ooking back on the conclusion of , against the backdrop of the centenary of the 14-point Declaration of President Woodrow Wilson, one cannot help but agree Lthat the general negligence of the victorious Entente-powers in honouring the concept of self-determination as a guiding principle for redrawing European and world maps, generated almost insurmountable differences among the nations and nationalities of the PROMISES old continent in general, and Central-Eastern Europe in particular. A salient example is the case of and its approach to the AND Hungarian speaking community of Transyl- vania. In particular, those who live compactly PRACTICES in a traditional region called Szeklerland (Székelyföld). In the following brief study I intend to 100 YEARS demonstrate on the example of Szeklerland that for nearly 100 years now, Romania OF STRUGGLE has been intentionally failing to implement her obligations pertaining to minority protec- tion. As subjects of the nationalizing policies FOR SZEKLER of consecutive Romanian administrations,(1) Szeklers had to come to terms with being incorporated into a state that has been AUTONOMY treating members of the community as third grade citizens, and their aspirations for grea- ter self-rule as a potential threat to the exis- IN ROMANIA tence of the state.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT If one juxtaposes the content with the implementation of salient treaties con- cluded by, or related to Romania throughout the course of the XIX, XX and XXI cen- tury, it becomes quite unambiguous that the country was never serious in accepting any kind of practical constraints on its authority ATTILA DABIS regarding the treatment of minorities.(2) This COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS was true of the Treaty of Paris (1856), which granted autonomous status to OF THE SZEKLER NATIONAL COUNCIL and Moldova within the Ottoman Empire; the Treaty of Berlin (1878) that provided international recognition for Romania; the Treaty of Versailles (1919) that significantly expanded the borders of the country; or the specific conventions and charters that deal exclusively with human- and minority rights (e.g.: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992), or the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1994). FIGURE 1. a salient factor in the future of the region, given CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE BEFORE AND that the leadership of the Soviet Union considered AFTER WORLD WAR I. that a certain degree of autonomy must be accorded to Szeklerland, in the framework of post-war peace building in the Eastern bloc.(4) Thus, the constitutionally entrenched Hungarian Autonomous Province (HAP) was created in 1952, providing some level of autonomy, mostly in cultural and linguistic issues, to a predominantly Szekler administrative unit. Being a huge thorn in the side of the nationalistic communist political elite, the borders of HAP were first redrawn in 1960 (by incorporating Romanian-speaking MAP COURTESY OF HAUS PUBLISHING communes, and taking away Hungarian-speaking ones, in pursuit of altering the ethnic/cultural Most importantly, article 11 of the Treaty proportion of the population), only to be eliminated between the Principal Allied and Associated Powers in 1968 through Law nr. 2 (a law still in force), and Romania, signed in Paris on 9 December establishing the currently existing administrative 1919, stipulated that “Romania agrees to accord division of Romania.(5) to the communities of the Saxons and Szeklers in autonomy in regard to educational and religious matters”. The guarantor of this treaty was BASIC FEATURES OF THE DRAFT the League of Nations, as well as the Permanent STATUTE OF AUTONOMY OF Court of International Justice. In practice, this SZEKLERLAND meant that Romania agreed that any member of This takes us to contemporary times. the Council of the League of Nations shall have On the one hand, consecutive Romanian the right to bring to the attention of the Council administrations voiced plans of an administrative any infraction, or any danger of infraction of these reform which would merge the three counties with obligations, and that any difference of opinion substantial Szekler-Hungarian population (Harghita/ regarding these obligations shall be referred to Hargita-82.9%, Covasna/Kovászna-73.79% and the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Mures/Maros-38.09%) into a larger administrative decisions of which shall be final and undisputable. region (together with overwhelmingly Romanian The rapid collapse of the minority-protection system Alba, , and Brasov counties), in which the of the League of Nations, however, rendered these proportion of Szekler-Hungarians would drop below provisions void and unenforceable. 30%. On the other hand, however, the autonomy The Hungarian Kingdom had lost over 70% statute draft, elaborated by the Szekler National of its territory, and more than 60% of its population, Council, enumerates those municipalities that should including around 3.7 million ethnic Hungarians (who become part of a unified Szekler administrative (6) mostly lived directly adjacent to the newly established unit, vested with autonomous competencies. borders), as a consequence of the peace Treaty of Based on this draft, an autonomous Szeklerland Trianon (1920). From the 325.411 km² large pre-war would have the following basic characteristics: territory of the country, the part that Romania had received (103 093 km²), was in itself bigger than EL ARTÍCULO 11 DEL TRATADO ENTRE Hungary today (93 030 km²). As of that point, it became a raison d’État for Hungary to win back LAS PRINCIPALES POTENCIAS ALIADAS the lost territories.(3) To this end, the country sided Y ASOCIADAS Y RUMANIA, FIRMADO with the Axis Powers who decided to redraw the EN PARÍS EL 9 DE DICIEMBRE DE borders so as to give back Hungary neighbouring 1919, ESTIPULABA QUE “RUMANIA SE territories where the majority was Hungarian- COMPROMETE A CONCEDER A LAS speaking, including northern-Transylvania, and COMUNIDADES DE LOS SAJONES Y LOS with it, also Szeklerland. The effects of these SÍCULOS DE TRANSILVANIA AUTONOMÍA so-called first and second Vienna Awards (adopted EN LO RELATIVO A LAS CUESTIONES in 1938 and 1940 respectively) lasted only until the end of the war, after which Szeklerland once again EDUCATIVAS Y RELIGIOSAS” became a part of Romania, as well as the Soviet sphere of influence. This latter fact proved to be

