Magyar Tells Pellegrini He'll Continue to Call Slovakia 'Felvidek'

Budapest, 13 January (TASR-correspondent) - Leader of the Hungarian extra-parliamentary opposition Tisza party Peter Magyar stated on Facebook on Tuesday that he'll continue to use the term 'Felvidek' [a Hungarian name for Slovakia, meaning 'the Uplands', viewed as derogatory in Slovakia - ed. note] despite reservations voiced by Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, TASR has learnt from its Budapest correspondent. Magyar was responding to Pellegrini's video message on Monday (12 January) in which the Slovak president described it as offensive that a "potential future Hungarian prime minister" had referred to Slovakia as Felvidek in a letter last week regarding the Benes decrees. "If you will allow me [and even if you won't], I'll call geographical areas by the names that I learned from my parents and as we have called them for a thousand years - just as Pozsony is the name used by all Hungarians for your capital, the place where eleven Hungarian rulers were crowned," the Tisza party leader wrote in a post addressed to Pellegrini. "I would be grateful if you would consider the real issues that I raised in my open letter to the Slovak prime minister," he added, stressing that laws based on collective guilt have no place in the 21st century. According to Magyar, neither Hungary nor Europe accept a situation in which Slovakia, by invoking the Benes Decrees, would confiscate land from Hungarians living "in Felvidek". jrg/df