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Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement

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Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement
Hatvannégy Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom
LeaderGyörgy Gyula Zagyva, Gábor Barcsa-Turner
Founded21 April 2001
IdeologyUltranationalism[1][2]
Hungarian irredentism[3][4]
Political positionFar-right[5][6]
Website
https://www.hvim.hu/

The Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement (Hungarian: Hatvannégy Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom, HVIM) is a far-right[7] movement originating in Hungary and also present in Romania, Slovakia and Serbia, advocating the unification of all ethnic Hungarians that live outside of Hungary and the revision of the Treaty of Trianon from 1920, which defined the current borders of the Hungarian state.The founder and first leader of the movement was László Toroczkai, but he resigned as leader of the movement on October 28, 2006. The next president was György Gyula Zagyva from 2006. [1][2]László Toroczkai was no longer an active member of the movement after he was elected mayor of Ásotthalom in 2013. He also resigned from the position of honorary president and declared that he would give way to young people, effectively leaving the Sixty-Four County Youth Movement in 2013.[3]

It is named in memory of Greater Hungary, which was divided into 64 counties,[8] although it is an anachronism, because the Kingdom of Hungary had only 63 counties, but the city of Fiume and its district as a corpus separatum was under Hungarian rule and it was meant as the 64th county by the founders for simplicity.[citation needed]

Ties to other organisations

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The HVIM is responsible for organising the yearly Magyar Sziget festival. The youth movement has ties to the Betyársereg ('Army of Outlaws'), a black-clad 'self-defense force' that has a motor club as well. This group is also present at the HVIM youth camps, teaching kids survival skills as well as Hungarian history.[9][10]

Charges on attempted terrorist act

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On 1 December 2015, István Beke, a member of the organization, was arrested by the Romanian authorities for planning to detonate an improvised explosive device in Târgu Secuiesc during the Great Union Day parade. Beke was charged with "attempted actions against constitutional order and failure to observe the rules governing the explosive materials regarding the prevention and combat of terrorism".[11][12][13][14]

Zoltán Szőcs, the leader of HVIM's Transylvanian chapter, was also detained. According to the Romanian prosecutor's office, Szőcs had incited Beke and other activists to produce home-made bombs, which would be detonated during the national holiday.[15]

On 1 February 2016, the arrest warrants of the two HVIM members were extended by 30 more days.[16]

On 7 April 2017, Beke and Szőcs were sentenced to 11 months and 10 months imprisonment, respectively.[17] On 4 July 2018, Beke and Szőcs were handed a final sentence of 5 years imprisonment each.[18]

According to the unanimous opinion of the Party of Hungarians in Romania, as well as representatives of the Hungarian government and several minority protection organizations, István Beke and Zoltán Szőcs were innocently convicted in an unfair, show trial. This is a show trial, as evidenced by the fact that we have gone from the misuse of pyrotechnic devices to the act of terrorism in the classification of the crime.[4]

Zoltán Lomnici, President of the Council for Human Dignity and former President of the Supreme Court in Hungary, said that evidence had emerged that the Romanian secret service may have had a financial interest in convicting István Beke and Zoltán Szőcs for terrorism.[5]

Violence in Serbia

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According to Serbian media, In September 2011, group of 15 Hungarian members of the "Sixty-Four Counties" movement assaulted 5 Serbian men with metal rods who were going back from their friend's birthday party in Temerin. According to the statement of a victim's mother, the attackers were dressed in uniformed Blackshirts and attacked the young men because they were speaking Serbian.[19] As the mother stated, "these children had to be beaten because they are Serbs and because they speak Serbian in Serbia".[19]The Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement has repeatedly denied in statements that the organization was involved in the incidents in Temerin. László Toroczkai said in 2012 about these fights in Temerin that the Serbian media had been lying about the organization for years, and they did not publish their corrections. He denied the allegations, saying that the Sixty-Four County Youth Movement (HVIM) has not been present in Serbia for years, so the organization had nothing to do with the incidents in Temerin.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Liphshiz, Cnaan. "A government campaign against George Soros splits Hungarian Jews". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  2. ^ Assotthalom, Eleonora Vio in (15 September 2016). "On the road with Hungary's vigilante migrant hunters". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  3. ^ "Omladinski pokret 64 županije". B92.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  4. ^ "Weary Hungarians polarized by tide of refugees". Reuters. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  5. ^ Noack, Rick (14 February 2017). "A Hungarian village declared 'war' on Muslim immigration. Few objected". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  6. ^ Nostalgia and hope intersections between politics of culture, welfare, and migration in Europe. Ov Cristian Norocel, Anders Hellström, Martin Bak Jørgensen. Cham: Springer Open. 2020. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-030-41694-2. OCLC 1158215588.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ "Hungarian far-right figure attacked in Serbia". politics.hu. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  8. ^ Mudde, C. (2005). Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 86. ISBN 9780415355933. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  9. ^ Betyársereg Archived 21 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, HVIM
  10. ^ "Betyársereg".
  11. ^ "Terror plot suspect Beke Istvan is remanded in custody". www.agerpres.ro.
  12. ^ "Bomb attack by Hungarian extremists foiled on Romania's National Day". 1 December 2015.
  13. ^ "Romania foils bomb plot at National Day parade | World News 2015-12-02". Archived from the original on 12 December 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  14. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ "Were Hungarian extremists planning a terrorist attack in Romania?". 2 January 2016.
  16. ^ "Extremiştii Szocs Zoltan şi Beke Istvan rămân în arest preventiv". www.agerpres.ro.
  17. ^ "Extremists Szocs Zoltan and Beke Istvan – sentenced to 10 months and 11 months imprisonment". Romania Journal. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  18. ^ "Cei doi extremiști maghiari care voiau să detoneze un dispozitiv exploziv pe 1 decembrie 2015, condamnați la câte 5 ani de închisoare [The 2 Magyar extremists, who intended to detonate an explosive device on 1 December 2015, sentenced to 5 years imprisonment each]" (in Romanian). Hotnews.ro. 4 July 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  19. ^ a b Pretučeni srpski mladići u Temerinu - RADIO-TELEVIZIJA VOJVODINE, Приступљено 17. 4. 2013.
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