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Nepszabadsag website, Hungary
Sept 28 2012
Nemeth: The Azeri's Procedure Left a Thorh in the Government
Interview with Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth by Edit Inodai
[Inodai] Has the Foreign Ministry closed the Azeri-Armenian-Hungarian
affair and have you drown any conclusions from it?
[Nemeth] The Foreign Ministry continuously fulfilled its task during
the preparation of the decision, so the prime minister was aware of
the foreign policy consequences. As for closing the affair down: such
an affair cannot be closed down, because the Hungarian government's
decision leads to a lot of conclusions and tasks. One of the
consequences is the Armenian relations that can be handled with great
difficulty; this will stay with us for some time. We must do
everything in our power to place the bilateral relations into their
previous channel. [passage omitted]
[Inodai] You belong to the old Atlantic trend of Fidesz [Hungarian
Civic Alliance] Are you still able to influence the prime minister and
make him understand that the relations with the United States and
Western Europe are at least as important as his preferred eastern
opening?
[Nemeth] One of the important characteristics of Fidesz's foreign
policy is that it succeed in staying uniform in the past 20 years.
When disputed issues emerged, we discussed them at relevant levels.
Thus, our foreign policy did not have different "wings" and we are
striving for this in the future as well. The way we see it, it is the
task of foreign policy to create the international conditions of
asserting the Hungarian interests. We are now advancing on a rather
thorny path and there is bigger headwind and there are bigger
challenges, but we are advancing. I do not think that the Hungarian
foreign policy is less efficient than before, but an important
condition is that the internal coordination continue to work.
[Inodai] Has the government caused this headwind in Europe with its
unusual legislative practice?
[Nemeth] The government of national interest assertion could have
decided not to take the steps with which our voters entrusted us, and
then we would not have caused so many interest offences. There are
interest offences and oppositions behind these debates and criticism.
We are striving to make our goals clear, legitimate, and predictable.
It is another matter that there are people who do not like this. If we
act in accordance with the international laws and norms, there can be
no criticism. If not, we commit a mistake. Obviously, we have also
made mistakes. Regarding our relations with the United States, we have
made numerous progressive initiatives, like the Transatlantic Week
last year, with the participation of a former and an active foreign
minister in Budapest; we have opened the Lantos Institute; and we
organized many high-level conferences, including the series of events
of the Wallenberg-year. There is close cooperation in the security
policy that represents the basics of our bilateral relations, and
there is national consensus behind this. There is reduced mutual trust
in a well-delimited part of our diplomatic relations. But the
Safarov-affair produced tremendous waves in the US-Hungarian relations
and showed that, unfortunately, there are signs of serious bilateral
loss of confidence here. In our view, this is due to basic
misunderstanding, and Phil Gordon's statements shows this.
[Inodai] If we look at your professional area, the neighbourhood
policy, the relations have not been rosy here either in the past two
years. Although Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said earlier that the
Hungarian-Romanian relations are excellent, never before have
Hungarian ambassadors been summoned into the Foreign Ministry in
Bucharest more frequently as in the past two years. What do you think
about this?
[Nemeth] Hungary and Romania have indeed lived through a "honeymoon"
in the past two years. This lasted until the government change in May.
Unfortunately, the pretext of toppling the Ungureanu-cabinet was also
a Hungarian issue. Let me remind you that they lost the no-confidence
motion at the vote on the Medical University in Marosvasarhely [Tirgu
Mur es in Romanian]. [passage omitted]
[Inodai] You have spectacularly taken a stand in favour of the
Hungarian People's Party in Transylvania, while the overwhelming
majority of ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania voted for the RMDSZ
[Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania; UDMR in Romanian].
Should you not rethink the strategy that leads to the division of
ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders?
[Nemeth] The ethnic Hungarian communities living beyond the borders
have not had it easy in the past 20 years, particularly when leftist
governments were in power in Hungary. They simply did not provide
sufficient assistance to these communities. This does not mean that
what Fidesz, or earlier the MDF [Hungarian Democratic Forum] did would
have been a solution. But at least the commitment is unquestionable.
We are in a very difficult situation because of the division of ethnic
Hungarians living beyond the borders... [passage omitted]
[Inodai] Is it not an anachronism to support national parties in the
united Europe?
[Nemeth] It is a fundamental question what the ethnic Hungarians
beyond the borders want. They created these parties, they determined
their own strategy, and it is the task of the Hungarian government to
honour and support them. In places where there are national minorities
in Western Europe, there are also national parties.
[Inodai] Is there a chance for autonomy?
[Nemeth] This is the goal of every ethnic Hungarian community abroad.
Paradoxically, the best results have been achieved in Serbia, as the
first cultural autonomy emerged in Vojvodina. The Hungarian National
Council sponsors schools, cultural institutions, and newspapers. This
serves as an example to the other communities. The RMDSZ formulated
this cultural autonomy as its goal in Romania, and certain political
circles want to omit this from the Romanian national minority law.
[passage omitted]
[Inodai] Do you not feel that Hungary is rather isolated in Europe today?
[Nemeth] I would rather say that Hungary has more critics in the EU
today. But perhaps more friends as well.
