REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF CSANGOS
IN
APADOR-CH, THE PRO
January 2002
1. Rationale for the
investigation
Between December 20-th and 22-nd 2001, a team of the
APADOR-CH and of the PRO EUROPE League carried out an investigation in the
During the investigation
the representatives of APADOR-CH and of the PRO EUROPE League contacted the
leadership of the Association of Csango Hungarians in
Previously, in 1997,
APADOR-CH had made a first investigation in the villages of Cleja,
Pustiana, and Lespezi. The
main observations in the report made in 1997 were the following:
The recent complaints from
the Association of Csango Hungarians of Moldavia
(ACHM), the Pustiana branch, that reached APADOR-CH
and the PRO EUROPE League, included harassment and intimidation of their
members, violation of inidividual rights and the
rights of the national minorities in the case of some persons and groups that identifiy themselves as Csango
Hungarians, as well as rejection of the request put up by over 200 citizens to
the the Roman-Catholic Bishopric of Iasi on April 5-th 2001, "to perform the service also
in the Hungarian language in the church of Pustiana".
Since the investigation of
APADOR-CH of 1997, the demands of the members of the community of Csango Hungarians to be ensured studying of their mother
tongue have been analyzed also by the central authorities. Thus, a government
team consisting of Messrs. Attila Barna Santha, advisor to Secretary of State of the Ministry of
National Education, Stanciu Traian,
inspector in the Control Body of MNE,
On August 9-th 2000, the
It is worth mentioning that
the authorities' failure to solve the claims of the Csango
Hungarians, as well as the refusal of the local Roman-Catholic church to
perform the service in the mother tongue also drew the attention of the Council
of Europe which signaled the danger of the disappearance of this ethnic
minority community.
The report of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council, drawn up by the Finnish Liberal
parliamentarian Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa,
former minister of culture, has led to adoption of Recommendation 1521/2001,
including a wide package of concrete proposals meant to prevent the fading away
of this minority group " of an exceptional value
for
2. The pressure on the Csangos that have assumed a different identity that the
Romanian one
The discussions of the
authors of the report with the representatives of the leadership of the
Association of Csango Hungarians of Moldavia (ACHM)
and with persons belonging to this community have shown an increase in the
pressure on the Csangos that have assumed an identity
that is different from the Romanian one, that is, the Hungarian identity. As of
1996 several parents of Cleja and other villages of
In spite of the Report of
the Inter-ministerial Commission which found, on the occasion of the visit to
County Bacau, on September 14-th to 15-th 2000, that
in the villages of Pustiana and Cleja
a group of study of the Hungarian mother tongue has to be set up, this measure
continued to be delayed by the County Bacau School
Inspectorate. In parallel, pressure on the signatory parents, doubled by a
campaign of intimidation masterminded through the local authorities by the
representatives of the Interior Ministry and the written media have determined
part of the parents to withdraw their applications for the organization of
optional education in the Hungarian mother tongue.
Thus, the parents' requests
have yielded no results, just as the memorandums or reports submitted along the
years to the Ministry of National Education and the Department for the
Protection of National Minorities or the assessments of various bodies of the
civil society.
In a last attempt of
partnership with the Bacau School Inspectorate, on
09.02.2001 ACHM made a request to Bacău County
School Inspectorate, on behalf of 77 parents of village Pustiana,
to be approved the use, in the afternoon, when the classrooms are free, of a
classroom in the
On 05.03. 2001, the mayor of commune Pîrjol (to which village Pustiana
belongs) gives a no answer to the parents' request for optional classes of
Hungarian language to be held in the Pustiana School
also promising that subsequently the possibility would be discussed of giving a
space for this at the Pustiana House of Culture,
which actually happened.
Following this refusal, as
of September 2001, ACHM launched a program-course of initiation and study of
the Hungarian language in private. Thus, ACHM undertook the task of making up
for the refusal of the public institutions to offer tuition in the mother
tongue by organizing, in seven villages, groups (called circles) of teaching of
the Hungarian language by a number of 12 specialized teachers. In commune Cleja, for instance, these circles, that follow the school
curriculum, in three private spaces adequately equipped, are attended by about
a hundred children, which proves the community's
interest and the parents' confidence in the activities carried out by ACHM.
