Timeline Slovakia
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Borders Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south,
Austria and the Czech Republic to the west. Slovaks are of Slav origin
and are the predominant ethnic group, accounting for 86 percent in the
population of 5.4 million. Ethnic Hungarians account for 10 percent of
the population. Corruption and joblessness of 17.6 percent were seen as
its main economic problems in 2002.
4800BC-4600BC More than 150 large
temples, constructed between during this period, were unearthed in
fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia in 2002-2005. A
village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to some
300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
(AP, 6/12/05)
1863 The Matica Slovenska was
founded as a cultural organization and nurtured the dream of Slovak
independence.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)
1918 Oct 30, Slovakia asked for
the creation of Czechoslovakian state. Slovaks joined the Czechs to
form Czechoslovakia. During World War II, Slovakia existed as puppet
state of Nazi-run Germany.
(MC, 10/30/01)(AP, 9/21/02)
1938 Sep 29, British, French,
German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed
at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of
Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the
Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to
Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville
Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and
without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy
Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event
of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM
Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford
Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a detailed
political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe, culminating
in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for
Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the
Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises.”
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC,
6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP,
9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1939 Mar 9, Czech President Emil
Hacha ousted pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia in order
to preserve Czech unity.
(Historynet, 3/9/98)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied
Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became independent
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96,
p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1939 Mar, Germany set up a puppet
regime. The Jewish community was estimated to number 70,000 at the
start of the war. Fewer than 10,000 survived the war.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1940-1945 The Benes decrees were issued by Pres.
Edvard Benes, head of the Czechoslovak government in exile. Part of the
decrees later dealt with the status of Germans and Hungarians in
postwar Czechoslovakia. From 1945-1948 they were used to legalize
brutal measures against the country’s German and Hungarian populations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene%C5%A1_decrees)(Econ, 3/29/08,
p.67)
1944 Aug 29, The Slovak National
Uprising broke out against the Germans.
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1944 Dec 26, In Slovakia American
OSS personnel were captured in a surprise raid by a German intelligence
unit. Slovak agent Maria Gulovich (1921-2009) helped 2 American and 2
British agents escape. In 2002 Jim Downs authored “World War II: OSS
Tragedy in Slovakia.”
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1944 Ladislav Niznansky, a Slovak
army captain, at first supported a revolt against Nazi occupation, but
changed sides after he was captured. He then took charge of the Slovak
section of a Nazi unit, code-named Edelweiss, that hunted resistance
fighters and Jews. [see Dec 19, 2005]
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Jan 21, The Nazi Edelweiss
unit participated in a bloody operation against two villages in central
Slovakia as punishment for local support of Soviet-backed rebels.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Feb 7, German troops and
allied Slovak irregulars massacred 18 Jewish civilians discovered
hiding in underground bunkers at Ksina, Slovakia.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Slovakia reunited with the
Czechs.
(AP, 9/21/02)
1946 Vojtech Tuka was executed. He
had been the prime minister of pro-Nazi Slovakia during the war.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A12)
1947 Father Tiso ruled Slovakia
while it was a Nazi state and in this year was captured by the
Americans and executed for war crimes. During his rule 70,000 Slovakian
Jews were sent to Nazi death camps.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)
1968 Aug 3, The Bratislava
statement conceded Czechoslovakia’s right to pursue its own path. The
conference was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, for representatives of the
communist and workers' parties of the People's Republic of Bulgaria,
the Hungarian People's Republic, the German Democratic Republic, the
Polish People's Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and
the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1687)(http://library.thinkquest.org/C001155/documents/doc41.htm)
1972 Aug 22, In Bratislava,
Slovakia, the Novy Most (New Bridge) opened over the Danube. A section
of the Old Town was bulldozed for its creation.
(Econ, 6/17/06,
p.20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nov%C3%BD_Most_Bratislava)
1989 Nov 29, The Czechs ended the
Communist party's 40-year monopoly on power. The revolution in
Czechoslovakia was called the “Velvet Revolution” because of the little
violence.
