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Politics.hu, Hungary
Sept 27 2012
Why Hungarian nationalists should be mad that Armenia is still so mad at Hungary
By Erik D'Amato
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 Orbán 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.
http://www.politics.hu/20120927/why-hungarian-nationalists-should-be-mad-that-armenia-is-still-so-mad-at-hungary/#commentbottom
From: Baghdasarian
Sept 27 2012
Why Hungarian nationalists should be mad that Armenia is still so mad at Hungary
By Erik D'Amato
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 Orbán 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.
http://www.politics.hu/20120927/why-hungarian-nationalists-should-be-mad-that-armenia-is-still-so-mad-at-hungary/#commentbottom
From: Baghdasarian