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What does the press say?
In order to answer any questions the reader might have, we’ve searched and posted some press articles on this issue, stated by both Romanians and Hungarians. We have tried to find the most relevant articles on this matter. Most articles are followed by a link which offers more information on the subject and other articles. Here is what we have come up with:
Opinions on the other side-Hungarian press –May 2003
The cabinet on 22 May approved a program for the restoration of historic monuments in Romania, Mediafax reported. Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said after the meeting that the only monument proposed for the program that was rejected is the Liberty Statue in Arad. Nastase said the "symbolic representation" of the statue is not conducive to reconciliation between Romanians and the country's ethnic Hungarian minority. The statue represents 13 Hungarian generals executed by the Habsburgs in 1849 for having participated in the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution. It was erected in Arad in 1880, when Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the province came under Romanian rule, Ionel Bratianu's government in 1924 ordered the statue's removal on the grounds that the 13 generals participated in massacres against the Romanian population. It has since been stored in a monastery in Arad. In September 1999, the Romanian cabinet led by Radu Vasile decided to move the statue to a new "Romanian-Hungarian reconciliation park" in Arad, but the plan was later shelved due to opposition from the town's local council.
http://hungaria.org/send.php?hirid=405&messageid=420
Discontents: -September 2003
”The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR)
leadership plans to have talks with ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD)
in short time upon the issue of Liberty statue from Arad and about the
bilingual plates posted in railway stations, stated in a press
conference UDMR chairman Marko Bela.
He pointed out that, few months ago, UDMR sent the Ministry of
Transportation a list enclosing CFR stations fulfilling the terms to be
installed the bilingual plates, yet no measure has been taken in this
respect.“ (the Hungarian plates in Romania)
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2003-September/002913.html
BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST - Ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) Secretary-General Dan
Matei Agathon said on 9 September that the joint commission that monitors the
cooperation agreement between the PSD and the Hungarian Democratic Federation of
Romania (UDMR) will try to find a solution to the conflict over the Hungarian
Liberty Monument, RFE/RL reported. Agathon said historians and members of the
Romanian Academy will accompany the commission. Last month, a Culture Ministry
commission ruled against re-erecting the recently restored monument, and
municipal inspectors in Arad last week said irregularities have been discovered
in the reconstruction project. UDMR Chairman Bela Marko said that he has
discussed the issue with Premier Nastase, who acknowledged that there is
opposition to the project within his party. Marko said Nastase proposed that a
new monument representing both Romanian and Hungarian participants in the 1848
revolution be commissioned in place of the Liberty Statue. He added that the
UDMR insists that the agreement reached earlier between the two parties to
re-erect the original monument be respected. Furthermore Hungary is ready to
take the necessary measures if the situation surrounding the Liberty Statue is
not find soon, Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamas Toth said on September
8."The Hungarian Foreign Ministry is monitoring the situation," Toth told MTI.
The issue is expected to be raised during talks to be held by Romanian President
Ion Iliescu in Budapest on September 15-16 and by Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy
in Bucharest on September 23. The memorial to the martyred generals of the
1848-49 Hungarian war of independence executed in Arad is planned to be set up
on October 5.
The Statue of Liberty - cause of tension between Bucharest and Budapest
‘The Hungarian diplomats may take action against Romania’ (a quote found at Mediafax)
“The Statue was to be unveiled by the 5th of October but on the 4th the Romanian authorities asked for the withdrawal of the construction authorization.“
(Newspaper: Ziua www.ziua.ro ; Author: Monitox )
”Andras Kiraly, the president of the local branch of the Romanian Hungarian party has stated that if the constructions [of the park where the Statue will be erected] will not be resumed as soon as possible, the monument may not be ready by the 5th of October.”
http://news.softpedia.com/news/1/2003/September/4680.shtml
Statement of the Hungarian American Coalition-Continuing Dissatisfaction of Hungarian Minority in Romania-October 2003
Agreement on Arad “Statue of Liberty” Scrapped at Last Minute Government
does abrupt about-face on agreement to restore historic monument in Arad
Local officials in Arad approved plans to restore the “Liberty Statues,”
originally erected in 1890, to their original location in a city square. (The
statues are a monument to the 13 Hungarian generals executed in Arad by Habsburg
rulers on October 6, 1849 – still commemorated as a day of mourning by the whole
Hungarian nation.) Despite earlier pledges to support this restoration, the
Nastase government unexpectedly overruled the plans made by Arad officials
(…) More…http://www.hacusa.org/iliescu.html
LIBERTY MONUMENT DISPUTE IN ROMANIA REMAINS UNSOLVED-March 2004
Representatives of the Ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD)
and the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), which earlier
announced a compromise in the longstanding dispute over the reerection of the
Liberty Monument in Arad, failed to agree on 7 January on where the planned
Reconciliation Park will be located, Mediafax reported. While the UDMR wants the
park to be located on the square where the monument stood until its 1924
dismantling, the PSD insists that the park be constructed within the citadel in
Arad's Old Town (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 December 2003).
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2004/01/4-SEE/see-080104.asp