PHOTOS: Exhibition paying tribute to the 2008-2009 Roma murders in Hungary opened in Budapest

“When we protect the rights of any minority we also protect our own freedom,” Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, told a commemoration paying tribute to the Roma victims of a series of murders back in 2008-2009, on Friday.

The mayor evoked memories of the murders, committed by neo-Nazis in central Hungarian villages, in which six people died and several others were injured. In one instance the perpetrators set fire to a house and shot a father and his children running out of the building, “in cold blood … from ambush.”

“Nobody can curb the freedoms of others without curbing his own freedom. When everybody is treated equally, when everybody’s dignity, faith, convictions and orientation are respected – that is freedom,” he said.

“The Roma must be members of the nation and the community of our city with equal rights and equally appreciated as others,” the mayor said.

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