FM Szijjártó: Hungary was betrayed in 1956

The heroes of Hungary’s 1956 revolution fought for independence, democracy and humanity, a state secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office said in Bonyhád, in south-western Hungary, commemorating the 65th anniversary of 1956, on Saturday.

“The revolution broke out spontaneously in October 1956, which is why the event could be interpreted as a moment of manifestation of the Hungarian people’s soul,” Árpád János Potápi, who is in charge of the policy for Hungarian communities abroad, said.

“Those who get to know about 1956 will also get to know the community of Hungarians,” he said.

“The battles in 1956 claimed some 2,600 lives, including victims in Bonyhád: 16-year-old collier student Jenő Szakács, who died in the Mecsek mountains, and 19-year-old Red Cross worker Piusz Domokos, who was shot in Budapest,” Potápi said, adding that

Viktor Orbán’s speech at the commemoration ceremony of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

200,000 people fled to the West to escape retaliation after the revolution. “Those were young, intelligent and hardworking people whom the homeland has missed ever since,” he said.

Referring to next spring’s general election, Potápi said: “Let’s not allow those to return to power for whom Hungary does not matter. Let’s defend the honour of the 1956 revolution against those who have smeared it already many times,” the state secretary said, referring to events fifteen years ago when commemorations of 1956’s 50th anniversary were marred by violence.

The Foreign Minister’s opinion

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Facebook on Saturday, marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the anti-Soviet revolt, said that

despite reports aired on Radio Free Europe in October 1956, suggesting imminent international intervention to support the Hungarian revolution, “nobody came to help”.

“We, Hungarians, wanted to belong to the free world, but that world left us high and dry,” Szijjártó said, adding that the country lost not only its fight but also “freedom for more than three decades”.

Niagara Falls lit up in Hungarian national colours to commemorate 1956

“We lost tens and hundreds of thousands: those that died, those that were left crippled for life, and those that had to flee and could never return to their homeland,” the minister said.

“Salutations to the heroes, shame on the deserters, long live free Hungary,” Szijjártó said in his entry.

Source: MTI