In the new context,
authorities have started a wide scope action of harassment, intimidation and
reprisals against ACHM as well as against the parents, children and owners of
the private spaces where the courses of Hungarian language were held. Thus, on
09.11.2001 intimation signed by three school principals in the commune and the
president of the parents' council of Cleja was
registered at the Bacau County School Inspectorate
showing that ACHM set up in the commune a parallel system of education in the
Hungarian language.
In response, on 14.11.2001
a commission set up of the deputy school inspector, two specialty inspectors,
joined by the mayor and deputy mayor, the principals of three schools in the
commune, as well as the local representative of the Police went to Cleja. The commission, which also included representatives
of the Bacau written media known for their hostile
attitude towards the claims of the Csango Hungarians
summoned to the city hall the
This incident did not take
place without the knowledge of the
Actually very serious are
the psychological pressure and the humiliation to which the children who dare
take part in the optional circles of Hungarian language organized by ACHM are
subject to. This is a systematic practice of some teachers to scold the
children before the colleagues, anathematizing the Hungarian language and
making threats to the pupils. In some cases they went so far as to give them a
lower mark for conduct.
The authorities hostile to
the activity carried out by ACHM do not hesitate, as it was seen, to involve
the press in the strategy of harrassment of the
parents who claim optional education in the Hungarian language. A real press
campaign accompanies systematically the measures undertaken by the Prefecture
or the County School Inspectorate. The dailies « Monitorul »
and « Deşteptarea » sow suspicion
about exercising the right to tuition in the Hungarian language, by apocaliptic headlines: « Irredentist attacks under the
shelter of school », « The Hungarian language is taught with
beating », « The Hungarian phantom haunts at Pustiana,
too ». This press does not give any space of expression to the
incriminated persons or associations or to present their opinions.
The discussion with the
Prefect of County Bacau showed that the prefect,
although knowledgeable of the situation, considered legitimate the conduct of
the local authorities, of the County School Inspectorate or the Police. The
Prefect, when analyzing the whole situation, set out from the axiome of the Romanian origin of the Csangos
and hence draws the conclusion, in complete hisharmony
with the law, that the requests for learning of the Hungarian language are not
legitimate. Likewise, the Prefect considers that the public pressure and the
stand of the Roman-Catholic church is a serious obstacle in the protection, by
his institution, of the rights of a restricted number of people that identified
their origin as Hungarian and require optional education in the mother tongue.
The Prefect rejected the upholding that ACHM or its members would have been
harassed, showing his readiness to listen to their discontents, if the latter
ask for a hearing.
3. A premeditated
process of assimilation of the Csangos of Hungarian
language
Statistics and the opinions
expressed by representatives of the clergy or people belonging to the community
of Csangos indicate that out of a number of about
240,000 Roman-Catholics of Moldavia only a small percentage call themselves of
a Hungarian origin, talk and understand the language/dialect of Csango and show special interest for preserving this
identity. A series of external factors - psychological pressure, the danger of
social marginalization, the campaigns of intimidation, immigration - have led
to a sharp decrease in the number of those who call themselves Csango Hungarians and ask for optional study of the
literary Hungarian language or using the mother tongue in church.
Even if early in the
‘50-ties there was the possibility of learning the Hungarian language in some
public schools, this possibility was gradually restricted and the communist
national regime developed a systematic policy of assimilation, bringing the
community of Csango Hungarians almost to extinction.
The refusal of the institutions to meet the requirements related to language
rights was permanently hidden by debates on the origin of Csangos,
a pretext serving in time the same purpose of assimilation. The theory of the
Romanian origin became the official doctrine and has enough supporters so that
the more and more restricted group of Hungarian Csangos
is refused the constitutional right to protection of the assumed identity.