(HFA, '96, p.18)(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.34)(AP,
11/29/99)
1989 Dec 8, Communist leaders in
Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government
and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.
(AP, 12/8/99)
1989 Dec 10, Czechoslovakia's
president, Gustav Husak, resigned after swearing in a coalition cabinet
in which Communists were relegated to a minority role.
(AP, 12/10/99)
1991 In Visegrad, Hungary, a
declaration of co-operation was signed by Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. The 4 became known as the Visegrad countries.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.10S)
1992 Jul 17, Slovakia's government
decreed its independence from Czechoslovakia. The independence did not
become official until January 1, 1993.
(www.slovakia.org/society-hungary2.htm)
1992 Dec 31, The Nation of
Czechoslovakia officially ended with division into two Nations:
Slovakia and the Czech Republic. When the country split, all citizens
were deemed to be either Czech or Slovak, based on their parentage. The
vast majority of the Romany living in the Czech Republic are of Slovak
descent, and they had to apply for Czech citizenship. In 2009 Mary
Haimann authored “Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed.”
(HFA, '96, p.44)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(Econ,
11/21/09, p.84)
1993 Jan 1, Czechoslovakia
peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia. The Slovak people never voted on the 1993 split with the
Czechs. When the country split, all citizens were deemed to be either
Czech or Slovak, based on their parentage. The vast majority of the
Romany living in the Czech Republic are of Slovak descent, and they had
to apply for Czech citizenship. Vladimir Meciar (b.1942) became the
premier of Slovakia and Vaclav Klaus the premier of the Czech Rep.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim%C3%ADr_Me%C4%8Diar)(AP,
9/21/02)(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(AP, 1/1/98)
1993 Nov 16, Lucia Popp (54),
Slovakia-born soprano (Vienna Opera), died in Munich.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Popp-Lucia.htm)
1993 Michal Kovac was elected
president.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1993-1998 In Slovakia Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar
governed during a period marked by international isolation. The
country's failure to join NATO along with some of its neighbors in 1999
was attributed to Western dislike of Meciar's undemocratic practices.
(AP, 9/21/02)
1994 Mar, Pres. Kovac called for
and parliament approved the removal of prime minister Vladimir Meciar.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1994 Meciar’s party won a
plurality and he was renamed prime minister.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1995 Michal Kovac Jr., the son of
Pres. Michal Kovac Sr., was kidnapped and later dumped drugged and
unconscious in front of a police station in Vienna.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A18)
1996 Jan, In Bratislava Prime
Minister Vladimir Meciar and his allies chipped away at all forms of
independent power. President Michal Kovac in a feud with Meciar stated
that the country's politics had stepped beyond the bounds of democracy.
The country is bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, and the
Czech Republic.
(WSJ, 1/17/96, p.A-14)
1996 Oct 17, Some 10,000 people
demonstrated against Culture Minister Ivan Hudec for firing National
Theater director Dusan Jamrich. Slovak artists claim that the
government is increasingly authoritarian.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C6)
1997 May 25, In weekend elections
less than 10% of the people bothered to vote after government meddling
led opposition leaders to call for a boycott.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 19, From Slovakia it was
reported that Bratislava had become a narcotics depot and crossroad of
the Balkan drug route from Turkey and Central Asia.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A8)
1997 Slovakia was bumped from
Nato’s invitation list and excluded as a candidate for the EU.
(WSJ, 6/14/01, p.B14)
1997 Martin Klein, Slovak
journalist, wrote a profanity-laced attack on Jan Sokol, the archbishop
of Slovakia, who wanted to bann the Milos Forman film “The People vs.
