The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) is pleased to announce that Hungary is the 134th country in the world to recognize Macedonia by its constitutional name. UMD thanks Prime Minister Viktor Orban, his government, and the Hungarian people worldwide for their continued strong support and friendship. UMD uses this opportunity to commend Macedonian Ambassador Darko Angelov, who spoke at the 1st UMD Global Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2009, and his able team for their outstanding representation of Macedonia in Hungary.
“This decision by the Hungarian government once again attests the strong and honest friendship Macedonia and Hungary enjoy. Hungary is a great friend and strategic partner to Macedonia and we are pleased and proud that Hungary formally recognized Macedonia’s constitutional name in all bilateral communications, and we are committed to further advancing Hungarian-Macedonian relations,” said today UMD President Metodija A. Koloski who traveled to Budapest in March 2011 and met with both Hungarian government officials and with Hungarian-Macedonian community leaders.
The Macedonian community in Hungary largely originates from Aegean Macedonia in current day Greece, and mainly consists of Macedonian children refugees and their descendants who fled during the Greek Civil War in the 1940s.
In May 2012, UMD awarded its highest honor, the UMD Goce Delchev Award, to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his unyielding support of Macedonia. In a letter from the Prime Minister to UMD, he stated he is convinced that this Award “is the acknowledgement of the strengthening friendship between the Hungarian and the Macedonian people, and a positive feedback of the vigorous enlargement policy of Hungary. Accordingly, let me please assure you that we remain strong supporters of the efforts to promote the European integration of Macedonia.”
Prime Minister Orban made an official visit to Macedonia in May 2011, while holding the EU Presidency, and expressed his strong support for Macedonia’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. Macedonian President Dr. Gjorge Ivanov visited Hungary a month prior, in April 2011. It is unprecedented that a Macedonian head of state visit the country holding the EU Presidency, and immediately followed by a visit to Macedonia by the head of state of the country holding the EU Presidency. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski visited Hungary last month to meet with Prime Minister Orban. In July 2011, Prime Minister Orban sent a memorandum/letter to all EU Member-State Prime Ministers and the leadership of the European Union (the Commission President, the President of the European Parliament, and of the EU Council) urging that the EU should immediately open accession talks with Macedonia, and calling for the “name dispute” to be kept separate from the accession talks.
In April 2012, the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC), the voice of 1.5 million Hungarian-Americans, sent a letter to President Obama calling for his “clear support towards Macedonia by encouraging member-states of the Alliance to extend a formal invitation to the Republic of Macedonia to join NATO at the upcoming May 2012 Chicago Summit.” HAC sent a similar letter in October 2010 prior to the November 2010 Lisbon Summit.