Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990 TAG: 9003252201
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: CLUJ, ROMANIA LENGTH: Medium
Both nationalities feel strong emotional ties to this region of rolling farmland and snow-capped mountains, which has changed hands four times since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.
Populated with a rich mix of cultures, Transylvania - or Erdely, as it is called by Hungarians on both sides of the border - has remained a powerful symbol of national identity for both Romanians and Hungarians, and a strain on relations between these uneasy neighbors.
During the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, the Transylvanians bore the brunt of Bucharest's efforts to homogenize the non-Romanian population.
Thousands of ethnic Germans, who have lived in Transylvania since the Middle Ages, responded to the pressure by emigrating.
"Romanian nationalism is worse than it was under Ceausescu," said Lajos Kantor, the new editor of Romania's main Hungarian literary magazine published here.
"In the first days, it was not a problem; we fought together. But we know these people. We have lived with them for years and we knew they would not disappear."
The central issue has been education in traditionally Hungarian schools, where people are demanding "cultural separation."
"We don't trust, and they don't give," said Pal Gyorgy Vincze, a Hungarian who works as an engineer in the town of Huedin, 25 miles from Cluj, where demands for a separate Hungarian school have been shelved until autumn.
The two groups remain blunt as to how each sees the other.
"We cannot live together every minute," Kantor said, explaining the reasons why Hungarians want separate schools.
To Romanians, the Hungarian demands smack of a creeping separatism, and are thus a threat to Romanian control.
by CNB