Image talk:Arpadfeszty.jpg

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This picture is more than ridiculous. It shows how diametrically opposite the Hungarian interpretetation of history is in comparison to the European one. One well-known Slovak artist once called it a "painted lie."
It is necessary to sort out lies like this so that we can refer to historical events which really happened, not ones that were changed, or whitewashed by Hungarians (not to blame them, but this is, sadly, true) in order to obtain a better image in front of the rest of Europe.
It is well-known, and can easily be documented by numerous historical sources (last but not least the documents of Vatican and the evidence of Friedrich I, the emperor) that an empire had existed here, long before the old-Hungarian tribes (it is, however, quite wrong to call them old-Hungarians, because they consisted of many tribes, each with a slightly different language and were polytheists; only one of them was called Meder, Megyer or Magyar, which is now the Hungarian word for "Hungarian") were driven out of the east towards Europe, namely by Bulgarians and others. They were allowed to stay near the river Tisa, or Tisza by Svatopluk II, the duke of Great Moravia, an ancient kingdom of the old Slavs. These Slavs, which in centuries, influenced by other nations, transformed into the today's Slovaks, had already had 10,000 words (8,000 Slavonic and 2,000 Greek or Latin; http://cu.wikipedia.org). The had had their own alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolic_alphabet), made for them by Saint Cyril (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Cyril) and Methodius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Methodius) from the Byzantine Empire. They were mostly Christians, also thanks to these two saints. This Old Church Slavonic was also accepted (868) by pope Hadrian II as the fourth liturgical language, for a time, along with Greek, Latin and Hebrew! The old-Hungarian tribes, however, had only had 1,000 words - hadn't even had words for things like a window or a door!
Lies about the "great conquest" of the Hungarians are, most sadly, wide-spread in Hungary. A good example is Mr. Arpad Goncz, the former president of Hungary, who, to the general bewilderment of the public, declared that "after the Avars came the Hungarians, who were the first to settle in the Carpathian Basin, and have lived here ever since." This need not be commented. Didn't even bother to call them old-Hungarians.
I have nothing against the Hungarians, I have friends among them. I just can't bear to see these lies all over the Internet. I hope I have made myself clear and that this will not lead to any argument.
Michal Tomlein