Ethnic groups in Romania

Today's Romania is the fruit of history that brought Romanians in contact with peoples and communities of cultural identities that enriched not only our cultural heritage, but also the diversity of European civilization, says President Klaus Iohannis, in a message transmitted on Monday on the occasion of the Greek Language Day.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Monday sent a message on the Sveti Sava Day saying that the Serb minority is "a model of inter-ethnic relations and social cohesion in Romania, to which it contributes alongside the other ethnic minorities and the majority population." "This is a special day for the ethnic Serbs.

Romanian police have arrested a 30-year-old man from Bacau County in northeast Romania for defacing Hungarian-language signs in four towns in neighbouring Harghita County, the Romanian news agency Mediafax reported on Monday.

Ethnic Hungarians account for 85 per cent of the population in Harghita County, and the vandalism of the signs had caused local tensions.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has asked Romania to halt any further "provocations" over crosses erected for Romanian war dead in a cemetery in an ethnic Hungarian part of the country.

The dispute arose after the authorities erected 52 concrete crosses to mark the graves of the dead Romanian soldiers outside the Harghita County cemetery.

Turkey on May 18 remembered the deportation and ethnic cleansing of Crimean Tatars 75 years ago by the Soviet Union.

The President of the Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania (PPMT), Szilágyi Zsolt, stated in Baile Tusnad on Friday that the claim of autonomy is a sign of Szeklers' loyalty to Romania and expressed his conviction that autonomy would make our country even more stable and stronger.

Romania's former Social Democrat Prime Minister Mihai Tudose apologized on Thursday for threatening to hang ethnic Hungarian political leaders, when he said that "if the Szekler [ethnic Hungarian] flag flies on an institution, they will fly next to the flag."

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, the Hungarian National Party and the Hungarian People's Party in Transylvania asked for a territorial declaration of territorial autonomy for the Szeklers and a special status of the Partium region (the territories to the north and west of Transylvania), Aderpres said.

Romania's main ethnic Hungarian parties on Monday signed a joint declaration that sets out a common political agenda, including a demand for autonomy in those parts of the Transylvania region where ethnic Hungarians are in the majority.

Romania's Senate on Monday postponed a vote on a bill designed to commemorate March 15 as the anniversary of the 1848 Revolution in Hungary.

Hungarians everywhere honour the uprising against Habsburg rule - eventually crushed by Austria with Russian aid.