2~5. PROMISES AND PRACTICES 100 YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR SZEKLER AUTONOMY IN ROMANIA. ATTILA DABIS 19 • A regional executive power, responsible for a constitutional order of Romania due to the fact that democratically elected autonomous legislature. the first article of the constitution stipulates that The latter would have its seat in Marosvásárhely/ the country is a “sovereign, independent, unitary Târgu Mures, the historical capital of Szeklerland, and indivisible National State”. This misbelief and would take over the exercise of various follows from the general misunderstanding on the competences from the central state, as set out in connection between state sovereignty and the the statute of autonomy. devolution of powers to sub-state entities. In fact, • The autonomous government would assume there are no constitutional obstacles to establish jurisdiction from the central state to make a territorial autonomy within Romania. There are decisions in: education and culture; mass only political obstacles, which tend to be wrapped communication and media; public welfare; and presented as legal ones as a means to avoid roads and transportation; local commercial- and any kind of dialogue with the representatives of the industrial activity; agriculture; forestry; mining and Szekler community on regional power sharing.(7) energy production; determining its own municipal system; ownership and management of public (8) property, utilities, and local tax revenues. PRESENT DAY CHALLENGES • The funding base for the exercise of these As mentioned earlier, Romania has always competencies would come from the autonomous been reluctant to accept constraints on its authority regions capacity to levy and collect its own taxes towards minorities. Various political and diplomatic and fees. The bulk of these revenues would elites preferred investing their creative energies in remain in the region, but a pre-negotiated sum generating the appearance that the country abides would be transferred to the central budget, just by their international commitments regarding like in the case of the Basque country. minority protection to actually abiding by them. The • The would become an consequences of this general rule of law deficiency official language in Szeklerland, together with are tangible in everyday life. the . There would also be a The Szekler community as a whole, and linguistic quota, such as the one existing in South- their autonomy aspirations in particular are being Tyrol, meaning that the linguistic composition of the treated as a threat to national security. This is the region -as established by the last census- should reason why even blatant violations of fundamental be reflected in the composition of the personnel human rights are perceived as a legitimate tool of the public institution, notwithstanding the fact against people associated with the autonomy that all public employees would be obliged to movement. A salient example in this respect have fluency in both Hungarian and Romanian is the practice of public authorities in trying to languages. systematically hamper the organisation of the Day • The traditional administrative units called Szekler of Szekler Freedom protest, which is the largest seats (Székely székek) would be re-established, pro-autonomy demonstration in Szeklerland each and granted local legislative and executive year. As of 2014, public authorities have been competencies. continuously imposing prior time-place-manner • Finally but most importantly, the autonomous restriction, and/or sight-and-sound sanctions in region would be entrenched in the Romanian connection to this event. In 2015, the Mayors legal system. No separate state entity would Office of Marosvásárhely (where the demonstration come into being. Citizens of an autonomous takes place) decided to ban the protest altogether, Szeklerland would continue to be citizens of while in 2016 the Gendarmerie issued over 100 Romania, sharing rights and obligations with financial penalties for organisers and participants other Romanian citizens that arise from the laws alike, amounting to over 61.000 euros, violating of the state. The Constitution of the country would the rights of persons belonging to the Szekler remain the highest legal norm for an autonomous community to freedom of speech, expression and Szeklerland, meaning that the Constitutional peaceful assembly. In 2018, the Ministry of Internal Court of Romania would be able to quash Affairs decided to impose an unlawful entry ban on legislation of the autonomous parliament if they the Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the Szekler deem it violates the provisions of the Constitution. National Council, that is, on the author of this study. At this point, it is noteworthy to make a One of the most widespread and brief reference to the widespread albeit false pervasive problem pertains to the notorious non- presupposition, namely that territorial autonomy implementation of rights linked to the exercise, as an institutional solution contradicts the and reproduction of minority language and culture.

