Hungarian President opens school for folk traditons in Transcarpathia

President Katalin Novák opened a special school for ethnic Hungarians in Chepa-Berehove (Csepe-Beregszász) in western Ukraine on Sunday where children can learn about folk traditions, including music and dancing.

“There must be peaceful Hungarian future in Transcarpathia,” Novák said at the event, adding that the school was needed so that “even the youngest can learn about our common cultural treasures so that they can also transfer them to their children.” Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, with many institutions being forced to close down, the opposite happens in Transcarpathia, she added.

Ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia know the meaning of survival and struggle, she said. “This institution is proof that there is and there will be a Hungarian future here, in Transcarpathia,” she added. Novák assured the ethnic Hungarians that they can always rely on Hungary’s support.

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People have joined forces in Hungary and beyond the borders, and a scheme dubbed Bridge for Transcarpathia has therefore received support of over HUF 1 billion (EUR 2.5 million), she said. Hungarian state support will also be maintained, she added.

Novák said she was representing all fifteen million Hungarians “thinking of their brothers in Transcarpathia”. Chepa has been the fourth location in Transcarpathia where a special institution dubbed Tulip School opened, with training courses being run in additional small villages with ethnic Hungarian communities.