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Refugee Crises At Dangerous Tipping Point As Hungary Makes Arrests, Germany Loses Patience
Refugee Crises At Dangerous Tipping Point As Hungary Makes Arrests, Germany Loses Patience
“I’m not happy. I had to leave Syria — I love Syria, but so much killing there.”
That’s from 17-year old Mohammed Al-Hamdan who made it across the Hungarian border with Serbia at a railroad crossing near the village of Roszke before it was closed on Tuesday. As NBC reports, “just before Hungarian police closed the railroad crossing, a Syrian family ran down the tracks trying to make it through, the patriarch screaming to his wife and small children, ‘Yallah, yallah!’ — Arabic for ‘Let’s go!’” Before closing the “popular” passage, Hungary had reportedly begun hauling migrants on to trains and shipping them straight to the Austrian border. “The situation is that after crossing the border these people have arrived at the collection point in Roszke, where there is no official procedure, people are just being collected. Earlier these people were being taken to the registration points … this is not happening now, but rather, buses are taking people from the collection point to the Roszke train station according to our information,” a UNHCR spokesman told Reuters.
Of course even for the migrants who were “lucky” enough to be rounded up and shipped to Austria as opposed to being stranded behind Hungary’s new migrant-be-gone fence, their fate is far from certain. As The New York Timesnoted on Monday, Austrian officials have now sent “2,200 soldiers to help reinforce the eastern border.”
The rush to get into the Hungary came as the country largely completed a four meter, razor wire fence meant to cut off the flow of refugees and channel them to official registration centers where they can apply for asylum. “If their applications are refused,” BBC says, “they will now be returned to Serbia rather than being given passage through Hungary.”
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Superpower Blunders: Czechoslovakia in 1938
Superpower Blunders: Czechoslovakia in 1938
The Czechoslovakia crisis of 1938 marked a pivotal shift in the balance of power in Central Europe, putting the major world superpowers in a collision course. The policies of one superpower in particular made inevitable what was to come less than a year later – World War II.
This episode provides important historical insights on geopolitics, appeasement strategies, buffer zones, ethnic tensions – and unintended consequences.
Background
Czechoslovakia was formed as a sovereign state in October 1918, and eventually became one of the most democratic, prosperous and best administered of all the nations that emerged out of the collapse of the Habsburg Empire after World War I.
In 1930, the country had a population of 15 million, consisting of 6 million Czechs (40% of total), 4 million Slovaks (27%), 3.2 million Germans (21%), and the balance (12%) split between Hungarians, Polish, Ruthenians and foreigners. The large number of minorities arose from the need to give Czechoslovakia defensible and viable frontiers. This was a sensitive issue for the sizeable German speaking population, which had previously attempted to unite with German Austria.
There were four main regions in the country (listed from west to east): Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia. The western regions were wealthier. The border districts of Bohemia and Moravia and the domestic portion of Silesia were inhabited primarily by German speakers, a region known as the Sudetenland (a name derived from the Sudetes Mountains, which run along the northern border).
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1000s rally in Hungary, accuse govt of drifting away from EU (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
1000s rally in Hungary, accuse govt of drifting away from EU (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Thousands of people have flooded on to the streets of Budapest to protest against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Protesters accused him of drifting away from the EU and strengthening ties with Russia.
The protesters carried banners, saying “Game Over” and “Delete Viktor [Orban]”. According to AFP estimates, the demonstration gathered about 5,000 people in front of the Budapest opera house.
“We condemn the parties of the last 25 years… We cannot expect the state to think for us,” one of the organizers of the demonstration, Zsolt Varady, said in a speech at the rally.
“I think it is important for people to demonstrate,” Varady said. “The politicians have gone far away from reality. They don’t seem to represent the public’s views.”
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Hungarian Premier Orban Scraps Internet Tax Amid Protests – Bloomberg
Hungarian Premier Orban Scraps Internet Tax Amid Protests – Bloomberg.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban scrapped plans to introduce the world’s first Internet tax, bowing to pressure after tens of thousands of people protested at rallies across the eastern European Union member.
“Whatever the government’s intention was, this tax simply can’t be introduced,” Orban said in a state radio interview today in his first public comments since the demonstrations. “We want to govern with the people.”
The Internet tax plan sparked two of the biggest rallies against Orban’s administration since he returned to power in 2010. The rallies widened into anti-government protests, with demonstrators criticizing perceived state corruption and centralization of power.
Magyar Telekom Nyrt., the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, jumped 5 percent to 339 forint by 10 a.m. It competes with the local unit of Liberty Global Plc (LBTYA) and Digi Kft. for broadband customers and subsidiaries of Telenor ASA (TEL) andVodafone Group Plc (VOD) in the mobile phone market.
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