Hungary–Romania relations

Hungarian-Romanian relations

Hungary	Romania

Hungarian-Romanian relations are foreign relations between Hungary and Romania dating back to the Middle Ages and continuing after the Romanian unification in 1859 and independence in 1877. In the past, they involved Wallachia and Moldavia.

Both countries share 443 km (275 mi) of common border and are full members of NATO and the European Union; however, despite current alliances, there are historical national tensions over Transylvania. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

History

Main article: History of Transylvania

Kingdom of Hungary in 1190. Transylvania a significant part of modern day Romania was part of the Hungarian state from the end of 9th century until 1920

Romanians in Hungary according to 1890 Census

Historically, a significant part of modern day Romania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The oldest extant documents from Transylvania make reference to Vlachs too. Regardless of the subject of Romanian presence/non-presence in Transylvania prior to the Hungarian conquest (See Origin of the Romanians), the first written sources about Romanian settlements derive from the 13th century, record was written about Olahteluk village in Bihar county from 1283. ^{[5] [6]} The 'land of Romanians', Terram Blacorum (1222,1280) ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} showed up in Fogaras and this area was mentioned under different name (Olachi) in 1285. ^[6] The first appearance of a supposed Romanian name 'Ola' in Hungary derives from a charter (1258). ^[6] They were significant population in Transylvania, Banat, Máramaros (Maramureș) and Partium. The Hungarian tribes originated in the vicinity of the Ural Mountains and arrived in the territory formed by present-day Romania during the 9th century from Etelköz or Atelkuzu (roughly the space occupied by the present day Southern Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and the Romanian province of Moldavia). ^{[10] [ non-primary source needed ]} Due to various circumstances (see Honfoglalás), the Magyar tribes crossed the Carpathians around 895 AD and occupied the Carpathian Basin (including present-day Transylvania) without significant resistance from the local populace. ^[11] The precise date of the conquest of Transylvania is not known; the earliest Magyar artifacts found in the region are dated to the first half of the 10th century. In 1526, at the Battle of Mohács, the forces of the Ottoman Empire annihilated the Hungarian army and in 1571 Transylvania became an autonomous state, under the Ottoman suzerainty. The Principality of Transylvania was governed by its princes and its parliament (Diet). The Transylvanian Diet consisted of three Estates (Unio Trium Nationum): the Hungarian nobility (largely ethnic Hungarian nobility and clergy); the leaders of Transylvanian Saxons-German burghers; and the free Székely Hungarians. With the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburg monarchy gradually began to impose their rule on the formerly autonomous Transylvania. From 1711 onward, after the conclusion of Rákóczi's War for Independence, Habsburg control over Transylvania was consolidated, and the princes of Transylvania were replaced with Habsburg imperial governors. ^[12] In 1765 the Grand Principality of Transylvania was proclaimed, consolidating the special separate status of Transylvania within the Habsburg Empire, established by the Diploma Leopoldinum in 1691. ^[13] The Hungarian historiography sees this as a mere formality. ^[14] Within the Habsburg Empire, Transylvania was administratively part of Kingdom of Hungary. ^[12] Following defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary disintegrated. The ethnic Romanian elected representatives of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș proclaimed Union with Romania on 1 December 1918.

Map of Romania with "Transylvania proper" in bright yellow

With the conclusion of World War I, the Treaty of Trianon (signed on 4 June 1920) defined the new border between the states of Hungary and Romania. As a result, the more than 1.5 million Hungarian minority of Transylvania found itself becoming a minority group within Romania. ^[15] Also after World War I, a group of Csángó families founded a village in Northern Dobruja known as Oituz, where Hungarians still live today. ^[16]

Ethnic map of Northern Transylvania

In August 1940, during the Second World War, the northern half of Transylvania was returned to Hungary by the second Second Vienna Award. Historian Keith Hitchins ^[17] summarizes the situation created by the award: Some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians, or 48 per cent to over 50 per cent of the population of the ceded territory, depending upon whose statistics are used, remained north of the new frontier, while about 500,000 Hungarians (other Hungarian estimates go as high as 800,000, Romanian as low as 363,000) continued to reside in the south. The Treaty of Paris (1947) after the end of the Second World War overturned the Vienna Award, and the territory of northern Transylvania was returned to Romania. The post-World War II borders with Hungary agreed on at the Treaty of Paris were identical with those set out in 1920. After the war, in 1952, a Magyar Autonomous Region was created in Romania by the communist authorities. The region was dissolved in 1968, when a new administrative organization of the country (still in effect today) replaced regions with counties. The communist authorities, and especially after Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime came to power, restarted the policy of Romanianization. Today, "Transylvania proper" (bright yellow on the accompanying map) is included within the Romanian counties ( județe ) of Alba, Bistrița-Năsăud, Brașov, Cluj, Covasna, Harghita, Hunedoara, Mureș, Sălaj (partially) and Sibiu. In addition to "Transylvania proper", modern Transylvania includes Crișana and part of the Banat; these regions (dark yellow on the map) are in the counties of Arad, Bihor, Caraș-Severin, Maramureș, Sălaj (partially), Satu Mare, and Timiș.^{[ citation needed ]}