Larry Flynt” and its poster. Klein was charged with defaming the Roman
Catholic faith and lost his court case. In 2005 the suit moved up to
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
(SSFC, 7/24/05, p.C2)
1998 Mar, The 5-year term of Pres.
Kovac expired.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A21)
1998 Sep 27, In Slovakia
opposition leaders claimed victory after 2 days of elections for a new
parliament. Prime Minister Meciar’s Movement for a Democratic Slovakia
won 27% of the vote. Slovak Democratic Coalition leader Mikulas
Dzurinda was seen as Meciar’s successor.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 28, Four Slovak
opposition parties formed a centre-right coalition government under
Mikulas Dzurinda.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.52)
1999 Apr 19, One of the annual
Goldman Environmental Prizes went to: Michal Kravcik, a Slovakian
hydrologist, who successfully fought a government plan to dam the Upper
Torysa River in 1996.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 May 15, In Slovakia
presidential elections were held and Rudolf Schuster (65), mayor of
Kosice, was the front runner over Vladimir Meciar (57). Schuster won
47% of the vote to Meciar's 37% and a runoff was scheduled for May 29.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A21)(SFC, 5/17/99, p.A10)
1999 May 29, In Slovakia Rudolf
Schuster was elected president in a runoff election against Vladimir
Meciar, the authoritarian former prime minister.
(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 10, The EU granted
preliminary consideration for membership to Bulgaria, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Malta.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A16)
2000 Apr, In Slovakia police
arrested former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar for paying unauthorized
bonuses to Cabinet members during his 5 years in office. He was
released after several hours.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Oct, US Steel announced the
last steps in its acquisition of Vychodoslovenske zelziarne AS (VSZ),
the majority of the country’s steel industry.
(WSJ, 10/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct-2000 Feb, Slovak brokers
were involved in a plan to ship Mi24 helicopter gunships from
Kyrgyzstan to Liberia. One was shipped and another was confiscated by
Slovak customs agents.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
2001 Jun 11, In Slovakia 17 Indian
would-be immigrants were believed to have drowned while trying to cross
the Morava River from Slovakia to the Czech Republic.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 The new Maria Valeria Bridge
over the Danube reunited Sturovo, Slovakia, with Esztergom, Hungary.
Germans blew up the old bridge in 1944.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A15)
2002 Sep 21, In Slovakia Vladimir
Meciar, the authoritarian former prime minister, appeared to edge out
his rivals in elections, but he was without the support needed to
catapult him to power in the face of united opposition. Mikulas
Dzurinda was re-elected as PM.
(AP, 9/21/02)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.45)
2002 Oct 9, The European Union's
executive Commission declared Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia,
and Slovakia nearly ready for EU membership and recommended they be
invited to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria likely will be delayed
until 2007 because of weak economies, the Commission said, adding
Turkey was the weakest link among candidates.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations of
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states Bulgaria,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO states.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Dec 13, The EU reached
agreement to accept 10 new countries in 2004. These included Czech
Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Slovakia, and Slovenia.
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A3)
2003 Apr 15, Slovakia Pres. Rudolf
Schuster signed an accession document committing Slovakia to joining
NATO, the next-to-last step on the long road to membership in the
military alliance.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 May 16, Slovak voters began a
two-day referendum to reaffirm their nation's top foreign policy goal
to be membership in the European Union.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 17, Slovaks in a 2-day
plebiscite voted to join the European Union. About 92 percent of voters
approved EU membership, with a turnout of some 52 percent.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 Jul 3, Slovakia's parliament
approved an amendment to make abortion legal until the 24th week of
pregnancy.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Sep 11, Weary and trembling,
Pope John Paul II struggled to greet Slovaks as he began a four-day
visit.
(AP, 9/11/03)
2003 Sep 14, Pope John Paul II
wrapped up a pilgrimage to Slovakia by beatifying two clerics, Greek
Catholic Bishop Vasil Hopko and Roman Catholic Sister Zdenka
Schelingova, who were jailed and tortured under the former communist
regime.
