Székely Land
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Székely Land (Hungarian: Székelyföld; Romanian: Ţinutul Secuiesc, Latin: Terra Siculorum) is used today in a cultural-ethnographical sense to refer to the territories inhabited by the Székelys, a Hungarian minority lying in the centre of Romania, in the valleys and hills of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, corresponding to the present day Harghita, Covasna and parts of Mureş counties in Romania. Originally, the name Székelyföld denoted an autonomous region during the Kingdom of Hungary. It ceased to exist as a legal entity after the Habsburg Empire took control of the region.
There is a local Szekler initiative to attain regional autonomy for the Székely Land, within similar boundaries to those of Romania's Hungarian Autonomous Region (1952-60). Most Romanians, however, oppose this idea. It is also doubtful whether the present constitution of Romania (which defines the country as a unitary nation-state) could accommodate any autonomous regions based on ethnicity.
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[edit] Population
There are approximately 670,000 Székelys, an ethnic group kin to the Magyars, living in the counties of Harghita, Covasna and parts of Mureş county, with the highest densities in Harghita and Covasna (~85% and ~74% respectively).
[edit] Geography
Most of its territory lay within the actual Harghita, Covasna and Mureş counties of modern Romania. Historically centred in the town of Székelyudvarhely (now Odorheiu Secuiesc, Harghita county, Romania), other important centers of Székely land were Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc), Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe), Székelyvásárhely (modern Hungarian name Marosvásárhely, Târgu-Mureş in Romanian).
[edit] History
From the 12th and 13th centuries until 1876, the Székelyföld enjoyed a considerable but varying amount of autonomy (first as a part of the Kingdom of Hungary, then inside the Principality of Transylvania, and finally as a part of the Habsburg Empire). The autonomy was largely due to the special service the Szeklers provided up until the beginning of the 18th century as border guards. In 1867, as a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (a deal struck by the Emperor and the Hungarian political class), Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary and ceased to exist as a legal or administrative entity.
In 1876, a general administrative reform abolished all the autonomous areas in the Kingdom of Hungary and created a unified system of counties. As a result, the autonomous Szeklerland came to an end as well. Four counties were created in its place: Udvarhely, Háromszék, Csík and Maros-Torda.[1]
The period between 1918/1920-1940: to be written
In 1940, Romania was forced to cede the northern half of Transylvania to Hungary in the Second Vienna Award (this included most of the historically Szekler areas). Hungarian authorities subsequently restored the pre-Trianon administrative structure (with slight modifications).
After World War II, a Hungarian Autonomous Region was created, which encompassed most of the land inhabited by the Székelys. This region lasted until 1968 when the administrative reform divided Romania into the current counties.
Since 2005 and 2006, representatives of the Hungarian minority have presented their desire to re-create the autonomous region under the name "Székely Land (Szekler Land)", in Hungarian: "Székelyföld", in Romanian: "Ţinutul Secuiesc". The proposal stirred a series of scandals within the Romanian press and political system. With the re-creation of the autonomous region, the Hungarian minority is trying to obtain rights similar to those in autonomous Southern Tyrol (Italy), Basque Country (Spain), Gagauzia (Moldova), Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), etc.
The Romanian political system and the press considers this initiative an "attempt against the Romanian state's territorial integrity" and therefore rejects it. In 2006, Romanian president Traian Băsescu has also condemned the idea of an autonomous Székely (Szekler) region. Paradoxally, he stated that he agrees with the autonomy of Kosovo province in former Yugoslavia.
[edit] Notes
- ^ As a matter of fact, only half of the territory of Maros-Torda originally belonged to Székelyföld, as the other half belonged to other regions. Roughly speaking, present-day Harghita county encompasses Udvarhely (capital city: Székelyudvarhely, now Odorheiu Secuiesc) and Csík (capital city: Csíkszereda, Miercurea Ciuc), present-day Covasna covers more or less the same territory as did Háromszék (capital city: Sepsiszentgyörgy, Sfântu Gheorghe), and what used to be Maros-Torda (capital city: Marosvásárhely, Târgu-Mureş) is part of present-day Mureş.
