“Hungary’s policy of aiding persecuted Christians has proven that migration must be handled at its roots”, State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the Realisation of the Hungary Helps Program Tristan Azbej said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI following the opening of an exhibition entitled Cross-Fire presenting the situation of persecuted Christians and the related Hungarian policy in Washington on Wednesday.

The exhibition at the Bible Museum in Washington is the third time in two years that the Hungarian government’s Hungary Helps Program aimed at combatting Christian persecution and aiding the persecuted at home has been presented in the United States.

Following the official opening of the exhibition, Mr. Azbej said the new exhibition has been update and expanded compared to the two previous exhibitions, the reason for which is “both sad and joyous”. “The sad reason is that the violent persecution of Christians has grown to affect more and more parts of the world, now also including countries in Africa, in addition to the Middle East”, he said.

“The situation has stabilised somewhat in the Middle East, partly because of the collapse of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, and partly because huge numbers of Christians have unfortunately fled the region but in the meantime a genocidal level of Christian persecution has begin northern Nigeria and in Burkina Faso. This is why we had to expand out exhibition to present the phenomenon in the capital of the world’s leading superpower”, the State Secretary said.

Mr. Azbej said the joyous part of the exhibition is that the Hungary Helps Program can now boast many more achievements than previously.

“Two and a half years ago, the Hungarian government was the only country int eh world to launch a program to aid persecuted religious groups. Today, we can state that we are supporting persecuted Christian communities in some ten countries around the world, destroyed school, churches, and sometimes whole settlements have been reconstructed, communities that were destitute and on the brink of total annihilation have receive assistance to enable them to continue to exist. Over the past two year we have contributed to enabling 70 thousand persecuted Christians to remain at home or to return home from emigration”, he stated.

“By doing so, Hungary has on the one hand served the world’s most persecuted and most often forgotten religious community, and in addition to humanitarian consideration, has served the interests of the Hungarian people by preventing and curbing migration pressure on Europe”, Mr. Azbej emphasised.

“In addition to presenting the sufferings of the humiliated and distressed, the goal of the exhibition is to show the true face of the Hungarian people and the Hungarian government, in contrast to the ‘slanders’ with which primarily liberal politicians and liberal organisations are labelling Hungary”, the State Secretary highlighted.

“We are showing that our hearts are not made of stone, only that we regard migration as damaging in every respect, and support the idea of not bringing the trouble to Hungary, but of taking assistance to where the trouble is”, Mr. Azbej declared.

“One of the express purposes of the exhibition is to encourage American decision-makers and the administration to follow Hungary’s example, and this is something to which they are indeed open. The first major programmes being realised in Hungarian-American cooperation were launched in October, firstly in Northern Iraq, where both Christians and the Yazidi people are receiving assistance”, he said.

The State Secretary told the press that he had once again held talks with high-ranking U.S. officials, including secretaries of state, with relation to further joint programs, which in addition to Middle Eastern cooperative programs will now also include African programs.

Mr. Azbej said tat in December 2019 he had visited Burkina Faso, where he was witness to tragic developments. “The first stage of a genocide is taking place there, and this remains totally hidden from the outside world. Over a thousand people have been murdered in the country for religious reasons in a wave of jihadist and Islamist terror, over a million people are living as domestic refugees, and essentially a whole generation, some 200 thousand children, are growing up without an education. We had to visit the location to be able to assess this, and as a result to launch programmes aimed at the education of children and the rehabilitation of abused women”, he stated.

“Narrative with relation to the persecution of Christians is the subject of an ideological struggle within the politics of the western member states of the European Union”, Mr. Azbej emphasised.

“Their narrative cannot include the fact that Christians are being persecuted, nor that Hungary is not a depriver of rights, but in fact is practicing exemplary politic within the field of human right and solidarity”, he stated.

“In Europe they are on the one hand trying to downplay the persecution of Christians, and on the other hand would like to conceal Hungary’s efforts”, the State Secretary added.

“Pro-migration politicians are terrified that it will be proven that the Hungarian approach, according to which the problem of migration must be handled at its roots, is not only mor effective that the migration policy they are trying to force, but is also more favourable”, Mr. Azbej stated.

(MTI)