(AP, 9/14/03)
2003 The Slovak parliament voted
to cut taxes on personal incomes and for a single flat rate of 19% on
corporate profits effective in 2004. The statutory retirement age was
raised and a new pay-as-go pension scheme was created to be
supplemented by privatization revenues.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.48)
2003 PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s
2nd biggest carmaker, decided to make the successor of its 206 model in
Trnava, Slovakia. The car had been manufactured in the Ryton factory
near Coventry, England.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.55)
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted a
White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar, KIA Motors, a unit of
South Korea’s Hyundai group, decided to build a new $850 million plant
in Slovakia, where corporate and personal taxes were recently cut to a
flat 19%.
(Econ, 3/6/04, p.60)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussels an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Apr 3, Slovaks voted for a
new president. Former authoritarian PM Meciar led after the first round
of Slovakia's presidential election. Low turnout set up an Apr 17
runoff against a former political ally.
(AP, 4/4/04)(WSJ, 4/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 17, In Slovakia Ivan
Gasparovic (63), an ex-chairman of parliament previously loyal to ex-PM
Vladimir Meciar (61), won a presidential runoff against Meciar with
59.91 percent of the vote. The turnout was 43.5%.
(AP, 4/18/04)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.49)
2004 Apr 27, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an accord extending the
EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta,
which join May 1.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 May 1, Revelers across
ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the
European Union. 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
joined. Malta joined with 70 exemptions to EU rules. Poland had 43
exemptions. Latvia had 32. The Turkish occupied area of Cyprus was
suspended from entry.
(AP, 5/1/04)(Econ, 2/28/04, p.50)(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.16)
2004 Sep, Unemployment in Slovakia
fell to 13.1% from 20% in 2002. The average household income was around
$240 per month.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.B2F)(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.B3)
2005 Jan 1, Slovakia was forecast
for 5.1% annual GDP growth with a population at 5.4 million and GDP per
head at $8,940.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.89)
2005 May 11, Lawmakers in Austria
and neighboring Slovakia voted overwhelmingly to ratify the new
European constitution, giving much-needed support to the charter
intended to strengthen the 25-member European Union.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 Jul, Unemployment in Slovakia
stood at 15.2%.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A7)
2005 Nov 25, Slovakia joined the
European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) as a first step towards adopting
the European Union's common euro currency.
(AFP, 11/26/05)
2005 Dec 19, Ladislav Niznansky
(88), a former Nazi commander, was acquitted of murder in three
massacres in Slovakia after a court said there was no reliable evidence
he was involved in the killings. Niznansky, a former Slovak army
captain who at first supported the 1944 revolt, changed sides after he
was captured and took charge of the Slovak section of a Nazi unit,
code-named Edelweiss, that hunted resistance fighters and Jews. He was
convicted of the massacres and sentenced to death in absentia by
Czechoslovakia in 1962.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 31, In Slovakia 7
tourists from the Czech Republic died in avalanches in the Tatra
mountains. A day earlier a German was killed by an avalanche in the
Swiss Alps.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2005 In Bratislava, Slovakia, the
new Eurovea Int’l. Trade Center began developing on the riverfront. The
1st phase was expected to complete in 2009.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A7)
2006 Jan 19, In northeastern
Hungary a Slovak military plane crashed as it ferried troops back from
Kosovo, killing at least 42 people. Only one person survived the crash
of the AN-24 aircraft.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Spanish interior
ministry said that 67 suspects had been arrested for accessing child
porn on the Internet over the past five days. The international police
operation arrested 38 in France, 10 in Spain, 9 in Slovakia, 7 in
Belgium and 3 in the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 17, Slovaks voted in
their first election since joining the EU, choosing between a record
third term for PM Mikulas Dzurinda or a leftist pledging to overturn
economic and social reforms. Smer, Slovakia's opposition leftist party
led by Robert Fico, won the parliamentary elections, tapping into
widespread public discontent over eight years of austere economic
reforms.
(AP, 6/17/06)(AP, 6/18/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.44)
2006 Jun 18, Slovakia's leftist
Smer party promised a radical break with economic reforms on after
winning an election that showed voters' fatigue with the tough changes
made during eight years of center-right rule.
