Excerpt from the Digital Journal (www.digitaljournal.com)
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Ukraine's 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, feared as potential fifth columnists for ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, face a growing threat from far-right nationalists.
In the region of western Transcarpathia, the large Hungarian minority has grown increasingly uneasy.
Stick-wielding members of Pravy Sektor, the far-right paramilitary group that was on the frontline of bloody protests to depose Yanukovych in Kiev in February, stormed the town hall in Berehove, a town of around 24,000 people, last week.
Editor's Note: The Hungarian minority in the Transcarpathian region of the Ukraine are feeling uneasy about recent events. Ukrainian nationalists have taken over many government buildings in the western part of the country and the police are almost non-existent. The Hungarian minority feels that they will be treated badly by the new Ukrainian government. Hungarians number about 150,000 in the region, which is a sizable minority. They feel that they will be drawn into a conflict that is not really theirs as it is really between the Russians and Ukrainians.
Hungarians supported the previous Ukrainian government as it gave minority language rights. Because of this, Ukrainians are viewing Hungarians with suspicion. The Hungarian government stated recently that they will support the Hungarian minority in the Ukraine. We can only hope that the ethnic Hungarians in the region will be spared the violence which has engulfed the rest of the region. Only time will tell how the Hungarian minority fair in the Ukraine.
