Today's decision by the Executive Committee of the Munkács City Council to remove the symbol of the city from the Munkács Castle, the millenentary statue restored to its original form in 2008, is deeply shocking and outrageous - said János Árpád Potápi, the State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office responsible for national policy, in a statement sent to Magyar Hírlap yesterday evening. He added: it is even more shocking that the statue was removed in record time, by the afternoon. (The case 2022 plus yesterday.)

The Secretary of State highlighted: "It is unfortunate that in the middle of a war, the most important thing for the leadership of the city of Munkács is to demolish the monument, which is considered one of the prominent symbols of the local and Transcarpathian Hungarians, while Hungary is carrying out the largest humanitarian aid operation in the history of Ukraine to help refugees from the war in Ukraine.

He added: "In a country that professes European values, mutual respect and preservation of historical monuments and memorial sites is of fundamental importance, with regard to national minorities, this is one of the measures of the country's minority policy."
János Árpád Potápi put it this way: "At the time of the armed aggression raging in Ukraine, this step is extremely ill-considered and untimely, which may work against the stability of the multi-ethnic Subcarpathia." He recalled: "Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Hungary has helped and continues to help Ukraine as a good neighbor and has taken in nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees."

The Turul statue of Münkacsi Castle was erected in 1896, as one of the seven millennium monuments. The Czechoslovak authorities demolished the monument in 1924, and the Red Army, which entered the countryside, melted down the nearly 1-ton bronze statue in 1945. The copy of the statue, which was destroyed in 1945, was made by the sculptor Mihály Belény. The full financing of the restoration project was provided by the American Hungarian businessman Imre Pákh, according to the announcement.

Source: Magyar Hírlap

Photo: MTI / Endre Friedmann