Semjen Addresses National Cohesion Day

(MTI) – The Hungarian nation can be proud of having survived the Trianon Peace Treaty of June 4, 1920, Zsolt Semjen, the deputy prime minister in charge of Hungarian communities abroad, said on Wednesday.

June 4 is the day of mourning, remembrance and a historical lesson at the same time, he said. It is a day of mourning, because the Trianon Treaty was the greatest tragedy of the nation after the division of historical Hungary in 1541, Semjen said. It is the time of remembrance, as well, because forgetting about one of the most tragic events in Hungarian history would amount to national suicide, he said. A historical lesson can be drawn from the events of 1920: Trianon could have been avoided with a completely unified nation, argued Semjen.

“We should be proud of Hungarian heroes, who, living outside the borders of Hungary, have remained true Hungarians under all circumstances,”

In his message marking Cohesion Day, Arpad Potapi, the chairman of parliament’s national cohesion committee representing ruling Fidesz, said that a strong cohesion within the nation makes the country stronger.

He said that commemorations had been held over the past four years and as a result Hungarian communities abroad had become an “inseparable part” of the Hungarian nation.

Addressing a commemoration in Budapest, Zsolt Nemeth, the foreign affairs state secretary, stated support to Transcarpathia’s Hungarian community, their dual citizenship, the use of their mother tongue and their representation in Ukraine’s parliament. He noted that some 600,000 people had obtained Hungarian citizenship in a fast-track procedure introduced four years ago.

Marking the day, the opposition Socialists said Trianon was a wrong and unjust peace treaty which is remembered by all Hungarians as an unforgettable tragedy.