation by the government and conflicts from inter-communal relations, which they suffer from not just because of their faith, but also because they are an ethnic minority in the Kurdish region.
‘Belligerents in a war never like to acknowledge that there is some intermediation and thus that there is some work to do together with the other side. And therefore, it is always difficult. In that sense, we didn’t experience anything new in the context of Ukraine.’
Peter Maurer, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross was invited to a discussion in Budapest by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. He shared some highlights of the ten years of his presidency and the challenges he faced during his tenure.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