In spite of all the
assimilation pressure, it is obvious that there is among the Hungarian Csangos the firm will to preserve their identity and from
the human rights perspective, on which the authors of this report rely, this
community, even numerically restricted, has the constitutional right to protection
from the state.
As a matter of fact, the
approach from the perspective of human rights was also present at an official
level with certain empathy in the period 1996-2000. The Order
of the Ministry of National Education nr. 3113/31.01.2000
as well as the “Methodology of application of the instructions on the study of
the mother tongue by the pupils belonging to the national minorities that
attend Romanian schools”, nr. 30257/06.04.2000 stands proof in this
respect. These actions, carried out at a central level, for giving a favourable solution to the claims of the Hungarian Csangos have however been
systematically undermined at a local level, thus producing no effect.
At present we witness an
intensification of the campaign of intimidation and harassment of the persons
that have identified themselves as Hungarian Csangos,
the obstruction by all means of meeting their legitimate requirements, which
runs counter to the constitutional guarantees of human rights protection.
Together with the state,
the Roman-Catholic
Under the circumstances,
the adoption on la 21.11.2001 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe of recommendation 1521 on the culture of the minority of Csangos in
The application in good
faith of this package of measures could stop the extinction of the Hungarian Csango community, provided the dispute around their origin
should not ocult the emergency of active measures,
without which one of the oldest minorities in
For the time being, the way
of individual and minority rights is refused even from inside the Romanian
legislative forum. Senator PSD (The Social-Democracy Party) Ghiorghi
Prisăcaru member of the Romanian delegation to
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe made public his
reservations about the competence of the Council of Europe, upholding in a
written communique sent to Mediafax
news agency on 12.12.2001:”It is not the competence of the Council of Europe -
a political body - to pronounce itself on the origin of the Csango
language and culture but concerned specialists, with preoccupations in the
field should approach these issues from scientific positions”. This approach
announces a comeback to the official stands that deny the people's right to
self-identification and, implicitly, the continuation of the assimilatory
policy.
4. The language/dialects
of Csangos as a regional language (minority
language))
The status of the Csango language/dialects is not only significant in itself but constitutes an important dimension of the
protection of minority Hungarian Csangos.
The topic of the language
has no connection with the dispute around the origin of Csangos:
Hungarianized Romanians or Hungarians settled in a
region with Romanian population? According to linguists, the Csangos speak numerous dialects of the Mediaeval Hungarian
language, depending on the area inhabited and influenced by the Romanian
environment in which they live. "The diversity of Csango
dialects created such a situation that some are not understood by the
others" (…) In spite of this, all the Csango
dialects have common traits that differentiate them from the dialects spoken in
the
The relevant philosophy for
approaching the topic of the Csango language/dialects
is the one coming from the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages.
Is the European Charter
applied in the case of dialects spoken by Csangos?
According to this document, "Regional or minority languages
" mean:
"(i)
Used in a traditional way in a certain zone of a state by the citizens of that
state who constitute a group that is numerically smaller than the rest of that
state's population and ii. Different than the official language(languages)
of that state; it does not include either the dialects of the official language
(languages) of that state or the languages of the migrants".
"A zone in which a
regional or minority language is used" means the geographical area where
this language represents the way of expression of a number of persons
justifying taking protection and promotion measures provided for in the current
Charter.
Considering the number of
persons that speak the Csango dialects and the
traditional character of the communities in the regions of
The European Charter of
Regional or Minority Languages stipulates that "protection of regional or
minority historic languages in
The Parties have made a
commitment to base their policy, legislation and practice on the following
objectives and principles:
"a.