(Reuters, 6/18/06)
2006 Jul 25, The Slovak central
bank raised key interest rates by 50 basis points.
(Econ, 8/12/06,
p.43)(www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=24271)
2007 Mar 2, An explosion in a
Slovakian ammunition factory killed two people, left six missing and
injured 45, five seriously.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hana Ponicka (85), a
Slovak writer and former anti-communist dissident, died.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Nov 28, Two Hungarians and a
Ukrainian were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary in an attempted
sale of a kilo (2.2 lbs) of uranium, material believed to be from
the former Soviet Union. Police said it was enriched enough to be used
in a radiological "dirty bomb."
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech
Republic halted land and sea border controls at midnight in a wave of
new members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone. They all joined
the EU on May 1, 2004.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2008 Mar 17, The US administration
signed deals with Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia paving the way for
visa-free travel for their citizens despite concerns in Brussels over
the bilateral agreements.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 May 28, Slovakia revalued its
currency. Finance minister Jan Pociatek was soon accused of leaking
news of the revaluation to J&T, Slovakia’s leading investment fund.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.58)
2008 Jun 1, In Slovakia a new
media law was set to go into effect giving anyone mentioned in an
article sweeping rights to an equally prominent rebuttal. Newspapers
responded by publishing blank front pages. Leading newspapers had done
this twice before during the Meciar years to protest restrictions on
press freedom.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.71)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.55)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally
invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2009 Jan 1, Slovakia became the
16th European Union member state to adopt the euro. This day also marks
10 years since the euro was introduced.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 11, Slovakia reopened a
nuclear power plant it was forced to shut down as part of its bid to
join the European Union, prompting condemnation from neighboring
Austria, which described the reactor at Bohunice as unsafe.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 14, Russia and Ukraine
wrangled over gas supplies again. Bulgaria and Slovakia, cut off by the
row for a freezing week, launched missions to plead for Russian gas
flow to be restored.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 22, European Union
antitrust regulators said they raided Slovakia's main telecom operator
last week on suspicion of monopoly abuse.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central Slovakia a
train collided with a bus, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others
near the town of Brezno.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Apr 4, In Slovakia Pres. Ovan
Gasparovic was re-elected for a 2nd 5-year term with 55% of the vote
over Iveta Radicova, who had hoped to become Slovakia’s 1st female
president.
(WSJ, 4/6/09, p.A8)
2009 Aug 10, In central Slovakia
19 workers were trapped underground after a fire and explosion hit the
Handlova coal mine. The trapped workers were nine miners who were
initially sent to battle a blaze and 11 sent as reinforcements as the
fire grew. All were believed killed.
(AP, 8/10/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 21, Slovakia stopped
Hungary’s Pres. Laszlo Solyom from crossing its border. This was a
breach of EU rules on freedom of movement. Solyom had planned to
unveil a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in the
predominantly Hungarian city of Komarno. Slovakia’s government had
objected to the visit as the date coincided with the “Prague Spring” of
1968, when Hungary, as part of the Warsaw pact, took part in the Soviet
crush of Czechoslovakia’s independence movement.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.46)
2009 Sep 1, In Slovakia a new
language law was scheduled to come into force to promote the use of
Slovak in public. Hungarian speakers, who numbered about a fifth of the
population, viewed this as a direct attack on their right to speak
their mother-tongue.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.47)
2009 Sep 9, The Dalai Lama
received Slovakia's Jan Langos award for his promotion of human rights
and his leadership in the nonviolent campaign by Tibetans seeking
autonomy from China. The Jan Langos Foundation gives its award to "an
outstanding figure of the local defiance against oppressed regimes and
their security services" and to civil servants and politicians who
"endeavor for human dignity and freedom."
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Nov 17, Slovakia pledged
about 250 extra soldiers to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the
first of what British PM Gordon Brown said would be a series of
international reinforcements.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Dec 28, Slovakia said that
Russia had warned it might halt oil supplies through Ukraine to three
European Union countries over a price dispute.
(AFP, 12/28/09)
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