Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

BULGARIA

Transylvania (Transilvanija; Rumanian Ardeal; Hungarian Erdély; Old Bulgarian Sedmogradsko; German Siebenbürgen) is the largest province of Rumania today. Its area is 63,622km² with a population of approx. 3,316,000. Its capital was Cluj (German Klausenburg, Hungarian Kolozsvár). Other major towns of Transylvania are Timisoara, Arad, Oradea (German Grosswardein) and Sibiu (German Hermannstadt).

This area served as shelter for refugees of different nations which were chased away by others. The population consists of Slavs, Hungarians, Germans and Rumanians. - At one stage the area in question was a part of the Dacian realm which became conquered by the Romans in 107 A.D. The Bulgarian rulers Krum khan and Omurtag khan (early in the 9th century) attached the area of later Transylvania to Bulgaria. In the 11th century ,,Transylvania,, became a part of Hungary and in 1526 it became a self-governing principality. In 1867 it was fully integrated with Hungary, and in 1920 it became a part of Rumania.

N.B. The region called Transylvania since 1920 has an area of 102,787km² and in 1920 had a population of approx. 5,5 million. Unfortunately only Kolozsvár is referred to by its Hungarian name; German Klausenburg is its translated form; Rumanian Cluj reflects the first part of Kolozsvár; 'Kolos fort'. It is not logical to give, for instance, the German name Grosswardein after Rumanian Oradea, without also giving Hungarian Nagyvárad. Rumanian Oradea is a corrupted version of Old Hungarian Warad 'little fort' , while Grosswardein is simply the translation of NagyVárad 'large fort'.

Bulgarian historians should know that the area of Transylvania came into Hungarian hands at the end of the 9th century, for it was exactly the Bulgarians who had been driven from the Carpathian Basin by the Hungarians at that time. The whole description in this ENCYKLOPEDIJA makes the impression of superficial work.

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction