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Ukraine expels Hungarian diplomat in passport row
KIEV, Oct 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ukraine said Thursday a Hungarian consul had
72 hours to leave the country after being accusing of handing out passports
to ethnic Hungarians in the west of the ex-Soviet country.
The foreign ministry declared a Hungarian consul in the western Ukrainian
town of Beregove persona non grata due to “the activity incompatible with the
consular status.”
“In future, we expect Hungary to refrain from any unfriendly steps towards
Ukraine and its officials from violating Ukrainian legislation,” the ministry
said in a statement.
Dual citizenship is prohibited by law in Ukraine.
The incident is the latest in a series of diplomatic spats between Ukraine
and EU member Hungary which has threatened to block Kiev’s rapprochement with
the European Union and NATO.
In a tit-for-tat response, Budapest said it, too, would expel a Ukrainian
consul in Hungary.
“In view of the measure taken by Ukraine, Hungary is also expulsing a
Ukrainian consul,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference.
“Hungary wants to have good relations with its neighbours. But over recent
months, Ukraine has only ratcheted up the tensions with Hungary,” said
Szijjarto, who had already discussed the matter with his Ukrainian
counterpart Pavlo Klimkin in New York last week.
Szijjarto said the Hungarian consul in Ukraine “hasn’t done anything that
breaches current law.”
The latest tensions came after a video surfaced in September allegedly
showing a Hungarian diplomat issuing passports to ethnic Hungarians at a
ceremony in the consulate in Beregove.
In the video, a woman — allegedly a Hungarian consul — asked those
receiving Hungarian passports not to report this to the Ukrainian
authorities.
Beregove — or Beregszasz, as it is also known by its Hungarian name — is
located within walking distance of the Hungarian border and is the centre of
Ukraine’s Hungarian culture.
According to Ukrainian media, around 100,000 Ukrainian nationals have
received Hungarian passports over the past few years.
Another conflict erupted between the two countries last year when Kiev
adopted a controversial law seeking to make it obligatory for school lessons
to be held in Ukrainian.
Hungary fears the ambiguously-worded law will limit the rights of ethnic
Hungarians in Ukraine.
Numbering around 100,000, ethnic Hungarians constitute the largest
minority group in Transcarpathia, a western Ukrainian region behind the
Carpathian Mountains that was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Budapest has already obstructed Ukraine’s participation in several high-
profile meetings with NATO member countries.
On Tuesday, US Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison urged
Hungary “not to oppose” Ukraine’s cooperation with NATO and its aspiration to
join the bloc.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1916HRS