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Černová massacre

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The Černová tragedy (or Černová massacre, Template:Lang-sk, Template:Lang-hu) was a shooting that happened in Csernova (today Černová, part of Ružomberok) on 27 October 1907.

Outline of the events

In Černová, the inhabitants decided to build a Catholic church from their own and Slovak Americans' finances, and from the initiative of Andrej Hlinka, their own native priest. Construction started in April 1907 and by the autumn, the church was ready for consecration. At that time, Hlinka was suspended by his bishop Sándor Párvy because he supported the opponent. However, the inhabitants requested that Hlinka should consecrate the church; otherwise' they requested to delay the consecration. So the people of Černová requested the consecration of the church in a letter. In a second letter, the people requested that Hlinka be present at the consecration and in a third one, that he himself consecrates the church. Párvy refused to cancel Hlinka' suspension. Instead, he appointed canon Anton Kurimsky, the former parish priest of Ružomberok.

Hlinka was getting prepared for a lecture tour in Moravia. Before he left, the people of Černová once again wrote a letter to bishop Párvy. He delayed the consecration with a few days, but appointed again Kurimsky.

The people of Černová kept on organizing in favor of Hlinka.

Martin Pazúrik came to sanctify the church on 27 October in a coach with 15 Hungarian gendarmes (According to some sources, other sources describe them as being ethnic Hungarians ). When the coach turned into the narrow street leading to the church, the crowd (some 400 local people) obstructed the path. The gendarmes lost control and, a hungarian gave the order to open fire. The gendarmes fired four times, killing 15 people, seriously injuring 12 and lightly injuring 40.

Consequences

Even though police force fire not being uncommon in those times in many parts of the world being put aside (in 1871, the massacre of the Communards in Paris; in 1886, the Haymarket affair in the USA; in 1905, the killing of 1000 workers by Russian army in Petrograd, the killing of 11.000 rioting peasants in Romania, in 1907, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British India Army) the Černová incident received special international attention as a result of Czech and Slovak intervention.

Hlinka's appeal against his 1906 verdict was rejected, thus, on November 30, 1907 Hlinka started to serve his jail term in the Csillagbörtön (Star Prison), Szeged. On the other hand, Hlinka appealed with success his suspension at the Holy See, so it was cancelled on 8 April 1909. The tragedy sparked huge protests in the European and US press and it turned world's attention to the attitude to the minorities in Hungary. Important protesting European personalities included the Norwegian Nobel Prize holder Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the Oxford historian Robert William Seton-Watson, the speaker of the Austrian parliament etc.

Today's hungarian politicians -, even though all perpetrators were probably Hungarians, interpret the event as "Slovaks gendarmes shooting at innocent Slovaks" ( Some sources claim that the gendarmes were ethnic Hungarian Though there were very small number of ethnic Hungarians in the region where the gendarmes were recruited. According to Slovak historian Roman Holec, professor at the Komenský University the majority of the gendarmes had hungarian origin and were from Liptó county. (Even thought according to the official 1910 census, over 90% of the population were ethnic Slovaks in that county.) Both sides can be held responsible for the massacre. Mostly sergeant should have refrained himself from giving an order of fire or use blanks). Also the gendarmes were shooting in all directions instead of aiming for feet or into the air.

References

  1. Frucht, Richard C. (2005). Eastern Europe: an introduction to the people, lands, and culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-57607-801-3. {{cite book}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |authorlink= (help)
  2. http://www.cernova.sk/sublinks/cernovska_masakra1.html Template:Sk icon
  3. Felak, James Ramon (1994). At the price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 12.
  4. Slota újabb kirohanása: tovább sértegeti a magyarokat
  5. http://www.cernova.sk/sublinks/cernovska_masakra3.html Template:Sk icon
  6. Felak, James Ramon (1994). At the price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 12.
  7. Kirschbaum, Joseph M. (1978). Slovakia in the 19th & 20th centuries. Slovak World Congress. p. 464.

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