recognizing regional or minority languages as an expression of tcultural richness;
b. observance of the geographical
area of every regional or minority language so that the current or new
administrative partitions should not be an obstacle for promoting the
respective regional or minority language;
c. the need for determined action for
promoting regional or minority languages for safeguarding them;
d. facilitating and/ or encouraging
the using orally or in writing of the regional or minority languages, in the
public or private life;
e. maintaining and
developing relations, in the domains provided for by the Charter between the
groups using a regional or minority language and other groups of the same state
that speak a language that is practised in an
identical or close form…...";
According
to these principles not only the Romanian state should have a policy of
recognition of the Csango dialects but also one of
encouragement, of promotion of using this language. In this case the problem
arises of the population's attitude on the language it speaks. The
investigations made so far show that there are two distinct themes:
There is permanent request
from some Csangos for religious services in the
mother tongue. It became recurrent in the personal dialogues of the priests
with the believers but also in "official requests", with hundreds of
signatures. There is a net policy of rejection, by the Roman-Catholic Bishopric,
of the requests, although there are many priests who come from the very Csango community so there is the possibility to meet these
requirements.
APADOR-CH and the PRO
EUROPE League draw attention on the fact that although the
As far as the study of the Csango dialects in the educational system is concerned,
there is no requirement to this effect. Some Csangos
asked for the study of the Hungarian literary language. (A parallel can be made
with the study by the Seklers and Swabians
of the German literary language, as a unifying linguistic vehicle). There are
pedagogues that lay stress on the importance of tuition in the mother tongue
and maintaining the youth in their community. In this context, the public
authorities are kept, in the sense of the European Charter, at least not to
discourage the use of the Csango dialects in the
private or public life and to encourage the use of the mother tongue when there
are requests in this respect.
Item 2 al
Art. 7 says the following:
"The parties commit
themselves to eliminate, if they have not done this already, any distinction,
exclusion, restriction or unjustified preference related to the use of a
regional or minority language and whose purpose is discouraging or putting in
danger maintaining or developing it. Taking special measures in favour of regional or minority languages meant to promote
equality between the speakers of these languages and the rest of the population
is not considered an act of discrimination against the speakers of the more
wide spread languages."
And item 4 of Art. 7 adds:
"In determining the
policy on regional or minority languages the parties commit to take into
consideration the needs and wishes expressed by the groups that use these
languages. They are encouraged to create, if necessary, bodies with an advisory
role on all the matters related to regional or minority languages".
There are numerous
complaints of the Csangos in Moldavia - verified
during the APADOR-CH investigation of 1997 and of the investigation of December
2001 - on the pressure that is put on them - primarily by the authorities - to
give up the Hungarian dimension of their own identity, this being closely
linked to the use of Csango dialects.
5. The group of
Hungarian Csangos as a national minority that must be
recognized as such and protected
What are the Csangos: a national minority or an ethnic group? In
Although in the census
sheet the "Csangos" appear as one of the
"nationalities" it is not yet clear if they are considered or not a
national minority. Due to the differences in the way in which the Csangos present their own identity it is not clear whether
we can speak of self-assuming this status (of national minority) - compulsory
for being able to talk about a national minority.
In this respect, APADOR-CH
and the PRO EUROPE League uphold the following:
As there is no special
legislation on recognition of national minorities, the Romanian state is kept,
in its interpretation in this matter, by the application of those internal
norms that are relevant for national minorities. From among them,
Recommendation 1201 has the capacity to include a definition of "national
minorities" considered: "a group of people in a state who: a. live on
the territory of that state and are its citizens; b. maintain long term, solid
and permanent connections with that state; c. manifest distinct ethnic,
cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics; d. are sufficiently
representative, even if in smaller numbers than the rest of the population of a
state or a region of that state; e. are motivated by the concern to keep
together what constitutes their common identity including their culture,
traditions, religion or language." (art. 1).
The above definition of national minorities correspond to what
traditionally is considered to be "historical minorities". Having in
view the status of an internal law of Recommendation 1201, it can be said that
the Romanian state has the obligation to recognize at least the historical
minorities. (This would not hinder
Do Csangos
represent a historical minority? Two issues are raised here. One is that of representativity. Having in view the long existence of this
minority on the
The problems
remains therefor open of the Csangos' preoccupation to keep together what constitutes
their common identity: their culture, traditions, religion and language. A
basic component of all the Csangos, directly linked
to their identity is the religious identity (Roman-Catholic). But as regards
the recognition of their origin and especially of using the language the
population that identifies itself as Csango is not
homogenous. The question rises whether we could speak in this sense of three
categories: Romanian Csangos; Csango
Csango; Hungarian Csangos?
