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The EU should provide protection to Transcarpathian Hungarians

2018. 03. 02.

Press release by Andrea Bocskor

During yesterday’s European Parliament plenary, Fidesz MEP Andrea Bocskor called the attention of the EU and fellow MEPs to the arson attack on the headquarters of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) in Uzhgorod. The future perspective of Ukraine is highly influenced by ensuring democratic rights and freedoms, including minority rights, legal certainty and social peace, Bocskor said in her address.

This was the first time in the history of Transcarpathia that an explosion, a deliberate act of violence, targeted the advocacy organization of Transcarpathian Hungarians. Andrea Bocskor interpreted the attack as a direct threat to ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia and said that the EU should not allow it to go unanswered. “The European Union should firmly condemn this terror attack and call upon Ukrainian authorities to find as soon as possible the perpetrator, those responsible and the motivation behind the assault. Certain groups are more eager than ever to upset peace and order in the country’s western regions, they want to provoke an interethnic conflict. Thus,  the EU is compelled to respond,” the EPP politician said.

In addition to her address in the Parliament, Bocskor called attention to the attack on the KMKSZ headquarters and other rights violations in Ukraine in a letter to the EPP Presidency. “It is important that decision-makers sitting in the European Union and the European People’s Party are aware of  dramatic events in Transcarpathia, the level of threat that Transcarpathian Hungarians have to endure, and how difficult it is becoming to live in the region,” Andrea Bocskor wrote. In her letter, the Hungarian MEP requested that the EPP keeps a close eye on how the issue develops and to support and protect the further advocacy work of KMKSZ.