[Translated from Hungarian]
From: Baghdasarian
Sept 28 2012
Nemeth: The Azeri's Procedure Left a Thorh in the Government
Interview with Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth by Edit Inodai
[Inodai] Has the Foreign Ministry closed the Azeri-Armenian-Hungarian
affair and have you drown any conclusions from it?
[Nemeth] The Foreign Ministry continuously fulfilled its task during
the preparation of the decision, so the prime minister was aware of
the foreign policy consequences. As for closing the affair down: such
an affair cannot be closed down, because the Hungarian government's
decision leads to a lot of conclusions and tasks. One of the
consequences is the Armenian relations that can be handled with great
difficulty; this will stay with us for some time. We must do
everything in our power to place the bilateral relations into their
previous channel. [passage omitted]
[Inodai] You belong to the old Atlantic trend of Fidesz [Hungarian
Civic Alliance] Are you still able to influence the prime minister and
make him understand that the relations with the United States and
Western Europe are at least as important as his preferred eastern
opening?
[Nemeth] One of the important characteristics of Fidesz's foreign
policy is that it succeed in staying uniform in the past 20 years.
When disputed issues emerged, we discussed them at relevant levels.
Thus, our foreign policy did not have different "wings" and we are
striving for this in the future as well. The way we see it, it is the
task of foreign policy to create the international conditions of
asserting the Hungarian interests. We are now advancing on a rather
thorny path and there is bigger headwind and there are bigger
challenges, but we are advancing. I do not think that the Hungarian
foreign policy is less efficient than before, but an important
condition is that the internal coordination continue to work.
[Inodai] Has the government caused this headwind in Europe with its
unusual legislative practice?
[Nemeth] The government of national interest assertion could have
decided not to take the steps with which our voters entrusted us, and
then we would not have caused so many interest offences. There are
interest offences and oppositions behind these debates and criticism.
We are striving to make our goals clear, legitimate, and predictable.
It is another matter that there are people who do not like this. If we
act in accordance with the international laws and norms, there can be
no criticism. If not, we commit a mistake. Obviously, we have also
made mistakes. Regarding our relations with the United States, we have
made numerous progressive initiatives, like the Transatlantic Week
last year, with the participation of a former and an active foreign
minister in Budapest; we have opened the Lantos Institute; and we
organized many high-level conferences, including the series of events
of the Wallenberg-year. There is close cooperation in the security
policy that represents the basics of our bilateral relations, and
there is national consensus behind this. There is reduced mutual trust
in a well-delimited part of our diplomatic relations. But the
Safarov-affair produced tremendous waves in the US-Hungarian relations
and showed that, unfortunately, there are signs of serious bilateral
loss of confidence here. In our view, this is due to basic
misunderstanding, and Phil Gordon's statements shows this.
[Inodai] If we look at your professional area, the neighbourhood
policy, the relations have not been rosy here either in the past two
years. Although Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said earlier that the
Hungarian-Romanian relations are excellent, never before have
Hungarian ambassadors been summoned into the Foreign Ministry in
Bucharest more frequently as in the past two years. What do you think
about this?
[Nemeth] Hungary and Romania have indeed lived through a "honeymoon"
in the past two years. This lasted until the government change in May.
Unfortunately, the pretext of toppling the Ungureanu-cabinet was also
a Hungarian issue. Let me remind you that they lost the no-confidence
motion at the vote on the Medical University in Marosvasarhely [Tirgu
Mur es in Romanian]. [passage omitted]
[Inodai] You have spectacularly taken a stand in favour of the
Hungarian People's Party in Transylvania, while the overwhelming
majority of ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania voted for the RMDSZ
[Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania; UDMR in Romanian].
Should you not rethink the strategy that leads to the division of
ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders?
[Nemeth] The ethnic Hungarian communities living beyond the borders
have not had it easy in the past 20 years, particularly when leftist
governments were in power in Hungary. They simply did not provide
sufficient assistance to these communities. This does not mean that
what Fidesz, or earlier the MDF [Hungarian Democratic Forum] did would
have been a solution. But at least the commitment is unquestionable.
We are in a very difficult situation because of the division of ethnic
Hungarians living beyond the borders... [passage omitted]
[Inodai] Is it not an anachronism to support national parties in the
united Europe?
[Nemeth] It is a fundamental question what the ethnic Hungarians
beyond the borders want. They created these parties, they determined
their own strategy, and it is the task of the Hungarian government to
honour and support them. In places where there are national minorities
in Western Europe, there are also national parties.
[Inodai] Is there a chance for autonomy?
[Nemeth] This is the goal of every ethnic Hungarian community abroad.
Paradoxically, the best results have been achieved in Serbia, as the
first cultural autonomy emerged in Vojvodina. The Hungarian National
Council sponsors schools, cultural institutions, and newspapers. This
serves as an example to the other communities. The RMDSZ formulated
this cultural autonomy as its goal in Romania, and certain political
circles want to omit this from the Romanian national minority law.
[passage omitted]
[Inodai] Do you not feel that Hungary is rather isolated in Europe today?
[Nemeth] I would rather say that Hungary has more critics in the EU
today. But perhaps more friends as well.
[Translated from Hungarian]
From: Baghdasarian