The conflict from Valea Uzului – the Hungarian minority, the Romanian national state and the Hungarian homeland

Abstract

The article presents one of the most recent (victimless) ethnic conflict between the Hungarian minority from Romania (more precisely the Székelys/Szeklers from Harghita county) and members of the Romanian majority over a war cemetery where both sides had claims of ownership and former combatants/war heroes interred. The conflict is put in the general context of nowadays Romanian-Hungarian relations, using the theoretical “triadic nexus“ (national minority – nationalizing state – external national motherland) of interacting political fields provided by Rogers Brubaker. We can thus see the reciprocal influence between the three mentioned elements, and how they can work for both complicating and/or simplificating an already intricate reality.

Keywords

• war heroes
• ethnic conflict
• nationality
• triadic nexus
• național state
• național minority
• external motherland
• political field