One of the political messages of the Award for Hungarian Communities Beyond the Borders is that we shall not abandon our persecuted fellow-Hungarians, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said on Friday at the presentation of the awards in Budapest.

The award presented on the occasion of our national holiday has a triple message: on the one hand, it is an expression of the appreciation of great individuals, while it is equally meant to acknowledge the given part of the nation, and it is likewise an indication of the fact that the Hungarian State pays close attention to them and looks upon them as a constituent part of the universal Hungarian nation, Mr Semjén stated.

He stressed: the award also has a political message, namely that we shall not abandon our persecuted fellow-Hungarians.

The political message of the awards now handed over is intentional and serves a specific purpose as those “Transylvanian friends of ours” receive the awards this year “whose names have been smeared in show trials”.

These people are being persecuted for being Hungarian, and the underlying intention is to intimidate the Hungarian community. The message is: they should not undertake any roles in public life, Mr Semjén said.

He stated: we must send a clear signal to our friends and opponents to the effect that we shall not abandon our persecuted fellow-Hungarians.

Mr Semjén also highlighted that there is true survival if each and every constituent part of the Hungarian nation survives. If any of them is defeated, “the entire universal Hungarian community becomes maimed”.

At the celebration ten Awards for Hungarian Communities Beyond the Borders were presented. This award is granted by the Prime Minister upon the recommendation of the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for Hungarian communities beyond the borders in recognition of outstanding achievements in the fields of public life, education, culture, church life, science and economic self-organisation as part of efforts made in the interest of Hungarian communities beyond the borders.

Four Transylvanian politicians have received awards this year: Árpád András Antal, Mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy, János Mezei, former Mayor of Gyergyószentmiklós, Róbert Kálmán Ráduly, Mayor of Csíkszereda, and Domokos Szőke, Deputy Mayor of Csíkszereda.

In addition to words of praise regarding their activities, it was also pointed out that Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism instituted criminal proceedings against Árpád András Antal on account of a political statement he made in December 2014. The procedure was closed in May 2016 without prosecution. The anti-corruption prosecution service instituted an investigation against János Mezei in January 2015, and charges were pressed against the politician, but the prosecution service has failed to substantiate his alleged dealings ever since. The National Anticorruption Directorate started investigations against Róbert Kálmán Ráduly and Domokos Szőke in April 2015.

The four awardees were unable to attend the ceremony; they will receive their awards at a later date.

The awardees also included Sándor Puss, the only Jesuit monk living in Southern Slovakia, who is a member of the Nagyszombat Jesuit Order. The priest has devoted his entire life to helping people in need and educating and teaching young people. Sándor Puss founded a children’s home in the locality of Rát in Transcarpathia with a population of one thousand five hundred – half of whom are Hungarians – together with fellow Jesuits.

The award was further granted to author Miklós Zelei, who started researching the history of Kisszelmenc and Nagyszelmenc – the localities which were cut into two at the end of World War II by the Soviet-Czechoslovak Iron Curtain – in 1994. During the course of the collection of documents related to the divided village, a major human rights struggle developed with a view to demolishing the Iron Curtain which continued to remain also beyond the change of regime and to open a border crossing station in the village. Miklós Zelei took the lion’s share in this movement. A border crossing point was finally opened in Szelmenc on 23 December 2005.

Awards were additionally granted to the Szőttes Chamber Folk Dance Ensemble, the Vojvodina Institute for Hungarian Education, the Forum of Hungarian Teachers in Croatia, and the Western European Association of Hungarian Country Organisations (Sweden).

The awards were presented by Zsolt Semjén and Árpád János Potápi, State Secretary for Nation Policy at the Prime Minister’s Office.

(Prime Minister's Office)