Conflict

Romanians consider Dacia the old territory of their ancestors before any Huns arrived in Europe. The ancient Kingdom of Dacia was established in 168 BC. In regards to Hungary, there is disagreement over Transylvania, which Romanians believe is claimed to be Hungarian by Hungarians, despite prehistoric records of Geto-Dacians. ^[18] Under Attila, the Huns did conquer Transylvania in 376 who kept it until the death of Attila in 453. Later, the territory was periodically occupied and exploited by the Huns.^{[ citation needed ]}

Despite having a mostly positive relationship, many Hungarians believe that the current territory of Transylvania does not belong to Romania as it was also an integral part of the Kingdom of Hungary (1000-1526, 1848-1849, 1867-1920) and the Lands of the Hungarian Crown (Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (1526-1570), Principality of Transylvania (1570-1867) until the Treaty of Trianon.^{[ citation needed ]}

World War I

Main article: Romania during World War I

During the war, initially the Kingdom of Romania was neutral to the Central Powers, thus with Austria-Hungary. In August 1916 Romania entered the war on side of the Allies and attacked the Kingdom of Hungary, however it was pushed back to the frontier in October and by January 1917, two-thirds of Romania were occupied by the Central Powers. The Romanians were forced to retreat to the historical region of Moldavia, but were able to stave off complete collapse in 1917 by reorganizing their army and repulsing the Central Powers' offensive at Mărășești and Oituz. Nevertheless, after the October Revolution of 1917, Russia fell into civil war, and the Russian government signed two ceasefire agreements with the Central Powers, followed later (on 15 December) by a full armistice. Lacking Russian support, the Romanian government was subsequently forced to sue for peace, concluding in December 1917 the Armistice of Focșani.

Hungarian–Romanian War

Main article: Hungarian–Romanian War

In 1918, Romania re-entered the war with similar objectives to those of 1916. During the 1919 Hungarian–Romanian War Hungary, led by Communist forces, tried to secure its borders, however it was soon defeated and later occupied by Romanian forces.

Treaty of Trianon

Main article: Treaty of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement of 1920 that formally ended World War I between most of the Allies (among them the Kingdom of Romania) and the Kingdom of Hungary, the latter being one of the successor states to Austria-Hungary. As a result of the treaty the regions of Transylvania, parts of the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș became part of the Kingdom of Romania.

Interwar period and World War II

Main articles: Hungary in World War II, Romania in World War II, and Second Vienna Award

The Treaty of Trianon and its consequences dominated Hungarian public life and political culture in the inter-war period. Moreover, the Hungarian government swung then more and more to the right; eventually, under Regent Miklós Horthy, Hungary established close relations with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. These politics and the sought for revision succeeded to regain the territories of southern Czechoslovakia by the First Vienna Award in 1938 and the annexation of the remainder of Subcarpathia in 1939. These were only a fraction of the territories lost by the Treaty of Trianon, anyway the loss that the Hungarians resented the most was that of Transylvania ceded to the Romanians.

In 1940, the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina inspired Hungary to escalate its efforts to resolve "the question of Transylvania". Hungary hoped to gain as much of Transylvania as possible, but the Romanians submitted only a small region for consideration. Eventually, the Hungarian-Romanian negotiations fell through entirely. After this, the Romanian government asked Italy and Germany to arbitrate. Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany and Galeazzo Ciano of Italy met on 30 August 1940 at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna and decided that Romania cede Northern Transylvania, with an area of 43,104 km² (16,643 sq mi) and a population of 2,577,260, out of which, according to the Romanian estimates, 1,304,903 were Romanians (50.2%) and 978,074 (37.1%) Hungarians, ^[19] or, according to the Hungarian census of 1941, 53.5% were Hungarians and 39.1% Romanians. ^[20]

In 1940, ethnic disturbances between Hungarians and Romanians continued after some incidents following the occupation of Northern Transylvania by the Hungarian military, culminating in massacres at Treznea and Ip. After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Also, many Hungarians and Romanians fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. ^[21]

During World War II, Hungary and Romania became allies and participated in the war against the Soviet Union. But after the coup on 23 August 1944 Romania switched sides and fought against Hungary. Consequently, Soviet and Romanian troops invaded Hungary, occupied Northern Transylvania by October 1944 and re-established the Romanian administration in the region in March 1945. The 1947 Treaty of Paris reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary as originally defined in Treaty of Trianon 27 years earlier, thus confirming the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania.

