The "Calea Neamului" organization is preparing to place 150 wooden crosses in the military cemetery in Valea Uzului on Saturday to replace the removed concrete crosses. The mayor of Sânmartin hopes the Romanian authorities will do their job.

Mihai Tîrnoveanu, leader of the "Calea Neamului" organisation, which has organised several Romanian commemoration events in the military cemetery, announced on his social media page that he and his supporters are preparing to place 150 wooden crosses in the military cemetery in Valea Uzului on Saturday at 2pm. He also posted a picture of the crosses, which he said were made in Sfântu Gheorghe. Tîrnoveanu also published a bank account number so that supporters can make donations to cover the cost of transporting the crosses to the military cemetery.

Sándor Birtalan, the mayor of Sânmartin - the village where the military cemetery is located - told the Hungarian news agency MTI that the villagers are not preparing to go to the Valley of Uz as they do not want to react to the provocation. "We trust the Romanian justice system and that the gendarmerie and police will do their job," the mayor said. The mayor also added that Harghita County Council President Csaba Borboly is in contact with the Romanian authorities, who know about the plan of Tîrnoveanu and his supporters.

On his social media page, former activist Mihai Tîrnoveanu - who last year founded a party called "National Movement" - explained, why the placement of new Romanian crosses in the international military cemetery is justified. He claims that the action is legal, since in his opinion, several documents prove that 148 of the Romanian soldiers who died in the battles at Valea Uzului during the First World War were buried in the Valea Uzului cemetery. According to Tîrnoveanu, the reason for not requesting official authorisation for the placement of the crosses is that such a process would take years, and the action can be legalised later. If the court were to order the removal of the crosses, they would not grant the request; moreover, they would also appeal against the crosses previously erected by the municipality of Sanmartin, added the leader of the "Calea Neamului" organisation.

"We want peace, but we do not tolerate to be humiliated, and we reject as firmly as possible that the memory of our heroes be trampled underfoot," wrote Tîrnoveanu, according to whom his and his supporters' trip to Valea Uzului takes place in the spirit of "calm and dignity". The simplest solution to this situation would be for the Romanian Ministry of National Defence to take note of the existence of the new crosses and to make the Romanian plot in the cemetery official.

In the meantime, according to a news item published on Friday on Informatiahr.ro, which refers to the organization's statements, the "Prospectors of History" Association has asked the Romanian authorities to include the military cemetery on the list of Romanian monuments.

"This is the moment when Romanians and Hungarians must unite and say no to manipulation," the statement quoted by the Harghita County Romanian portal said, according to which the "sad and false conditions" that have prevailed in the cemetery for the past four years must be put to an end.

The association's memorandum was also sent to the Romanian Government and Parliament, the Romanian Academy, other institutions in Bucharest, the Prefecture and the County Councils of Harghita and Bacău.

The illegally erected concrete crosses were removed from the cemetery of the depopulated settlement on the border between Harghita and Bacău counties, but which administratively belongs to the commune of Sânmartin, on the morning of 29 June, after a final court ruling obliged the Dărmănești Town Hall to do so.

In March 2019, the Dărmănești Town Hall passed the military cemetery into its public domain, and in April it arbitrarily set up a Romanian plot in the cemetery. Until then, the cemetery was considered Hungarian and was cared for by the Sânmartin Town Hall in Harghita County.

On 6 June 2019, thousands of Romanians attending a commemoration forced their way into the cemetery to attend the inauguration of the Romanian Orthodox monument in a religious service, after the Secessionists tried to prevent the occupation of the cemetery with a human chain.

A week after the violent events, the Romanian authorities have clarified that the 149 Romanian servicemen - whose names were read out during the ceremony after the forced occupation of the cemetery - are not in fact buried in the military cemetery in Valea Uzului.

bpt - MTI | 7  July 2023.

Photo: Military cemetery in Valea Uzului - 30 June 2023 | © Toró Attila

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)