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Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics27525.html
Published: 15:54:34 - 27/09/2012
Politics.hu - A statement yesterday by the Hungarian foreign ministry
that it has "not much else" to offer Armenia to help mend the
diplomatic relations shattered by the Ramil Safarov affair suggests
that the Hungarian government is really trying to draw a line under
the ugly split.
I doubt it will work. Despite Hungary's ongoing attempts to squelch
the inferno of Armenian rage at the release and subsequent pardoning
of the Azerbaijani axe-killer, the Armenian government and members
of the large worldwide diaspora of Armenians seem united in their
unwillingness to cool off.
Contrast this with the reaction in Hungary and among Hungarians abroad,
who early on divided along partisan lines, with the left lashing
out at the Orban government for springing Safarov, allegedly as part
of a deal with Azerbaijan involving monetary benefits for Budapest,
and the right defending the government.
While such a split among Hungarians is quite predictable, I can't help
but find it incongruous, because there are good reasons why Hungarian
nationalists of the sort that have backed the government throughout
the controversy should be its biggest critics on the issue. Indeed,
of all the countries that a nationalist Hungary should be cultivating
good ties with, Armenia should be near the top of the list, for
reasons of both principle and practicality.
One (literally) graphic illustration of why is offered by the pair
of maps reproduced above. On the left, you've got a demographic map
of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Transylvania, and on the right,
one of Nagorno-Karabakh, the break-away ethnic Armenian enclave
within Azerbaijan.
The two situations are obviously not identical. As a percentage of the
population of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (4%) is much smaller than the
population of Hungarians living in Transylvania (12%). And relations
between Hungary and Romania (or Slovakia, the other neighboring country
with a large Hungarian minority) are on their worst day miles better
than between Armenia and Azerbaijan on their best.
Still, the parallels are striking, and if there is any country in
Europe (last year it began negotiations to become an associate member
of the EU) that can identify with the challenges Hungary faces in
this area, it is Armenia.
Meanwhile, for those who doubt whether Armenia has the clout to
actually help Hungary and its ethnic kin abroad, the answer is yes. In
the US, the "Armenian lobby" is widely seen as one of the top three
such ethnic lobbies (the Cubans and Jews are the others). And it is not
just in the US that the Armenian Diaspora flexes its political muscle.
But now, rather than that muscle being flexed on behalf of
the Hungarian nation, it will be flexed against Hungary and the
Hungarians. And it should be Hungarian nationalists - rather than
their "internationalist" rivals on the left - who should be the most
enraged by the supposedly nationalist government that has allowed
this to happen.
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics27525.html
Published: 15:54:34 - 27/09/2012
Politics.hu - A statement yesterday by the Hungarian foreign ministry
that it has "not much else" to offer Armenia to help mend the
diplomatic relations shattered by the Ramil Safarov affair suggests
that the Hungarian government is really trying to draw a line under
the ugly split.
I doubt it will work. Despite Hungary's ongoing attempts to squelch
the inferno of Armenian rage at the release and subsequent pardoning
of the Azerbaijani axe-killer, the Armenian government and members
of the large worldwide diaspora of Armenians seem united in their
unwillingness to cool off.
Contrast this with the reaction in Hungary and among Hungarians abroad,
who early on divided along partisan lines, with the left lashing
out at the Orban government for springing Safarov, allegedly as part
of a deal with Azerbaijan involving monetary benefits for Budapest,
and the right defending the government.
While such a split among Hungarians is quite predictable, I can't help
but find it incongruous, because there are good reasons why Hungarian
nationalists of the sort that have backed the government throughout
the controversy should be its biggest critics on the issue. Indeed,
of all the countries that a nationalist Hungary should be cultivating
good ties with, Armenia should be near the top of the list, for
reasons of both principle and practicality.
One (literally) graphic illustration of why is offered by the pair
of maps reproduced above. On the left, you've got a demographic map
of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Transylvania, and on the right,
one of Nagorno-Karabakh, the break-away ethnic Armenian enclave
within Azerbaijan.
The two situations are obviously not identical. As a percentage of the
population of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (4%) is much smaller than the
population of Hungarians living in Transylvania (12%). And relations
between Hungary and Romania (or Slovakia, the other neighboring country
with a large Hungarian minority) are on their worst day miles better
than between Armenia and Azerbaijan on their best.
Still, the parallels are striking, and if there is any country in
Europe (last year it began negotiations to become an associate member
of the EU) that can identify with the challenges Hungary faces in
this area, it is Armenia.
Meanwhile, for those who doubt whether Armenia has the clout to
actually help Hungary and its ethnic kin abroad, the answer is yes. In
the US, the "Armenian lobby" is widely seen as one of the top three
such ethnic lobbies (the Cubans and Jews are the others). And it is not
just in the US that the Armenian Diaspora flexes its political muscle.
But now, rather than that muscle being flexed on behalf of
the Hungarian nation, it will be flexed against Hungary and the
Hungarians. And it should be Hungarian nationalists - rather than
their "internationalist" rivals on the left - who should be the most
enraged by the supposedly nationalist government that has allowed
this to happen.