Peace in the Carpathian Basin

by Károly Baranyi, president of the National Pedagogical Workshop, Budapest, Hungary

The following paper was delivered at the XIII Mut zur Ethik Conference, “What Does it Take to Bring About More Peace in the World?”, which took place in Feldkirch, Austria in September, 2005.

The focus of the subject here is peace, including policies risking peace; how to make peace and what we can do locally and globally for peace. In the following I would like to focus on a central region of Europe. This short analysis, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, does not concentrate on inter-state politics but on individuals and their sense of responsibility for peace and their activities in this field. As you all know, the Carpathian-basin is inhabited by Slavonic people, Germans, Romanians and Hungarians. These nations settled here more than a thousand years ago in several migratory waves. The Hungarians take a particular position among them, one reason being that our language is so different from all the others surrounding us. The Hungarian nation, though, played a decisive role in the Carpathian-basin for one thousand years until the Treaties of Paris concluding the First World War came into existence.

The foundation of the Hungarian state, manifested in the coronation of Saint Stephen, was followed by a relatively peaceful period. At the time of the Renaisance Hungary had a population roughly equivalant to that of England and its territory covered the whole Carpathian-basin. (1)

The Hungarian kingdom succeeded for some length of time in preventing the advance of the Turks, who looked upon the conquering of Vienna as an ultimate goal. János Hunyadi’s splendid victory at Nándorfehérvár (known as Belgrade today) relieved pressure on the Christian West. The memory of this event is marked every day when churchbells toll at midday throughout the Christian world. In less than a century, however, Hungary suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Turkish army at Mohács losing Buda, the capital, as a consequence. The country was torn into three parts: one was subjected to Turkish rule for a hundred and fifty years, another remained within the Habsburg domain, and only the third one, Transylvania, enjoyed limited independence controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Population numbers continually declined in the central part occupied by the Turks where life was the least tolerable. All the ethnic groups living here contributed to the struggle of defence. Miklós Zrinyi, the Croatian viceroy can be mentioned as one of the greatest heroes of the time.

After driving the Turks away the country was reunited by the Habsburgs, who occupied the throne for over two centuries. Positive co-operation often resulted, for instance with Queen Marie Therese. However, quite frequently, the Hungarians felt supressed and abused. The Habsburgs tried to incite ethnic minorities against Hungarians.

During the Habsburg period the Hungarian nation waged two wars of independence against their emperors, but lost them both. The second one led to the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. Nearly fifty years of unbalanced capitalist development finally came to an end with the First World War and the Treaties of Paris. The Treaty of Trianon determined Hungary’s destiny. The country lost two third of its territory and one third of its Hungarian inhabitants. New states were created in the land detached from the historical Hungarian Kingdom under the post war treaties.2

The Hungarian ethnic group still outnumbers others in the Carpathian-basin, but Hungarians in neighbouring states live in minorities. Ethnic discrimination against these minorities, a painful heritage of the post-Trianon decades, though indirectly, still exists here and there. Physical attacks aimed at ethnic Hungarians, for instance, are quite common in present-day Serbia. The most miserable situation evolved during the Ceausescu dictatorship. A symbolic example of this is the case of Bözödújfalu, a small Hungarian village. The signpost of the village is still visible, but nothing else, except the church tower, can be seen today. This tower, together with some trees, sticks out of a lake. The Romanian government ordered the dykes to be breached in 1989 and the water flooded the village instantly. Several people died. Only the cemetery remained intact. Only the dead survived, as people put it in those days.

Unlike other minorities in Europe, and those in other parts of the world, subjected to similar conditions, and in some cases not nearly as bad, such as the Irish or the Basques, the Hungarian ethnic minorities have never resorted to terror, but have endured the deprivation of their civil rights with unparalelled patience.

With this behaviour they not only demonstrate tolerance, but can be a catalyst for peace when it is recognized what values they bear and what should be done in order to make peace. Hungarians live in their environment surrounded and partly mixed with others, a fact that can form a basis to strenghten peace. I am fully convinced that patriotism will play a key role in the future of the region. I would like to make clear what I mean: I’m really enthusiastic about how proud the Croatians are of their fatherland, their efforts to maintain independence and preserve their national culture and values. I am equally impressed with the same phenomenon among the Slovaks. At the same time I am very sad when I see the lack of patriotism in Hungary. Patriotism and national consciousness help build up cultural identity, which stands in sharp contrast with the seemingly unavoidable globalizational processes destroying identities.

In Europe the paths to unification are not fixed. Unification can be achieved in many ways, though not all of them are desirable. People would like to live in a Europe where nations co-exist, preserving and appreciating the language, culture and traditions of each nation and promoting national cultures. This noble aim can not be achieved without benevolence and efforts. To promote agreement and peace in the Carpathian basin requires the knowledge of historical truth. To learn about the past is only possible if people try to acquire the perspective of others on history.

It is clear that diverse elements of history are judged differently by Serbs, Romanians, Croatians, Slovaks and Hungarians. Undoubtedly, we all have divergent views concerning the establishment of the Hungarian state, the Turkish period, our wars against the Habsburgs and Trianon. Let me give you an example: after a football match some fans are happy, others feel sad. But we have to let certain ones cry and if possible understand their feelings.

Free organizations of people play an indispensible role in promoting the cause of peace. Political and intellectual approaches have have failed in the past due to ideology, antipathies and resistance. Conflicts among nations in the Carpathian basin have often been instigated by emperors and dynasties, later by prevailing ideologies. Our association, the National Pedagogical Workshop, has outlined the framework for a joint project.

Our aim is to organise a collective project which encourages different views to appear together so that people are able to become acquainted with them. Experts of all affected nations should be involved in the task outlined below. We do not expect anyone to abandon their convictions or to seek compromise at any cost. All we aim to do is to establish a forum which provides an opportunity for divergent ideas and opinions to be expressed and which, as a consequence, broadens the horizon of readers.

Our objective is to create studies dealing with the history of the inhabitants in the Carpathian basin in order to know, understand and respect each other better.

A vital part of the project is to write an anthology-like history book that could also be used in primary and secondary education in each country of the Carpathian basin to broaden our common knowledge in the field. Slovak, Austrian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Rumanian, Ukranian and Hungarian authors would take part in the task and allocated equal proportions in the book. A basic editorial principle is that each chapter should reflect the historical approach of the nation the author belongs to. In doing so we accept that the book will consist of contrasting or partly contrasting points of view. Historical events may be weighed differently according to the nationality of the authors. This cooperation, by way of exploring new aspects of the truth, would promote benevolence, better mutual understanding and conciliation among the nations living here, which are preconditions of peace. Beyond doubt, forgiving is much more valuable metaphysically than apologising. It applies to all nations: to Hungarians, Slovaks, Rumanians and all the others. Clearly, this project will require major efforts and resources. I am hopeful, however, since having found allies and collegues among the members of the Society of Public Affairs1, that we will be able to draw upon their enthusiasm and creativity.

(1) In Hungarian: Közéleti Önképzõkör (an NGO of young people, http://www.baranyi.hu/kok.html)