[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 104 (Thursday, June 4, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





REMEMBERING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATY OF TRIANON WITH HUNGARY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ANDY HARRIS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 4, 2020

  Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, as Co-Chair of the Congressional 
Hungarian-American Caucus, I rise today on the occasion of the 100th 
Anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary signed on June 4, 
1920, at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the First World War.
  The non-negotiable treaty cost Hungary over 70 percent of her 
territory and one-third or three million of her indigenous ethnic-
Hungarian population. For the last one hundred years, these ethnic 
Hungarian minorities have had to live in neighboring countries, with 
their cultural and political lives suffering at times.
  The Hungarian-American Caucus is a bipartisan group of distinguished 
House members, which seeks to represent the interests of Hungarian 
American constituents; foster bilateral relations between Hungary, a 
strong NATO ally, and the United States; and protect the rights of 
Hungarian minorities in Europe.
  To that end, I include in the Record the following statement by the 
American Hungarian Federation, the oldest American Hungarian 
association in the United States, founded in 1906 in Cleveland, Ohio, 
and based in Washington, D.C., on the occasion of this 100th 
Anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon.


                     american hungarian foundation

       Akos L. Nagy, President of American Hungarian Federation.
       Paul Kamenar, Chair, Executive Committee.
       Frank Koszorus, Jr., Chair, International Relations 
     Committee.


               The Treaty of Trianon: A Hungarian Tragedy

     ``Ancient poets and theologians could not imagine such 
         suffering, which Trianon brought to the innocent. In 
         their eyes, that was for the damned in Hell.''--Sir 
         Winston Churchill
       One hundred years ago, June 4, 1920, the Hungarian 
     delegation to the Paris Peace Conference was forced to sign 
     the punishing Treaty of Trianon, arguably the most severe of 
     all the post-World War I settlements concluded at the 
     conference. Led by the Big Four--the United States, Great 
     Britain, France and Italy--those treaties were collectively 
     designed to conclude the First World War and make the ``world 
     safe for democracy,'' according to President Woodrow Wilson.
       The ``peacemakers'' instead concocted a hazardous brew. The 
     ostensible ``peace'' turned out to be only an armistice as 
     World War II erupted merely 20 years later. Tens of millions 
     of civilians and members of the military died in that war; 
     the Holocaust devastated the European Jewish community; a 
     murderous Stalin occupied Central and Eastern Europe; and the 
     world was thrust into a costly and dangerous Cold War. 
     Supposedly in the name of national self-determination, 
     Trianon dismembered the thousand-year-old Kingdom of Hungary, 
     a self-contained, geographically and economically coherent 
     and durable formation in the Carpathian Basin, boasting the 
     longest lasting historical borders in Europe.
       The resulting non-negotiable treaty cost Hungary over 70 
     percent of her territory and one-third or three million of 
     her indigenous ethnic-Hungarian population. Add to this the 
     loss of all her seaports and up to 90 percent of her vast 
     natural resources, industry, railways, and other 
     infrastructure.
       Millions of Hungarians woke up one morning and saw borders 
     arbitrarily redrawn around them without plebiscites, ignoring 
     Wilson's lofty goal of national self-determination. The 
     ``absurd'' treaty, as Wilson later referred to it, was never 
     ratified by the United States; ignored a millennia of nation 
     building and age-old cultural affiliations; created new and 
     enlarged countries; and produced millions of new minorities 
     who today struggle for survival of their ethnic identity.
       To this very day, Hungarian minorities have been subjected 
     to discrimination, intolerance and violence. Schools in the 
     successor states limit students from studying in their native 
     Hungarian language; Hungarian church properties have been 
     confiscated; and cemeteries and cultural monuments have been 
     vandalized. The ``peacemakers'' did insist that the new 
     successor states, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, 
     sign various international instruments that included 
     provisions for the protection of minorities. But those 
     promises are largely unkept.
       Despite these promises and the fact that Romania obtained 
     Transylvania from Hungary under Trianon--more territory than 
     remained as Hungary--Romania continues to ignore its 
     obligations. Just recently in April, Romania's president 
     incited animosity against its ethnic Hungarians by making 
     inflammatory statements resulting in tensions between Hungary 
     and Romania, two NATO allies. The Hungarian historical 
     communities in Romania, particularly the Szeklers, are denied 
     a range of rights that threatens their very cultural 
     existence.
       Hungarians in Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine have 
     all requested semi-autonomy by peaceful and democratic means. 
     Such local governance would ensure democracy to beleaguered 
     Hungarians, fulfill promises made to them one hundred years 
     ago, and strengthen the democratic process by serving as a 
     model of how majorities and minorities can work together to 
     redress past wrongs.
       Considering the far-reaching implications of 
     discrimination, intolerance, and animosity directed at the 
     Hungarian minorities, the response from the European Union 
     and the United States to date has been tepid. Stronger 
     measures must be taken to remedy the ongoing abuses of 
     minority rights that contravene numerous European Commission 
     standards.
       Together, the European Union and United States must ensure 
     that democratic principles and international norms and 
     practices relating to national minorities will finally 
     prevail in Central and Eastern Europe and bring regional 
     tension to a just and lasting end, all of which is in the 
     strategic interests of the United States and the American 
     people. Only then will the Tragedy of Trianon be addressed.

                          ____________________