The village in Vas County Kercaszomor bearing the title “Bravest Community” is proof of the fact that sometimes fighting a battle that appears hopeless could lead to victory and could yield results, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stressed on Saturday when he inaugurated the settlement’s centenary memorial marking the anniversary of the armed uprising of 1920.
In his ceremonial speech, Gergely Gulyás said there are situations when without a struggle we cannot survive, and when with courage and commitment we can turn around situations that appear hopeless, in particular if justice is on our side.
One such situation was when at the beginning of August 1920, the inhabitants of a small village took on an armed fight even though they were outnumbered several times over, and while in the struggle they could not win – incredible and unexpected as it was – despite the Trianon peace dictate they achieved that they were allowed to remain a part of Hungary, he said.
He added that Trianon had brought Hungary “a freedom problem” of a century, as well as an ongoing struggle for the rights and the preservation of the national identity of Hungarians living in the annexed territories.
“Everyone who is pained by Trianon is Hungarian,” Mr Gulyás stated, stressing that the courage of the small village, similar to that of Balassagyarmat, the loyal villages and the city of Sopron which remained part of Hungary as a result of a referendum set an example for the whole country and gave people faith.
In his address, Zsolt V. Németh, (Fidesz) Member of Parliament for the constituency said genuine living history is always the stories of individuals and families which together constitute the history of the nation.
This history is handed down from father to son, from one person to the next; this is how it has been in the past one hundred years also in Kercaszomor where not only have people preserved the memory of heroes, but have paid tribute to them with due respect and appreciation.
According to independent mayor of the village Sándor Kapornaky, the memorial and the park around it serve all at once as a tribute to the memory of the heroes and – as the starting point of the Szomoróc nature trail – nature enthusiasts visiting the Őrség region.
The memorial – which was formed from a six-tonne piece of basalt – inaugurated as part of a wreath-laying ceremony immortalises the names of 25 participants of the armed uprising.
On 1 August 1920, the villages of Szomoróc and Kerca were occupied by units of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in violation of the demarcation line drawn by the Entente. Members of the local population together with border guards engaged the occupying troops which outnumbered them several times over. As a result, however, they crushed the uprising within hours and retaliated against anyone who participated.
Following this, the borders committee decided that Szomoróc must be returned to Hungary, the occupying forces withdrew, and on 9 February 1922 the village joined Hungary again.
For their exemplary courage and dedication, in a memorial act created on 27 October 2008, Parliament awarded the title ‘Communitas Fortissima’ – Bravest Community to the village and inhabitants of Kercaszomor.