Csaba Hende: We Will Defend the Cause of Polish and Hungarian Freedom in All Circumstances

“History and the thousand years of friendship between the two countries teach us that neither of the two nations can be free if the other is not free", he added.

“We are living the days of the great powers’ power politics again", Minister Hende said, adding that we do not know what the future brings, i.e. where the war going on east of us, the fleet movements in the Baltic region or the continuous provocation of NATO’s common airspace will eventually lead. “We do know, however, that we can count on one another", Minister Hende said.

As sister nations and members of NATO, Poland and Hungary can rely on each other in the future too, the minister underlined, adding that this cooperation is based on common interests, common security as well as the shared values of freedom, the rule of law, mutual respect and human dignity.

Hungarians and Poles have recently organized a number of programs to commemorate the victorious Battle of Limanowa fought in World War I. On November 28, the Limanowa memorial foray set off from the heroes’ monument in Várpalota. Following the approach routes used in World War I, the horse riders’ team visited several monuments in the past weeks, and at the end of their journey on Sunday, they laid the heroes’ wreath at the memorial site of the Battle of Limanowa.

The program series closed with a re-enactment of the battle on Jabloniec Hill, following which Minister of Defence Csaba Hende and Maciej Jankowski, Deputy State Secretary, Polish Ministry of Defence laid wreaths on the renovated monument.

Also in attendance at the Sunday ceremony were, among others, Maj.-Gen. István Kun Szabó, Deputy State Secretary for Public Relations, Hungarian Ministry of Defence, Lt.-Col. Roland Maruzs, Head of Department, MoD Public Relations and War Memorial Service Department, Members of Parliament Péter Ágh and Attila Tilki (Fidesz), Márta Talabér (Fidesz-KDNP), the mayor of Várpalota, and Col. Ottmár Muhr’s grandson and his wife.

During the Battle of Limanowa fought between November 28 and December 18, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian troops halted the advance of the Russian forces attempting to break through towards Krakow, and pushed them back behind River Dunajec. Located on Jabloniec Hill near Limanowa, military cemetery No. 368 is the final resting place of Austro-Hungarian, Polish and Russian troops killed in action. Among the hussars, Col. Ottmár Muhr, Commander, imperial and royal 9th Nádasdy Hussar Regiment of Sopron is buried here too.

On the centenary of the battle, the Hungarian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office spent some HUF 15 million on the restoration of the cemetery. During the first phase of the restoration works in this year, the chapel was renovated and some gravestones as well as the paving of the walkway and the crumbling stone fence of the cemetery were restored.

Photos by Péter Snoj