The bilingual town sign of Gyergyószentmiklós/Gheorgheni -– the third biggest town in Hargita/Harghita County where 85 percent 18,000 inhabitants are Hungarian – was damaged in the dawn of Friday, January 24. The Hungarian language part of the sign was sprayed over. The same thing happened with the Gyilkos-tó/Lacul Roșu sign nearby, reported the Hargita County Police Department.
Spokesman Gheorghe Filip stated that the Police makes “decisive actions” every time such acts are carried out regardless if the Hungarian or the Romanian part of a sign is defaced.
Following the crime scene investigation, town employees cleaned the town sign, removing the black spray paint. RMDSZ (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) spokeswoman Csilla Hegedüs wrote on her Facebook page that they have filed a complaint with the police about the matter and that they find these kinds of acts barbaric and
“a provocation against the Hungarian community.”
They also expect the perpetrators to be caught and to be punished.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that such anti-Hungarian acts have taken place in Transylvania. In the beginning of this year, for example, four bilingual road signs were defaced, also in Szeklerland, as the Hungarian inscriptions were sprayed over with black paint. In these cases, the police were able to identify and catch the perpetrator who also admitted his acts. The 30-year-old man from Bacău (Bákó in Hungarian) was not local and drove to Transylvania from a nearby region in Romania; he was fined for vandalism.
Further similar anti-Hungarian acts have also occurred in the last couple of months, including in Máramorossziget/Sighetu Marmației, Nagyvárad/Oradea and Kisszentlőrinc/Lăureni as well.
Title image: The vandalized town sign of Gyergyószentmiklós/Gheorgheni on the left and the same sign after the cleaning on the right. (Photo: Facebook)
