“The protection of Christian communities throughout the world must be reinforced because their situation is becoming increasingly difficult in many places”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday in Vienna.
In his speech at an event on the protection of persecuted Christians held on the sidelines of the session of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Minister highlighted: “Hungary is recommending that the International Criminal Court should not leave the terrible acts committed against Christians unpunished, and that the international community must give Middle-Eastern Christians a guarantee that they will be able to return to their homes as quickly as possible as soon as the conflicts are resolved”.
“The dangerous trend of anti-Christianity is gaining increased strength, terrible atrocities are being committed against Christians throughout the world, and many of them are being forced to leave their homes. For some reason the world is behaving hypocritically with relation to this issue, as if anti-Christianity was an acceptable form of discrimination”, he said.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, international organisations are hardly involved in protecting Christian communities, while they are conducting major efforts with relation to other religious communities. “This situation must change; the protection of Christians must be taken seriously”, he declared.
“Hungary does not support efforts aimed at moving Christian communities away from the Middle East, but instead it must be made possible for them to live in peace in the place where they have lived for centuries”, the Foreign Minister said.
“The Hungarian Government believes in action, not words, and accordingly it is providing assistance where help is needed”, he said, before listing the many projects with which Hungary is supporting Christian communities in the Middle East.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
