With 156,000 Hungarians residing within the Ukraine and Hungarian separatism rising, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto calls on “Kiev to “leave the Hungarians alone” and stop violating their rights.”
By Paul Antonopoulos, June 25, 2018
First published on FRN
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has called on Kiev to “leave the Hungarians alone” and stop violating their rights.
“We support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, but its war with Russia can not and should not be an excuse to violate the rights of the Hungarians” living in Ukraine, said the foreign minister as quoted by the Russian edition Izvestiya .
According to the Hungarian politician, Budapest and Kiev need to restore the level of bilateral relations prior to September 2017. That year, the Ukrainian authorities adopted a controversial law on education, according to which, from the fifth year, the teaching of children of ethnic minorities should be conducted exclusively in Ukrainian.
“Leave the Hungarians alone,” Szijjarto said, emphasizing that he does not share the concerns of Ukrainian authorities that there are separatist feelings in the territories inhabited by people of Hungarian origin.
In May of this year, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that due to the law, the country will begin the review of Ukraine’s association agreement with the European Union as the country evidently does not live up to the supposed norms and standards that the union ‘champions’.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian census there were 156,000 Hungarians living in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, earlier this month the Hungarian Air Force was put on alert for a small Ukrainian plane that entered the country’s airspace, Mukachevo.net reported.
According to the site, the incident occurred in the border area, in the Luzhanka-Beregsurany checkpoint area.
The Hungarian border guards immediately gave the alarm signal and reported on the offending jet to the NATO alliance. Following this, multi-purpose fighters of the fourth generation Saab JAS 39 Gripen took flight.
The Ukrainian plane left the Hungarian airspace after making several maneuvers. The military does not rule out the aircraft was being used for smuggling or trafficking, transporting illegal immigrants or prohibited articles from the Ukrainian area of Transcarpathia.