Post-Cold War Era

Soon after the demise of the Communist regimes in Hungary and Romania, in March 1990, violent ethnic clashes in Transylvania strained the relationship between both countries to the brink of war. As a result, the first Open Skies Treaty in the world to mutually assess the strength and disposition of opposing military forces was worked out and became effective in 1992. This is considered a direct precursor of the 2002 multilateral Treaty on Open Skies that once included Russia and the United States. ^{[22] [23]}

Hungary and Romania are NATO allies and members of the European Union. However, nationalist tension persists. ^{[1] [2] [3] [24] [4] [25]}

Bilateral relations

Romania's ethnic Hungarian party also participated in all the government coalitions between 1996 and 2008 and from 2009. In 1996, Romania signed and ratified a basic bilateral treaty with Hungary that settled outstanding disagreements, laying the foundation for closer, more cooperative relations. ^[26]

Economic relations

In 2012, the total amount of international trade between Romania and Hungary was 7.3 billion euro, of which exports from Romania were 2.4 billion euro, whereas exports from Hungary were 4.9 billion euro. ^[27] Hungary ranks as the third of Romania's trade partners, after Germany and Italy. ^[28]

MOL Group and OTP Bank, two of Hungary's largest companies, ^[29] are present in Romania since 2003 and 2004 respectively. ^{[30] [31]} MOL Group operates (as of August 2013) a network of 138 fuel stations in Romania, which accounts for approximately 10 percent of the total network. OTP Bank has a widespread network of branches in Romania, with presence in every county. ^[32] After 20 years of presence in Romania, OTP Group sells OTP Bank Romania. The buyer is Romania’s market leader, Banca Transilvania. As a result of this agreement, OTP Group is selling the subsidiaries of OTP Bank Romania as well which results fully exiting the Romanian market. ^{[33] [34]}

Wizz Air is a low-cost airline from Hungary, which operates flights from several airports in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureș, Sibiu, Timișoara, Iasi, Suceava and Craiova) to various destinations in Europe. ^[35] It is the largest low-cost airline operating in Romania, ^[36] and in 2013 it carried 3.2 million passengers on its over 72 local routes. ^[37]

Digi Communications, Romania's leading company in internet and cable and satellite television services, is arguably the second or third company on the television market in Hungary, with (as of August 2013) around 22.4 percent of market share. ^[38] DIGI Group’s Romanian subsidiary (RCS & RDS) have concluded the sale and purchase agreement for the sale of DIGI group’s Hungarian operations towards 4iG. ^[39] The exit and sale was reported due to Digi was not only excluded from taking part in an auction for 5G access in Hungary but subsequently lost a court case against the Hungarian regulator NMHH. ^[40]

Export and import from Hungary to Romania ^{[41] [42]}

Million (€)	2012	2013	2014	2015	..	2017
Export	4,767.23	4,600.36	4,609.39	4,742.39	..	5,600.00
Import	2,050.98	2,120	2,500.07	2,550.72	..	2,900.00
Balance	2,716.25	2,480.34	2,109.32	2,191.68	..	2,700.68

Most important Hungarian investors in Romania: MOL, Gedeon Richter Plc.

Most important Romanian investors in Hungary: Digi Communications, Automobile Dacia.

European Union and NATO

Hungary joined the EU in 1 May 2004. Romania joined the EU in 1 January 2007. Hungary joined NATO in 12 March 1999. Romania joined NATO in 29 March 2004.

Resident diplomatic missions

• Hungary has an embassy in Bucharest, consulates-general in Cluj-Napoca and Miercurea Ciuc, and honorary consulates in Timișoara, Iași, Constanța and Drobeta-Turnu Severin ^[43]
• Romania has an embassy in Budapest and has consulates-general in Gyula and Szeged. ^[44]

• 
  Embassy in Budapest
• 
  Consulate-General of Romania in Szeged

See also

• Foreign relations of Hungary
• Foreign relations of Romania
• Hungarians in Romania
• Romanians in Hungary
• Hungary–Romania football rivalry
• Transylvanianism
• Union of Hungary and Romania
• 2004 enlargement of the European Union
• 2007 enlargement of the European Union

References

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