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News, 10/26/2016 Speach of Ambassador Petri Tuomi-Nikula on the 60th Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest I. district Dear friends,Ladies and gentlemen, All over Finland church bells have tolled every night for the past week. In this way, Finns wish to commemorate the people who have lost their lives as casualties of Syrian and Russian airstrikes in the city of Aleppo during the recent weeks. We Finns can do very little to stop this bloodshed. However, we can – and must – speak out against it. The tolling of church bells every evening is a protest against violence aimed at civilians that has surpassed all proportion. The events taking place in Syria are not driven by ideology, but by fear and by greed for power – by the fear of losing power. Dear friends. Sixty years ago the world witnessed the awakening of hope in Hungary. For two weeks Hungarians – and with them, the entire Western world – lived in the belief that freedom would triumph. It did not. Instead, Soviet tanks filled the streets of Budapest. Instead, thousands of Hungarians lost their lives and hundreds of thousands fled the country. People died and fled because they wanted to live abiding to Western values, they hoped for better life, for justice. Europe, and later on the entire world, offered asylum for those in need. Hungary was flooded with sympathy – but little did it help against the Russian tanks or the executions which were to follow. Finns lived through those days filled with deep compassion. The Hungarian cause became the cause of all Finnish people. All over Finland collections and events were organized to raise funds for helping the Hungarians. The situation in Finland was not easy, either. Finland had emerged from its own war just twelve years before. Perhaps it was easier for Finns to put themselves in the position of the Hungarians than it was for others. No one knew what was to follow of that October in Budapest. Nevertheless, there was a strong will to help our Hungarian brothers. This year, a book was published about the help provided by Finns to Hungary in 1956. An exhibition based on it can be seen in the foyer of the Hungarian National Opera until the end of November. I will continue by briefly describing how I, and perhaps most Finns, saw the events following the Hungarian Uprising. First and foremost, the Uprising was the most significant watershed event in the Cold War. Russian tanks stopped the Hungarians but only for a brief moment. In that difficult situation Hungary started edging, little by little, toward the values of freedom. Life in Hungary was economically and emotionally better than in other socialist countries. Travelling abroad was easier. The special relationship arising from the common decent of the Finnish and Hungarian languages had prospered before World War II and now it became strong once more. It was easier for Hungarians to travel to Finland than to other countries. It was only natural to me that the barrier between the East and the West should crumble first in Hungary. In 1983, the Hungarian border authorities let hundreds of citizens of the German Democratic Republic cross the border and flee to Austria. This was the final step in the process that freed the Eastern-European nations, allowed them to return home and rejoin the rest of Europe and finally led to the fall of the Soviet Union. Uprisings, protests against the communist regime, took place also in other Eastern-European countries. The events that took place in Hungary are, nonetheless, unprecedented in their intensity. The amount of sympathy and compassion that Hungary collected was enormous. In 1956, Hungary became a symbol for freedom – and that is how it remained until the end of the communist regime. The importance of reputation and image must not be underestimated in diplomacy. As Hungary joined the European Union twelve years ago, the country had a suitcase filled with capital raised during the past decades. That was the capital that started growing in 1956. It had an enormous influence on the economic and political decisions related to Hungary. Even nowadays Hungary still receives the largest EU subsidies per capita. This is something that cannot be explained in purely logical terms. I hope, form the bottom of my heart, that the good reputation of Hungary may live on in the future. Dear friends. As I told you in the beginning of this speech, every night church bells are tolled in Finland. The tolling of the bells will continue until United Nations Day on Monday. Until then, the bells toll in remembrance of the civilian casualties in Aleppo and against all loss of lives though violence. Especially today, the bells are rung also to commemorate and honor all the brave Hungarians that died or were wounded, or were forced to leave their homes during the Uprising in 1956. I greet you, dear friends, on my own behalf, and on the behalf of all Finnish people, on the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising. |