Romanian troops having army exercise in Szeklerland

Associate of the Ministry of Defence refers to the local authorities that they support the military exercise of the Romanian army, called Concordia 19, this week in Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc) – the mayor’s office of the town was just notified about the military action.  

According to maszol.ro, the venue is symbolic because the Hungarian community in Szeklerland is considered to be a threat to national security in Romania. There is an intentionally misguided or just simply false communication about viewing the region as a dangerous zone of the country – RMDSZ (local party of Hungarians) representative, Attila Korodi said.  

The counties of Hargitha and Kovászna have been venues of grand army exercise since Monday and will continue to be till the end of the week. The main phase of the event is going to be on Wednesday in Csíkszereda where there is a fictive cybernetic attack in which a beer factory explodes, and the people in the vicinity get infected. 500 people are attending the military activity from the army, Interior Ministry, Romanian Intelligence, Government Security and the Special Telecommunication Service – so not only the military but the institutions, responsible for national security also attend this exercise. 

As Brigadier General Marian Botea has explained before: the interinstitutional cooperation of the armed forces is aimed to be improved – it is their duty to prepare for hybrid warfare. According to the military officer, such a threat is possible from Russia. 

“We all know what happened in Ukraine and Georgia in 2014. We have analysed that warfare and want to be prepared for such a case” 

– Botea said to Digi24.

The reason why these two counties and Csíkszereda were chosen for the exercise is, that the cooperation of the institutional network for national security works excellently in this region – it could be observed during the papal visit. Botea says that the local authorities also support the army exercise. 

According to Csíkszereda mayor, Róbert Kálmán Ráduly says that the venue choice of Concordia 19 clearly tells us that the Hungarian majority in Szeklerland is considered to be a national security threat in Romania.

“Even the existence of Szeklerland is the failure of the Romanian nation-state, and we can see that we officially mean a threat to national security”

– the mayor said regular radio interview on Monday morning.

As RMDSZ representative, Attila Korodi sees it, there is an intentionally misguided or just simply false communication about viewing the region as a dangerous zone of the country. According to the politician, it is important to have the army ready for such conflicts as in this simulated situation, but in his opinion, the venue choice is very “extremely unfortunate”.

Korodi adds that it was a serious mistake of the ministry to justify the exercise with the conflict between Russian and the post-Soviet states.

This way, they depict Szeklerland to be similar to Georgia and Ukraine as a dangerous zone where such a threat is possible – the press already supports this false approach. 

The organiser institutions did not ask for help from the mayor’s office of Csíkszereda – vice mayor, Zoltán Füleki said to maszol.ro. He says that there will be no need for road closures or traffic restriction – nothing was mentioned about it in the notification of the army exercise at least.  

In the announcement of the mayor’s office, the inhabitants of Csíkszereda are alerted that during the exercise, low flight altitude should be expected (min. 300 metres) from Spartan warplanes between 7-9 October in the line: Gyergyószentmiklós–Csíkszereda–Sepsiszentgyörgy–Székelydvarhely. The office also reports that the exercise affects the Western part of Csíkszereda on the right bank of Olt river – near national road 13A. 

According to Friday press conference, Marian Botea stated that first aid provision, for those who are infected by chemical substance, is also planned to be practised, so the hospitals are also going to be involved in the exercise. Edit Kiss, spokeswoman of Hargita Megyei Sürgősségi Kórház (Emergency Hospital of Hargita County) reports that no contribution has been requested from their institution, so they are not going to attend the army exercise. 

You can read about how Romanian intellectuals have recently incited against the “growing Hungarian influence” here. You can also read about the physical aggression of Romanian nationalist mob in the Hungarian military cemetery of Úzvölgye here.