SECURITY CHALLENGES OF LANGUAGE POLITICS’ DISCUSSION BETWEEN UKRAINE AND HUNGARY: THE CASE OF TRANSCARPATHIA REGION

Abstract

The so called “language article” of the new Law on Education that was adopted and came into force in September 2017 caused big discussion both on the international scale and inside the Ukrainian society. In Transcarpathia region the main point of discussion was the introduction of the Ukrainian language as the main language of instruction in the schools currently functioning as the Hungarian language educational establishments. The discussion that by the logic has to be a part of the civil society agenda actually is to be positioned as the political conflict between Ukraine and Hungary that is directing its diplomacy on the defense of its ethnic compatriots. That is the main impetus to make a research of the correlation of the real educational intentions of the Ukrainian Hungarians and the political rhetoric used by Budapest, and of the security challenges caused by this conflict for the Central European region and the whole EU.