20 3~5. PROMISES AND PRACTICES 100 YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR SZEKLER AUTONOMY IN ROMANIA. ATTILA DABIS Existing linguistic rights are seldom implemented redressed and remedied properly in the framework (including those on the use of the Hungarian language of a territorial autonomy arrangement. in public administration, or on bilingual place name signs); institutions educating in Hungarian often face enormous and unjustifiable administrative VIEW TO A SOLUTION obstacles (like in the case of the University of The long-term aim of the Romanian Medicine and Pharmacy of Marosvásárhely / Târgu nation-building project has continued to be the Mures, where medical education in Hungarian has establishment of an ethnically homogenous nation been continuously sabotaged for several years state. This overarching endeavour represented a now); additionally, the cultural landscape of public perpetual casus belli towards the largest nationality spaces remain predominantly Romanian, even of the country, Hungarians, who were subject in municipalities with a significant proportion of to policies ranging from ethnic cleansing, mass Hungarian inhabitants. deportations, confiscation of property, and total disenfranchisement in the XX. century, to today’s Furthermore, the restitution process of measures of gross violation of fundamental civil property that had been confiscated during the liberties, systematic non-implementation of laws communist regime was effectively stopped, and pertaining to minority protection, and covert in some cases the Szekler community faces economic discrimination. the re-nationalisation of private property (as it happened in the case of the Székely Mikó College in Romanian political culture is characterised Sepsiszentgyörgy / Sfântu Gheorghe for example). by historically-rooted and deeply embedded resentments towards Hungarians that serve as the Public institutions, as well as private underlying cause explaining the existential distress individuals that openly use Szekler symbols are that the idea of Szekler autonomy generates within being fined and prosecuted, even though there are no legal grounds whatsoever that would prohibit FIGURE 2. (9) the use of Szekler symbols. By now, this practice PHOTOS TAKEN AT VARIOUS PRO-AUTONOMY has resulted is several dozens of lawsuits related to DEMONSTRATIONS IN SZEKLERLAND BETWEEN the use of the Szekler flag. 2013 AND 2016 Economic discrimination is the order of the day, as Szekler communes receive proportionately fewer sources relative to their Romanian counterparts not just from the central budget, but from the regional development funds of the EU as well. The map in Figure 3 shows the evolution of GDP per capita in the Central Romania Development Region by counties from 2007, i.e. Romania’s accession to the EU, until 2013. The Romanian Majority Brassó County shows nearly 20% increase in this time, whereas neighbouring Covasna County, which has a Szekler majority, only shows an increase of 1.7%. These counter- productive developments continued under the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014- 2020, as EU funds are not always being used to reduce the level of disparities in economic development, but rather for the opposite effect to generate economic backlog to the detriment of regions inhabited predominantly by the Szekler community(10) While Szekler NGO’s, pressure groups and other representative organisations make efforts to tackle these challenges on a case-to-case basis by way of various advocacy activities, one can accurately conclude that the set of discrimination and rights violations that the Szekler community has been facing is so widespread and multifaceted that it can only be PHOTOS BY MTI - HUNGARIAN NEWS AGENCY

