Klaus Iohannis was upset by Hungary’s position on the Treaty of Trianon, following the debate at the European Charlemagne Forum in Aachen, Germany, a traditional event on the sidelines of the Charlemagne Prize, which he received on Saturday.
The president said that “their statements annoy me even more than you”.
Klaus Iohannis stated that he is from Transylvania and that “we decided by popular vote to join Romania, we did not steal anything from anyone, it was our right to self-determination.”
According to the European Way, he was asked, during the Aachen debate, about “a neighbor who sometimes has an anti-European attitude and who questions the borders of the Trianon”.
Iohannis: It’s like a cousin stepping into bowls every five minutes
“It’s a bit like in a family, where, at the family reunion, most people have a second, third cousin, who steps in bowls every five minutes, but we don’t kick him out anyway, that she’s a relative.
We try to teach him more lessons, to integrate him, to calm him down, this is the recipe I think. I do not support the idea of elimination, removal from the organization, such punishments do not bring the results expected by many.
I think we need to tell these people very clearly what their expectations are and continue the process, “said Klaus Iohannis.
At the same time, he referred to the historical context of Trianon.
“I know, of course, that you are talking about our neighboring country, and I am even more annoyed than you by their statements about Trianon.
I am the president of the state, I am from Transylvania, we decided by popular vote, that is, we as a people said we wanted to join Romania, we did not steal anything from anyone, it was self-determination, our right to self-determination.
Transylvania thus became part of Romania. Then Transcarpathia became part of Ukraine and so on.
But all this is not necessary, it is not wanted, no one wants to do it retroactively, no one wants to question some historical processes.
Maybe this is what some populists are doing, but these populists, that is, they exist in Europe and I think they can only be fought by results “, explained Klaus Iohannis.
The annexation of Crimea compared to the Treaty of Trianon
On August 23, Hungarian President János Áder compared Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea to the Treaty of Trianon, the post-World War I peace treaty that ended hostilities between the Entente and Hungary.
Following this treaty, Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș became part of Romania.
“Both the aggression of the great powers and the trauma of the Trianon were deeply imprinted in the minds of the Hungarians, which is why we know exactly why the annexation of Crimea is such a sensitive wound for the Ukrainian people,” the Hungarian president said at the Kiev summit. “Crimean Platform” and which marked the annexation of the peninsula by Russia.
“Hungarians also have the historical experience of foreign powers that arbitrarily redrawed the borders of a state in a difficult situation at one time,” the Hungarian president said.
“After the First World War, two thirds of the country’s territory and population were taken from us. The Hungarians did not forget, even after a century, that they became, then, a minority, that their schools were taken away and everything possible was done for the education in the mother tongue to be abolished “, said János Áder.
The Treaty of Trianon – the legal act that enshrined the union of Transylvania with Romania
The MFA later conveyed to the Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest that Romania considered the message from the Hungarian president’s speech extremely inappropriate.
In November 2020, President Klaus Iohannis signed the decree on the promulgation of the Law for declaring June 4 the Day of the Treaty of Trianon, the legal act that enshrined the union of Transylvania with Romania.