Self-identification is a
fundamental right that cannot be questioned. Hence, having in view the
attitudes of Csangos in the region of
Another
aspect that has to be evinced results from the basics of the doctrine of
national minorities. The international law on national minorities (of
people belonging to national minorities) as well as the internal law developed
in this framework have in view groups of persons in numerical
inferiority as against the rest of the population and non-dominant. The
last word is in bold letters in order to identify the fact that the existence
of international law in the field is motivated by the need to protect some
communities whose numerical inferiority produces fragility in relation to the
majority. The more a minority community is threatened the more its
recognition as a national minority is motivated, reasoned, and urgent and
therefore, legitimate.
In this respect, the
problem of the recognition of the Csangos as a
national minority is acutely posed in the case of the Hungarian Csangos. Consideration should be made in parallel of the
assimilation pressure from the central and local authorities and the
manipulation of some of the Csangos against the will
of the Hungarian Csangos to be recognized an identity
linked to language/Csango dialects (Hungarian
language). This could lead to a strategy of assuming the representation of Csangos against those who want to defend their
language and traditional folklore. APADOR-CH and the PRO EUROPE League consider
that the recognition of "Hungarian Csangos"
as a distinct national minority represent a necessity of protecting this
community. It however belongs to the will of the Hungarian Csangos
and of the leaders who uphold the symbolic values of the community to show
their solidarity, motivation and preoccupation "to keep together what
constitutes their common identity, including culture".
· The problem of the census
Considering those mentioned
above, it comes out that the 2002 census can have a decisive impact on the
future of Csangos in
At the same time it is
important that the Csango organizations should
monitor the activity of the operators in the field. We suggest that their
members ask to take part in the census . A way of
giving bigger certainty to the 2002 census is to carry out parallel statistics,
at least in the localities where most of the Csangos
live. APADOR-CH and the PRO EUROPE League consider that before starting the
census it is desirable that the Hungarian Csango
organizations - the minority the most jeopardized in the region - should carry
out a campaign of information and raising awareness of the population on the
need of an option as regards self-identification. In particular, the
implications of assuming the identity of "Hungarian Csango"
should be debated. The persons that want to identify themselves as such should
be encouraged to insist that operators put on the census forms exactly this
name. (Because in the proposals for the forms of 2002, the "list of ethnic
groups that are to be encoded" make reference only to "Csangos" and not to "Hungarian Csangos", it is possible that operators insist on
filling in the box with the term "Csango".
These persons have a right to insist on writing down the whole name
"Hungarian Csango".
Preparation of the census
by the oerganization/s of Hungarian Csangos could become an exercise for their participation in
the 2004 elections. If an organization of "Hungarian Csangos"
will be able to obtain, at the next elections, over 1,500 votes, then it will
be able to introduce a representative in Parliament and will be part of the
Council for National Minorities. From that moment on, the capacity of the
Hungarian Csangos to protect themselves against
attempts at assimilation will increase considerably. An
estimation, in the coming months, of the number of those who consider
themselves and are ready to declare themselves Hungarian Csangos
is crucial for the future of this community.
6. Conclusions
The investigation of the
representatives of APADOR-CH and of the PRO EUROPE League of December 2001,
together with the results of the previous investigations and monitoring of the
written press prove the following:
The protection of the Csangos in the region of
Therefore, APADOR-CH and
the PRO EUROPE League ask the state authorities to observe the minorities'
rights, as they are guaranteed by the Constitution and the internal
legislation, by the conventions in the field of the Council of Europe, OSCE and
UN and the resolutions on the situation of Csangos in
Gabriel Andreescu
Smaranda Enache
APADOR-CH
PRO