The cemetery for Hungarian heroes who died in the territory of Romania will not be in Szeklerland, as the Ministry of Defense of Hungary had wished, the military attachés of the Hungarian embassy in Bucharest informed kronikaonline.ro. The National Office of Heroes’ Cult did not accept the two locations suggested by Budapest: Jobbágytelke/ Sâmbriaș and Mezőpanit/Pănet, much to the regret of the mayors of the two localities. However, it did find Arad to be a suitable location, which is also acceptable to the Hungarian side.
The Hungarian Ministry of Defense, the National Office of Heroes’ Cult and the municipality of Arad negotiated the details for the planned cemetery space.
The Arad City Hall offered a parcel in the cemetery on Bodrogi Street, where some Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian and Russian soldiers who died in one of the two World Wars are already buried. According to the plans, this would be the resting place for those Hungarian soldiers who died in the fall of 1944, who fought in the battle near Torda. The soldiers’ remains were exhumed six years ago from the New Jewish Cemetery in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca because the parcel was intended for something else. Later on, the remains of other soldiers will also be removed from other neglected cemeteries and reburied in Arad.
The progress made in this matter must be appreciated, the Hungarian side noted, as it had been dragged out by the Romanian side since 2012. Mayor Călin Bibarț is now fully supporting the matter. The leaders of the Ministry of Defense and Hungarian Institute & Museum of Military History requested a parcel of almost 1,000 square meters, half of which has already been guaranteed. Although the exact number of soldiers to be removed from neglected cemeteries is not yet known, there will be hundreds. For now, the remains from Kolozsvár will definitely be reburied at the new location.
Featured photo: parcel of the future cemetery/Facebook/Arad RMDSZ
