The Hungarian government will continue its policy of supporting Christian communities in the Middle East, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday in Washington by telephone.

The Minister said that the US Department of State organised a conference on the protection of religious communities and with a view to advancing religious freedom globally. According to Vice President Mike Pence’s speech, this conference will be organised every year as advancing religious freedom is one of the priorities of the Trump administration. Eighty countries were represented at the conference which was attended by twenty ministers, he added.

The Minister stressed that “as Hungary is a Christian country which is also proud of its Christianity”, at the event he spoke about the importance of protecting Christian communities. “The context emerging in international public discourse from time to time that anti-Christianity is the last acceptable form of discrimination is unacceptable, and we reject this in the strongest possible terms”, he said.

Mr Szijjártó highlighted that “we stand up for the notion that Christians are entitled to religious freedom and to a safe life the same as any other religious community in the world”.

He took the view that we must see at the time that due to terrorist organisations – primarily the terrorist organisation Islamic State – “Christian communities are exposed to unparalleled persecution and suffering”. In the past few years hundreds of thousands of Christian families have been forced to leave their homes where they had settled before all other religious communities and had lived in peace and security for centuries, he pointed out.

The Foreign Minister said that this is why it is important to fully eliminate the terrorist organisation Islamic State, “but we cannot sit down and relax until the international community ensures that Christians driven away from their homes in the Middle East” may return to their homes, that the persecution of Christian communities in the Middle East comes to an end, and that they enjoy the same rights as all other communities in the region.

He said the Hungarian government will continue its policy of supporting Christian communities in the Middle East. In the past two years they have spent HUF 4.5 billion on supporting Christian communities in the Middle East so that they do not have to leave their homes, he pointed out.

The Minister said that as part of this effort, within the framework of an internationally recognised project, in the settlement of Tesqopa in Iraq they have rebuilt the homes of 991 Christian families who were previously driven away. With projects like this they seek to counter “the shocking process that in the past 15 years the size of the Christian community in Iraq has decreased to one fifth of what it was”, he explained.

He also highlighted that Hungary is taking part in the refurbishment of 31 Christian churches in Lebanon, sponsors and supports the schools, hospitals and churches of Christian communities, and is refurbishing an orphanage together with Poland.

(MTI)