Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the repression of citizens in Transcarpathia as unacceptable

BUDAPEST, 19 January – RIA Novosti. Tamas Menzer, State Secretary for Bilateral Relations at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the repression of the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia as unacceptable and urged local authorities to stop the “persecution” of Hungarians.

Earlier, the Ukrainian language ombudsman, Taras Kremin, said that schools in the region, where many ethnic Hungarians live in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, had problems in organizing education in the Ukrainian language. According to local media reports, Hungarian flags were removed from public institutions and local villages in the city of Mukachevo, and several heads of Hungarian institutions close to the Transcarpathia Hungarian Cultural Association were dismissed.

“Anti-Hungarian decisions and actions are of course unacceptable, we condemn what happened. We call on the local authorities to immediately stop the persecution of Hungarians. We also call on the Ukrainian state authorities to immediately take action to cancel the massacre.” Menzer wrote on Facebook * to take anti-Hungarian resolutions and restore the previous situation (banned in the RF extremist social network).

According to him, Hungary expects “Ukrainian leaders to do everything to maintain stability in Transcarpathia” despite the conflict. At the same time, a representative of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Budapest “does not fully understand how anti-Hungarian resolutions and measures are helping Ukraine in the conflict”.

“Continuous and systematic oppression and disenfranchisement of the national community is unacceptable if Ukraine wants to become a member of the European Union,” Mentzer said.

He also expressed his hope that anti-Hungarian measures will not be encountered elsewhere in Transcarpathia, saying that such incidents have so far only occurred in and around Mukachevo.

In October, the authorities of the city of Mukachevo in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine decided to dismantle the Hungarian symbols – the turul eagle found in the Palanok fortress – and replace it with a Ukrainian trident. Peter Szijjarto, Head of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the representative of the Ukrainian embassy that there will be a protest.

Tensions in relations between Ukraine and Hungary arose against the background of discussions about the Ukrainian education law, which significantly reduced the possibility of education in the languages ​​u200bu200bof national minorities. The law came into effect on September 28, 2017, and would come into effect gradually by the end of 2020. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Hungary will continue to block the ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission, as no progress has been made in resolving the issues concerning Budapest.

* The activity of Meta (social networks Facebook, Instagram) is banned in Russia for extremism.