Principiile Rezoluției de la Alba Iulia referitoare la minoritățile etnice în atenția decidenților politici din România interbelică. Privire specială asupra situației din Transilvania
The Protection of Ethnic Minorities in Interwar Romania to the Attention of Political Decision-Makers. Special Look at the Situation in Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: In Romania after Unification, on the basis of the free manifestation of the right to self-determination, along with the majority Romanian population, 19 ethnic minorities continued to live in the ethnogenesis area of Romanians as a result of complex historical conditions specific to this part of Europe. The Hungarian minority initially expressed reservations to the Unification, mainly because through the political integration of Transylvania into the Romanian state, they would have lost the privileged status they had held for centuries. Not being able to adapt to the new political realities, a part of the Hungarian elites, nostalgic to the old Empire, supported the interests of Hungarian revisionism, putting into circulation the so-called "minority problem", which they cultivated with obstinacy, both among conationals and before the international fora. The Hungarian complaints were joined by those of the German as a result of the misinterpretation of the Alba Iulia Resolution. A scientific analysis of the economic, political and cultural life of cohabiting ethnic groups from the period under consideration proves, however, that this problem did not have, by far, the assigned impact and depth. Based on the comparative analysis of the cohabiting ethnic groups’ situation in relation to the Romanian population, it results that the ethnic minorities in our country enjoyed the same political rights and liberties as the majority Romanian population. In solving this unpredictable and complex problem for the Romanian state, a modern and adequate principle was used for the ethnical realities resulting from the national melange specific to this geographic space, that of equal chances. Starting from the fact that interwar Romania did not represent a true paradise for its ethnic minorities, our investigation, based on edited and unpublished documents, for the most part, demonstrates that neither the reverse of the medal can be credible. As a result, we can assure say that ethnic minorities enjoyed the same political rights and liberties during the researched period of time, having the same status in all spheres of social existence, as well as the majority Romanian population. The principles of the Alba Iulia Resolution on administrative, school and cultural facilities necessary for the preservation of ethnic and cultural identity have been incorporated into all laws and legal acts that have regulated these areas.

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