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  • Budapest: Hungarian Citizens Are Not Exposed to Danger

    Magyar Nemzet, Hungary
    Sept 26 2012

    Hungarian Citizens Are Not Exposed to Danger

    by T.N.


    At his hearing, State Secretary Janos Lazar, who has been in charge of
    the Information Office (IH) the civilian intelligence service since
    September, said that the organization has never been accused of
    fulfilling political tasks and the IH has been able to keep away from
    "the world of political intrigues" in the last 22 years.

    He also said that, in his opinion, the time has not yet come for the
    modification of the national security law and, although the relevant
    efforts are legitimate, they are not mature. At the same time, he
    regards as important the strengthening of internal supervision, Janos
    Lazar pointed out. Answering a question, he said that, according to
    his professional position, the IH needs an internal supervision
    system.

    Speaking about the role of the IH supervision in the current system,
    he said that it is fully compatible with the German model, namely
    that, in addition to the civilian intelligence service, the military
    intelligence service is also supervised by the chancellor's office. He
    pointed out that guaranteeing the country's financial independence
    represents special attention and increased workload for the IH in the
    future too. He signalled that, for this, he will propose that the IH
    receive the necessary financial means for the "new type of tasks."

    He mentioned the fact that the IH budget ranged from 7.7 billion to 8
    billion forints last year. In his words, this amount covers the
    current activity, but if they expect higher level activity and more
    serious achievements from the organization, this will need more money.
    He added that highly trained personnel is needed, as well as technical
    and technological development.

    He also mentioned the fact that particular attention to the country's
    energy security is among the outstanding tasks of the IH. In
    connection with this, he called the fact that the country's natural
    gas purchasing contract ends in 2015 one of Hungary's most serious
    issues.

    Janos Lazar also called the IH's national strategy tasks an important
    issue. He pointed out that the introduction of double citizenship
    represents a serious task and responsibility for the national security
    services, because they have to protect the interests of Hungarian
    citizens beyond the borders along with honouring and maintaining the
    partnership relations with the neighbouring countries.

    He drew the attention to the fact that the number of Hungarian
    citizens in the Carpathian Basin is expected to increase by 500,000 by
    2014, and this represents serious extra tasks and responsibility for
    the IH. In his view, we must develop an election procedure system
    which represents the smallest risk to the Hungarian citizens beyond
    the borders and, therefore, in his view, registration in this circle
    is inevitable, just like voting by mail.

    Answering the deputies' questions, Janos Lazar also spoke about the
    Azeri extradition affair and its repercussions. He repeated the
    government's earlier positions and mentioned the fact that, since the
    brutal murder committed in 2004, the prevailing Azeri government has
    continuously asked Hungary to extradite the Azeri soldier, including
    the current government. In his view, the decision on the extradition
    did not represent a real security risk for any Hungarian citizen.

    He pointed out that "we have been living together with Armenians here
    in the Carpathian Basin for 600 years and nobody can seriously think
    that there is a responsible politician in Hungary who would question
    the legitimacy of the Armenian community living in Hungary or in the
    territory of the historical Hungary or wanted to harm them in any way,
    nothing like that," At the same time, referring to opposition
    deputies, he said that "people who do not know anything about
    Armenians suddenly appearing as their legal protectors is a political
    action at least and not genuine."

    Janos Lazar also mentioned that Prime Minister Viktor Orban will
    travel to Georgia on Wednesday [ 26 September] where ther e are
    300,000 Armenians. He thought that it would transpire how the Armenian
    community "reacts" to the prime minister's visit.

    According to MSZP deputy Tamas Harangozo, Janos Lazar's words made it
    clear among other things that every security and diplomatic risk was
    clear and unequivocal to every government member and the decision was
    made aware of all this. In his view, the question is what Viktor Orban
    received in exchange, and this will transpire sooner or later.

    [Translated from Hungarian]

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