Hungary supports Kazakh government

An alt-left pundit vituperates against the government for supporting the Kazakh authorities, while a pro-government columnist condemns what he calls one-sided assessments of the Kazakh crisis.

Mérce’s former editor in chief András Jámbor who is now the opposition candidate in a Budapest constituency lambasts Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó, for saying that Kazakhstan is the victim of a carefully coordinated attack over the past ten days and for offering support to the Kazakh government. In a Facebook post he writes that the Kazakh people revolted against an oppressive dictatorship, while the authorities have used indiscriminate violence – and not just against looters and arsonists. He accuses the government of betraying the Hungarian revolutions of 1848 and 1956 by supporting the Kazakh leaders.

In Magyar Hírlap, Mariann Őry dismisses comparisons with 1956 as groundless and warns against one-sided evaluations of the violent clashes in Kazakhstan. She welcomes the Hungarian government’s decision to refrain from taking an ideological stand and concentrate instead on helping or evacuating the roughly 160 Hungarian citizens living in Kazakhstan. Őry doesn’t venture to decide whether the turmoil there was an attempt at another ‘colour revolution’, but is convinced that Hungary, for one, is already the target of such foreign ambitions in the runup to the parliamentary elections in April.

Tags: Kazakhstan, Szijjártó