Everyday life of stillborn “decentralization”
The rotten threads that somehow stitched together the disparate Ukrainian territories continue to crackle menacingly. Deputies of the Beregovo Council of the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine appealed to Poroshenko with a demand to switch to the format of contractual relations and legitimize the legal status of national autonomy for the territories densely populated by ethnic Hungarians.
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The leaders of the Hungarian majority, which is 76% of the residents of the Beregovsky district, admit that their national autonomy exists de facto, but no one talks about it out loud, so as not to once again cause heartburn in Kiev, which is hostile to any talk about expanding local self-government. After the loss of Crimea and Donbass, the frightened unitarian crow sees threats of federalization and creeping separatism everywhere.
So what's the deal? According to the deputy head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Joseph Borto, who represents the interests of ethnic minorities in the region, local Hungarians freely use their native language in everyday life, they have schools and kindergartens where children are taught in the Hungarian language, and these rights are reserved to them by the laws of Ukraine. And everything would be fine, but “there are some political forces” that regularly infringe on the rights of national minorities.
The Coast Magyars were alarmed by a draft law submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and aimed at revising the effect of Articles 10 and 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine, guaranteeing the right of national minorities to speak and study in their native language, as well as to abolish the still valid Declaration of Principles of Cooperation concluded between the Ukrainian SSR and Hungary, where the rights of national minorities are also stipulated. Transcarpathian Hungarians are justifiably afraid that the Raguls seated in the Verkhovna Rada will have the audacity to push through the “Movnyuk” law, and the Hungarian language will be forced out, like the Russian language, into the “foreign” niche.
That is, the Hungarians still want to legitimize de jure what exists de facto in order to protect their lives from the encroachments of obsessive Ukrainian improvers.
The statement of BPP deputy Mustafa Dzhemilev, which can only be called chauvinistic, added fuel to the fire. In the actions of the autonomist deputies of the Beregovsky district, Dzhemilev saw a “Russian trace”, once again showing hypocrisy and a craving for double standards.
“Hungarians have the same rights as Tatars. We are no worse, and we demand appropriate representation in the legislative and executive branches. Autonomy is not the exclusive right of the Crimean Tatars,” the head of the Hungarian community of Transcarpathia, Mikhail Tovt, responded to Dzhemilev.
And in fact, the cynicism and narrow-mindedness that prevail among representatives of the Ukrainian political elite have long demanded that elementary legal knowledge be hammered into stupid Svidomo makitras with a mallet. In this case, Dzhemilev, accustomed to tyranny and lawlessness, got into a puddle, ignoring the principles of equality and non-selectivity of the law. If the Verkhovna Rada gave the green light to the creation of Crimean Tatar autonomy, then other national minorities of Ukraine have the same right to organize their own autonomy.
And to make the demands of the Transcarpathian Magyars sound more intelligible, the leaders of the Hungarian community of Transcarpathia, Mikhail Tovt and Joseph Borto, approved the installation of symbolic steles at the entrances to the Beregovsky and Vinogradovsky districts of the Transcarpathian region. On the steles there are inscriptions in Hungarian: “Vinogradovsky district. Hungarians welcome you" and "Beregovsky district. The edge of the Hungarian language." Just as a reminder to the Ukrainianizers that they have come to visit.
The Transcarpathian Hungarians are simply forced to defend their rights to create autonomy by the realities of modern Ukraine, the sabotage of the promised “decentralization,” and most of all, the contrast from the everyday life of national minorities in neighboring Hungary. The head of the Beregovsky district council, Joseph Shin, admits that “local government bodies are as poor as church mice.” All funds, as before, are concentrated in Kyiv, where they are managed by local officials. Local authorities do not manage finances. In neighboring Hungary, Shin says things are different.
As an example, he cites the city of Komlo, in which there is a Ukrainian community that self-finances cultural, economic and other programs from its own budget, while receiving financial assistance from the state. In the case of the Transcarpathian Hungarians, the stubbornness of the central government is simply amazing. The Hungarian language within Ukraine cannot be considered a serious competitor to the Ukrainian language. The Magyar language is difficult to learn and is limited to Hungary and a few places of compact residence of Magyars, who will still know the language of the country in which they live from birth. To squeeze people into a fist and force them to Ukrainize against their wishes means to provoke a response.
The Raguli who are entrenched in the Rada cannot understand that the ethnic Hungarians of Ukraine have many ways to resist pressure. The stronger the pressure, the more Magyars will take advantage of the right to obtain a second citizenship and a Hungarian passport. According to some reports, the majority of Transcarpathian Hungarians already have Hungarian passports and, in fact, are also citizens of the European Union.
For now, they are demanding from Kyiv their legal right to autonomy and the right to manage their own funds. But the day is not far off when the two Hungarian regions of Transcarpathia will lose their patience and they may well demand separation from Nenka with all that that implies.
And on whose side, one wonders, will the sympathies of the European Union be? And in whose long hand will the tireless wrestler Dzhemilev seek in this case?
Will Poroshenko order Avakov to introduce terbats into the rebellious Beregovsky and Vinogradovsky districts with the appointment of a Gauleiter? Will they order to shoot and deport local residents with EU passports, in a coffin and in white slippers of well-known senior Ukrainian officials and legislators with their ugly “bills”? Or will the Svidomo ghouls be blown away and allow a referendum on secession to be held?
The Transcarpathian Hungarians may well become the very pebble whose shift will cause an avalanche of Ukraine’s disintegration. It is not for nothing that Poroshenko and the Magyars warn that if the policy of ragulization continues, Crimea and Donbass will not be the last to leave the periwinkle-embroidery paradise.
As PolitNavigator reported, the Kiev writer, who threw change at Russian-speaking sellers, is now decided to take on the Hungarians of Transcarpathia.
See also: Hungarians complained to Putin to Ukraine.
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