Hungarian Conservative

The question of a language strategy, and the need thereof, are important and highly debated topics in linguistics these days. Linguist, university professor Géza Balázs contributes to this debate with an insightful essay in the recent issue of conservative journal Kommentár.

‘The clashes are ongoing, there is no harmony, they were sent here to carry out the school’s death sentence’, Pál Popovics, an informatics teacher at the school said.

Barna Pál Zsigmond emphasized during his press conference in Kossuth Square held on the occasion of European Languages Day that more than 700 million European citizens in forty-six countries mark the day each year, drawing attention to one of the continent’s defining values: linguistic diversity.

The Hungarian community in Mukachevo has been harassed in a number of ways by the Ukrainian local authorities over the past year. Beside the attacks on the Hungarian secondary school, the municipality has been waging a war on all Hungarian symbols in the town, ordering the removal of Hungarian flags from public buildings and of the Turul statue from the Munkács Castle.

Earlier this year, referring to a fresh decree, the Ukrainian police removed Hungarian flags from several public institutions in the town, including the Hungarian-language secondary school. Furthermore, without any justification, its director was dismissed overnight. On 15 August, Marija Pauk, an ethnic Ukrainian with no connection to the Hungarian community or the school was appointed to lead the institution.

For over a thousand years, Hungarians and Rusyns have lived peacefully together. This shared history offers important lesson of cooperation and mutual respect.