4~5. PROMISES AND PRACTICES 100 YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR SZEKLER AUTONOMY IN ROMANIA. ATTILA DABIS 21 the Romanian society.(11) This also explains the harsh ENDNOTES counter-measures that Romanian public authorities 1. For a comprehensive historical overview see: Bárdi, Nándor - Fedinec, Csilla - Szarka, László (eds.) (2011): Minority Hungarian communities deploy from time-to-time. No tool is illegitimate if you in the twentieth century. East European Monographs, 774. Boulder; are countering an opponent that is perceived to be Columbia University Press: New York. an imminent threat to the constitutional order and the 2. See a useful summary of such observations in: Krasner, Stephen D. (1999): Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton integrity of the country. Therefore, desecuritization University, pp. 73-105. of the issue is key to bring about a harmonious 3. See data in the Annexes of Bárdi-Fedinec-Szarka 2011. i.m. coexistence between the Szekler and Romanian 4. The establishment of an autonomous Szekler district also provided communities. Eventually, the Romanian state will a certain leverage for the soviet communist party over its Romanian counterpart. need to surpass its unfounded fears, and engage in 5. In this sense this short-lived Szekler autonomy joined the ranks of a dialogue with its own Szekler/Hungarian citizens other autonomy arrangements that were abolished due to continuous to negotiate an arrangement on regional power resistance of the central government (e.g.: Chittagong autonomy in Bangladesh under the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord 1997, South Sudan sharing. The best way the autonomy movement can under the 1971 Addis Abeba Agreement, or the repeal of Eritrea’s contribute to achieve this result is to build trust in the autonomy in 1962). majority society, by remaining coherent about the 6. See this list of municipalities in the Annexes of the Draft statute, available under the documents section of the homepage of the Szekler target and the instrument of the final goal. Szekler National Council (www.sznt.org). self-determination needs to keep revolving around 7. For more details on the topic see the doctoral dissertation of Dabis, Attila, entitled: „Misbeliefs about Autonomy - The Constitutionality of the autonomy (and not secession) using, as in the past, Autonomy of Szeklerland” at phd.lib.uni-corvinus.hu. peaceful and democratic means only. Efforts to 8. For more detail on the cases and rights violations mentioned in involve key actors of the international community, this chapter see the evidence provided in the Joint Shadow Report of the Szekler National Council and the Hungarian National Council of including the kin-state, is pivotal in this process. As Transylvania, presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe seen in other cases, the engagement of international on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Romania, submitted in December 2016, available in institutions and/or foreign states could play a salient the archive section of www.emnt.org. role in promoting dialogue between the parties, and 9. In fact, the main Szekler symbols - the sun and the moon - are present in fostering the improvement of autonomy related in the coat of arms of Romania, as part of the coat of arms of Transylvania. practices and legislation. 10. This development gap between richer and poorer Szeklers has been growing ever since, while the current monitoring system of the EU’s regional policy (including ex-ante-, ongoing-, and ex-post evaluation As a concluding remark, I would like to of operational programmes) is unable to detect and prevent cases where quote the thoughts of Pope Francis: “From the EU development funds are being used discriminatively, against national ashes of the Great War, we can learn the lesson… communities. 11. See e.g. the findings of the periodic reports of the European that victory never means humiliating a defeated Commission against Racism and Intolerance on Romania. foe. Peace is not built by vaunting the power of 12. Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Diplomatic Corps the victor over the vanquished. Future acts of accredited to the Holy See for the traditional exchange of New Year greetings, delivered on 8 January 2018, in the Vatican City - Apostolic aggression are not deterred by the law of fear, Palace - Sala Regia. but rather by the power of calm reason that encourages dialogue and mutual understanding as a means of resolving differences.”(12)

FIGURE 3. ETHNIC MAP OF TRANSYLVANIA, JUXTAPOSED WITH BORDERS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND NUTS II REGIONS OF THE AREA, AS WELL AS THE INCREMENT OF THEIR GDP PER CAPITA INCOME BETWEEN 2007-2013

MAP COURTESY OF THE SZEKLER NATIONAL COUNCIL

22 5~5. PROMISES AND PRACTICES 100 YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR SZEKLER AUTONOMY IN ROMANIA. ATTILA DABIS