Hungarian Conservative

According to State Secretary for Assisting Persecuted Christians and Implementing the Hungary Helps Program Tristan Azbej the purpose of the meeting was for the Hungarian government to share its knowledge and experience regarding Hungary’s policy of aiding persecuted Christians.

At the conclusion of his visit to Washington, D.C., Tristan Azbej, the state secretary responsible for the assistance programmes to aid persecuted Christians, noted that the Hungarian government shares practically identical values with the American right, conservative individuals, and organizations. He identified the importance of renewing the fight against anti-Semitism, something Hungarian and American conservatives also agree about, in response to the resurgence of violent anti-Semitism in the Western world, including the United States, following the events in Gaza.

According to Tristan Azbej, the state secretary in charge of programmes aiding persecuted Christians, the fact that the Hungarian Embassy was the host of the opening of the major international conference is not only an opportunity but also recognition of the work carried out by the Hungarian government and Hungary in this field.

Tristan Azbej explained that through these amendments, Hungary will not only provide humanitarian aid but also contribute to economic development and peace-building efforts.

Speaking at the exhibition, Tristan Azbej highlighted that while Christian communities in the Middle East are still in a difficult situation, the persecution of Christians is most serious in western parts of Africa, with Islamic State and other jihadist groups threatening communities. In Nigeria alone, some 3,000 Christians are killed each year, therefore Hungary Helps has decided to focus its activities on that region.

As an article by Premier Christian highlighted, for Armenians, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh is not just a geographical relocation, but also the act of severing ties with their deeply engrained cultural and religious heritage.

Hungary is actively working to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Chad, recognizing the potential repercussions for all of Europe. State Secretary responsible for aiding persecuted Christians Tristan Azbej highlighted the Central African country’s crucial role as a stable state in a volatile region which faces a growing influx of refugees.

The assistance provided by the Hungary Helps Programme will be directed towards Armenian nationals who have had to flee the Karabakh due to the escalation of the conflict that has been ongoing for three decades. The Interchurch Aid and the Hungarian Lutheran Church have also initiated a solidarity fundraising campaign.

Tristan Azbej emphasized that Hungarian research and rescue personnel have undertaken a difficult and heroic mission in recent days. Due to the challenging accessibility, only a few international groups arrived in Libya, where Hungarians primarily searched for deceased individuals and discovered more than a hundred bodies.

According to the 2023 World Watch List compiled by Open Doors, Pakistan is the seventh most dangerous country for Christians in the world. There are around 4.2 million Christians in Pakistan—only 1.8 per cent of the country’s population of more than 229 million people. Pakistani Christians are considered second-class citizens and are discriminated against in every public and private life aspect.

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.’

‘Many people have died, almost every family is mourning someone, and providing for the family is a daily struggle…we are talking about people who fled the horrors of war, their hometown, and even often their country, and yet we saw that even a gesture of help is sufficient to encourage them to accept the uncertainty and difficulties and return to their homeland. No sane person does this unless they believe in something, and these people believe in providence,’ State Secretary in Charge of Aid to Persecuted Christian Communities Tristan Azbej said in a recent interview.

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.

The Hungary Helps Programme, however, does not only help persecuted Christians, but provides effective support in crisis areas and areas that are hit by man-made or natural disasters as well. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Hungary has provided 130 billion forints (335.6 million euros) in aid to the victims of the war in Ukraine. Hungary also sent ten tons of relief supplies to Turkey immediately after the deadly earthquakes on 6 February and 50 million forints (132,000 euros) to Syria.

David Curry has been the CEO of the most well-known international ministry, Open Doors USA, for ten years. The organisation recently changed its name to Global Christian Relief to achieve better cooperation between Christian denominations and NGO networks, and thus to help persecuted Christians more efficiently.