Eleven centuries of Hungarophobia – Open letter to Jens Stoltenberg

Dear Mr. Stoltenberg,

     You and other leaders of the European Union probably do not realize where your deep hatred of Hungarians originates. Let me summarize the reasons and the deep hurt that the West has inflicted on our nation during the eleven hundred years of its history.

1. “Ugros eliminados esse” , was the command of the Frankish King Louis the Child to his troops: in other words, destroy the Hungarians! He launched his vast, superbly equipped army to fight the Hungarians who had just recently settled in the Carpathian Basin. Since the time of the Roman statesman, Cato the Elder, of “Carthage must be annihilated “ (Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam”) fame, the Romans sought not just to defeat or route their enemies, but to wipe them out completely. In the Battle of Pozsony (Pressburg or Bratislava) that took place from July 4^th to 7^th 907, the Hungarian armies of Prince Arpad completely defeated this army. Only a few survivors were able to escape and flee to the West.

2. The Mongols invaded Hungary during 1241-42. No help came from the West. The Austrians even occupied Hungary’s western region.

3. No sizeable help came from the West during the hundred and fifty years of fighting the Ottomans in the Balkan wars.

4. During the critical siege of Nandorfehervar( Belgrade) that ended in the victory of the Christian troops led by Janos Hunyadi, and on other occasions, the Ottoman armies were taken across Bosporus in ships supplied from western Europe.

5. Foreign artillery also helped the Turks both in Nandorfehervar and Mohacs in 1526.

6. The West never helped Hungary when Suleiman’s army invaded and destroyed the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in the battle of Mohacs. Instead, the powers of western Europe were busy fighting religious wars, Peasant Rebellions and they even sacked Rome.

7. The entire Hungarian army was destroyed at Mohacs, the king and many leaders of the Church were killed.

8. The Turks invaded Szekesfehervar after their victory in Mohacs. It was there that many of Hungary’s kings were buried. The sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, stationed guards to protect the royal tombs. When sometime later the Pasha of Buda desecrated the graves, the sultan had him imprisoned in the Seven -Towers prison in Istanbul. Prince Eugene of Savoy also ransacked the city when the Turks were ready to surrender,

9. The close to three-hundred years of anti-Ottoman struggle exhausted the Hungarian nation, and the resulting demographic losses have never recovered.

10. The so-called liberation of Buda in 1686 and its destruction took place for reasons of prestige. The Turkish troops were concentrated further south, distant from the Hungarian capital. If all the treasures and works of art that had been stolen could ever be recouped, Hungary would be one of the wealthiest countries of Europe.

11. The siege destroyed the then still existing palaces of King Matyas. They survived the Ottoman occupation even though they were left to decay.

12. The victorious army, in a drunken orgy, massacred innocent civilians and took hostage some wealthy citizens for ransom.

13. The art treasures of Buda, especially the books of King Matyas, the Corvinas, are found in many museums of in the West and the Schatzkammer in Vienna.

14. The magnificent church built by the first king of Hungary, Saint Stephen (Istvan), was burnt down to the roof line. Masses were still celebrated in the side chapel, until a Habsburg-appointed archbishop dismantled the church and used its stones to build a palace for himself.

15. After the “liberation” of Buda, foreigners seized everything; only those Hungarians who were servants were allowed to reside in the Castle Hill .

16. Hungarians who fled to safety in the north into during the Ottoman occupation of the central area of Hungary did not get their properties back once the Turks withdrew. Instead, the Habsburgs invited hundreds of thousands of foreign immigrants to settle in the newly “liberated” area.

17. Our struggles for freedom were generally not supported by the West. The exception to the rule, at least initially , was the Rakoczi War of Independence which received French money and weapons. As soon as Austria and France signed a peace-treaty, the Hungarians were abandoned and their struggle ended in defeat.

18. The throne of Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was largely saved by the Hungarian nobility who vowed to give the “ blood and lives” (Vitam and sanguinem) during the National Assembly in Pozsony (Bratislava). Yet the queen had a special office in Vienna whose task was to spread calumnies about Hungary in Europe. When the members of the Hungarian National Assembly became aware of this, Maria Theresa abolished it and ruled the country through edicts.

19. The combined might of Austria and Russia defeated the Hungary’s 1848/49 War of Liberty. The Habsburgs took cruel revenge of Hungarians when it was over

20. After the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, the Treaty of Trianon awarded the newly formed Austria a piece of Hungarian territory. So much for loyalty to their comrade in arms!

21. Hungary suffered after Nazi Germany occupied in March 1944. An attempt to establish a Hungarian government-in-exile was successfully prevented by the all-out opposition of the Czech leader, Eduard Benes.

22. Goebbels wrote in the March 1^st 1945 edition of the Das Reich newspaper: “we (Germany) defended Vienna in Budapest”. The Hungarian capital was destroyed because Hitler wanted to protect his favourite city ! Of the hundreds of rooms destroyed in the siege of Buda Castle, only one, named after St. Stephen has been fully restored since the end of the Second World War, almost ago.

Mr. Soltenberg and others who hate Hungary! All the great powers that at one stage defeated and subjected Hungary no longer exist. You and your friends are ruining Europe at this point in time! I do not wish you success, because we are loyal Europeans and not traitors!

Szabolcs Magyarody, a nine-nine-year-old survivor of the Second World War

National Internet Monitor (Nemzeti InternetFigyelő /NIF/)

Featured image: Mihály Munkácsy: Reservation (detail)