Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

164. Telegram From the Embassy in Romania to the Department of State¹

7578.

Bucharest, September 16, 1987, 0429Z

SUBJECT

• Ethnic Hungarian Intellectual Comments on GOR Minorities Policy.

1. Confidential—Entire text.

2. Summary: During an August 31 conversation with PolOffs, ethnic-Hungarian intellectual Domokos Geza (protect) outlined Romanian efforts to force assimilation of ethnic-Hungarians, and said that he had no hope for change “under the present leadership.” He complained about GOR attempts to structure his April, 1987 discussion with EUR DAS Simons.² Domokos described his complaints as those of a loyal Romanian citizen and former Central Committee member who believed in the survival of Romania’s Magyar culture. He explicitly stated that he was not a dissident. Domokos noted ethnic-Hungarians’ appreciation for Western support for their cause. End summary.

3. Introduction: EmbOffs spoke for almost two hours on the evening of August 31 with ethnic-Hungarian intellectual Domokos Geza. The meeting with Domokos, an official of the Romanian Writers’ Union, Director of the Kriterion publishing house and former Central Committee member, had been arranged to introduce him to a staff member of the visiting CSCE Commission, although scheduling conflicts ultimately prevented the CSCE staffer from attending. The conversation, which was held entirely in Romanian, took place in EmbOff’s apartment.

4. Domokos began the conversation by expressing regret that the GOR had engineered his April meeting with EUR DAS Simons to ensure that substantive conversation could not take place. He said he had enjoyed his relationship with Simons when the latter had been posted in Bucharest; he had looked forward to a frank talk during the April meeting. He thus decided, when granted permission to attend the August 31 reception, to seek out Embassy officers or members of the delegation in an attempt to get his views across. End introduction.

5. Domokos described himself as a loyal Romanian citizen of Hungarian descent. He suggested that the two identities were separate: his Romanian citizenship did not affect his Hungarian cultural identity; his Hungarian ethnicity did not undermine his loyalty to the Romanian state. He noted his service on the Romanian Party Central Committee, and suggested that he had been removed from his party post as a result of his outspokenness on Hungarian issues. He stated (without apparent remorse) that he remains a member of the party, and stated explicitly that he was not a dissident.

6. Domokos painted a grim picture of Hungarian-minority rights under the current regime. He said that the GOR is actively reducing educational opportunities for Hungarians, cutting cultural programs, and reducing Hungarian-language telecasts (to zero) and radio broadcasts (to occasional news bulletins). An ironic result of the latter, he said, is that most ethnic-Hungarian Romanians turn to the Hungarian media as their exclusive source of information.

7. He said that the Romanian insistence on Romanization of all its nationalities resulted from the belief, based on the nation’s relative youth, that the nation-building process must be accelerated. He noted, however, that the United States, which is also a relatively young country, had taken a different approach to handling national minority issues. Citing the American example, which he admired, he said that people would be willing to learn the national language if there were incentives; he noted, however, that American emigrants often continued a lively social and cultural life in their native tongues, even as they assimilated into mainstream society. “They don’t say they are Hungarians or Italians,” he added. “If you ask they respond that they are Americans.”

8. Domokos then spoke of other shortcomings in the government’s minority policy. Although the GOR insists that Bucharest has the second-largest Hungarian population of any city in the world, its historic Hungarian-language school, founded in the 19th century and traditionally considered one of the country’s best, was doomed. Its ninth grade currently has only 14 students. The GOR did not permit enrollment by Hungarian-minority students from other areas in Romania to make up the shortfall. If the school’s ninth-grade class was disbanded, he feared this would lead to the high school closing down completely. Even in heavily Hungarian areas, public meetings always included a Romanian, and thus were always held in Romanian, even if the vast majority of participants spoke Hungarian as their mother tongue. He suggested that recent changes in Transylvanian street names from Hungarian to Romanian served as special symbols of the government’s policy.

9. Domokos discussed the practice of adding Romanian “sections” to previously all-Hungarian institutions, such as theaters, in areas of heavy Hungarian ethnic concentration. In theory such an expansion is not only understandable but also a good idea, offering to the Romanian-speaking population of an area where Hungarian speakers are in the majority an equal chance to enjoy cultural events. In fact, however, the GOR is acting with ill-will. The GOR’s aim is not to have the two language groups co-exist, but rather to eliminate the Hungarian entirely. Citing the example of Sfintu Gheorghe, (a town that is 78 percent ethnic Hungarian and where a Romanian section of the town’s theater recently opened) Domokos said that for the moment, the two theater groups would have equal staffing and budgets. Within several years, however, the Hungarian section would start losing resources to the Romanian group, and eventually would be closed altogether. He said the same thing had happened in Oradea, and was in the process of occurring in Cluj. The result, he said, is that the Hungarians see the handwriting on the wall, get discouraged and drop out, thus further feeding the downward cycle for Hungarian culture.

10. Domokos also rejected arguments that economic hard times had worsened the Hungarians’ situation. Times had often been difficult in Transylvania; the Hungarians living there had, however, always been able to maintain their heritage. The intensity with which the current policy is being applied is a fairly recent, i.e. since the early ’80s, phenomenon.

11. Domokos said that he had no hope for change “under the present leadership.” The President, perhaps aware of his mortality, had accelerated the process of Hungarian assimilation. Domokos said the anti-Hungarian policy was clearly being used to distract the population’s attention from focusing on the errors of the GOR leadership.

12. Domokos said Ceausescu’s brother, the military historian General Ilie Ceausescu, had special influence on minority policy, keeping alive accounts of Romanian suffering under Hungarian rule. He said he could not identify any others in the top leadership who were particularly aggressive in pushing anti-Hungarian views, but lamented that the government’s policies had succeeded in fomenting widespread anti-Hungarian attitudes among the Romanian ethnic population. He noted, for example, that Romanians of all ethnic backgrounds should work together against some of the regime’s more outrageous policies. He noted with regret, however, that with notable exceptions, most Romanian ethnics inclined to opposition kept themselves separate from their ethnic Hungarian colleagues. Domokos felt, however, that there was hope for the future, because the current nationalities policy was too irrational to continue indefinitely. He seemed to feel that support for the current policy would decrease under Ceausescu’s successors.

13. Domokos said that ethnic Hungarians greatly appreciated the attention given their cause in the West. He said that he (and implicitly, they) kept informed about such support by “foreign radio.” He said he keeps hoping the Hungarian culture will survive in Romania despite current GOR policy. The most important aspect, he emphasized, is keeping Hungarian-language instruction in the schools.

14. Bio note: Domokos, who said he is a year short of retirement, has two sons living in Sfintu Gheorghe. One, who is 31, is a dentist; the other, in his mid-twenties, is a plastic artist. Domokos said he had lived in Bucharest for 33 years, and said he considered himself a lover of Romanian, as well as Hungarian, language and culture.

Kirk

1. Source: Department of State, Records from Ambassador Thomas W. Simons, Jr., Lot 03 D 256, Chron, September 1987. Confidential; Priority. Sent for information to Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Belgrade, Zagreb, Prague, and Sofia.
2. Telegram 3216 from Bucharest, sent April 24, outlined the discussion that Simons and Domokos had regarding Hungarian minorities in Romania on April 17. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870316–0443)