The 30th anniversary of the founding of the largest organization of Hungarians living in the Czech Republic, the Union of Hungarians in Bohemia and Moravia (CSMMSZ) was held on Saturday in Prague.
The CSMMSZ was founded on February 24, 1990, but due to the coronavirus epidemic, the celebration was only now possible after several postponements. Participation in the ceremony was still limited due to the valid epidemiological regulations.
"Although several Hungarian organizations have been established in the Czech Republic in the past thirty years, and unfortunately some of them have ceased to exist or no longer operate, the CSMMSZ has retained its leading role and is still the largest Hungarian civil society organization in the Czech Republic," stated János Kokes, the He is the editor-in-chief of the magazine Pragai Tükör. "The CSMMSZ presidency has always considered and still considers cooperation with other Hungarian organizations important, because it believes that more can always be done together for the benefit of Hungarians in the Czech Republic," he added.
The speaker thanked the Czech and Hungarian state bodies for supporting the operation of the CSMMSZ, and emphasized that the fact that the association is now 30 years old is mainly due to the work of its members.
At the celebratory meeting, Anna Rákóczi, the president of the CSMMSZ, received the Hungarian state award that President János Áder bestowed on her on the occasion of March 15 in recognition of her work for the Hungarians in the Czech Republic for several decades. Andor Gábor Csitári-Rákóczy, the first subordinate of the Hungarian embassy in Prague, presented the award of Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.
The main goal of the mission of the Hungarian Federation, founded on February 24, 1990, was the unification of Hungarians in the Czech Republic, the nurturing and development of the mother tongue, national traditions and national self-awareness. The program statement states that CSMMSZ is not a political organization and does not intend to deal with day-to-day politics.
Today, the Hungarian association has hundreds of members. There are local associations in Brno, Karlovy Vary, Lovosice, Ostrava, Pilsen, Prague and Teplice. According to the latest 2011 census, the number of Hungarians in the Czech Republic is about ten thousand.
At the end of the festive meeting, Tatiána Poljaková's volume of narratives entitled Family Histories 2, which was published by the Hungarian Association on the occasion of the anniversary, was presented.
MTI
