A memorial to the victims and casualties of the pogrom against ethnic Hungarians in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) in March 1990, also called the Black Spring, was inaugurated on Saturday in Marossszentgyörgy (Sângeorgiu de Mureș), a suburb of Marosvásárhely – reported szekelyhon.ro.
The memorial, placed at the border of the local Catholic and Reformed cemetery, recalls — with Hungarian, Roma and universal symbols — the day when 31 years ago, the Hungarian gypsies of Marosszentgyörgy went to defend the unarmed Hungarian protesters in Marosvásárhely attacked by a misled Romanian mob. It is the work of local sculptor Mihály Máté.
The memorial also commemorates those Marosszentgyörgy inhabitants who built roadblocks trying to prevent the buses of the inebriated, belligerent Romanian peasants from getting to Marosvásárhely.
The message of Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén was read out loud by Consul General László Tóth, leader of the Consulate General of Hungary in Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc).
According to Semjén, an even bigger tragedy and a higher number of victims were avoided thanks to the people of Marosszentgyörgy. They “lessened the demolition,” while the authorities at the time, instead of thanking them for this, “took retaliatory action against them” and even imprisoned six of them. He also mentioned that out of the six local victims, three were Hungarian, three were Hungarian Roma, three were Catholic and three were Reformed. He said that:
“The memorial proves that we are only people, whose fate and lives are common regardless if we are Hungarian or Roma, or if we are Catholic or Reformed. Our future can be common if we respect each other’s faith and identity.”
According to the Mayor of Marosszentgyörgy Szabolcs Sófalvi, the memorial pays homage to all Marosszentgyögy people, who defended themselves and their families, and the gate of Marosvásárhely. “We bow our heads before all those tortured, beaten, imprisoned… We bow our heads before all our compatriots who bravely stood up against the intimidators during the Black Spring of 1990.”
According to the Mayor,
the memorial was erected to be a reminder that the Black Spring should never ever happen again and that the different ethnic groups should live together in harmony and peace.
Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Social Inclusion Katalin Langerné Victor, whose message was read out loud by the Coordinator of the Undersecretariat, Ferenc Sándor Szakács, recalled the famous March 1990 slogan: “Hungarians never fear! The gypsies are here!” The Deputy State Secretary’s message also pointed out that the togetherness of Hungarians living in Hungary and Hungarians living outside the borders of Hungary within the Carpathian Basin must include Hungarian-speaking gypsies too.
President of the Maros (Mureș) County Municipality Ferenc Péter emphasized that the Hungarian community has been waiting for 31 years to know who were responsible for the attack on their community, and they have been waiting for justice for 31 years as well.
Title image: Inauguration of the 1990 Black Spring memorial in Marosszentgyörgy on March 27, 2021. (Photo: Vince Haáz/szekelyhon.ro)
