The adage Turáni átok, The Curse of Turan, is a Hungarian saying used mainly during discussions regarding the countless unfortunate, and sometimes just plain unlucky, turn of events during the country’s tumultuous history. It refers to a curse that was supposed to have been uttered around the year 1000 by the leaders of the nation’s old religion after the newly formed country’s first king, Saint Stephen of Hungary, asked and received a crown from the Pope thereby acknowledging Christianity as the new official religion for the country (this action was extremely unpopular, however, without it the nation would have been doomed in the face of mounting pressure by Christian forces who would not have allowed a pagan nation to exist in the Center of Europe). Stephen the Great raising the double cross: equestrian sculpture by Alajos Stróbl, 1906, crowns the Fishermens Bastion, Budapest. ... The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father) is the head of the Catholic Church. ...

There are two versions as to the length of the curse. According to one the Hungarian nation should not be united and happy until they serve Rome as their religious master. The other limits the curse’s effect to a thousand years. Knowing that the country is more than a thousand years old and examining its recent, 20th century, history it is easily discernable that the curse, if it was ever uttered, is still in effect.

The Hungarians arrived on Europe’s doorsteps from Asia after a long migration in the late 800’s as an alliance of 7 major nomadic tribes. They looked like and fought like the Huns who more or less occupied the same geographical area centuries before, therefore it is quite plausible that the Europeans mistakenly named them after Attila the Hun and his tribes. Hungarians call themselves Magyar.

Here is a short list of some of the more disastrous events in their turbulent history:

• The first major tragedy struck in 1241-1242 when the Mongol Golden Hordes, led by Batu Khan attacked Hungary. By this time the once nomadic tribes have settled down completely forgoing their earlier fighting style (which incidentally the Mongols still employed) and without receiving any foreign help suffered a major loss. In the ensuing 8 months the country has lost up to 15% of its population to the extermination campaign that the Mongols practiced in every nation they overrun. In the spring of 1242 the Mongols withdrew unexpectedly.
• In 1456 after the defeat of Mehmed II (in a battle where the sultan himself was seriously injured) and his armies at Nándorfehérvár (today’s Beograd or Belgrad) thereby saving Christian Europe from Ottoman conquest for another 65 years, Hunyadi János, the leader of the Hungarian armies and staunch defender of the faith who spent 15 years of his life fighting the invading Muslim forces, died. Ironically not in battle but by contracting bubonic plague shortly after the withdrawal of the Turkish army.
• In 1526 on the outskirts of the village called Mohács the Hungarian and the Turkish army met (again, as so many times before). In the ensuing battle the Turkish forces destroyed the undermanned, under equipped and ineptly led Hungarian army even though a second albeit slightly smaller Hungarian battalion, led by Szapolyai János, the count of Transylvania, were standing close by. However Szapolyai had no real intention of engaging his troops in the hopes of becoming the Hungarian king once the Hungarian forces were defeated. His aspiration however was not fulfilled even with the death of the Hungarian king II Lajos who drowned in the creek of Csele while attempting to escape the lost battle. The events surrounding this battle and its aftermath are known as mohácsi vész, The Bane of Mohacs. After this loss the Ottoman Empire has extended its control all the way into Central Europe, including occupying Buda, the capital of Hungary, and for the following 150 years Hungary as a country did not exist.
• In 1848 the revolution against the Habsburg rule was successful, the Austrian and Croatian armies were defeated however, instead of marching all the way to Vienna and taking the seed of revolution to the Austrian capital, the Hungarian army stopped at the Austro-Hungarian border after repelling the opposing forces. The Habsburgs asked for and received help from Russia and the following year crushed the Hungarian forces and hanged 13 of the generals.
• In both major conflicts of the 20th century Hungary has allied herself to the losing side. After suffering through WWI in the ensuing confusion communist forces took control and destroyed the already greatly suffering country’s economy. The terror lasted for 133 days during which peasants were hanged by the hundreds, private property was confiscated by force, industrial production disappeared and the economy collapsed. At the same time during the peace negotiations in Trianon, France the country has lost 2/3rd of its landmass and 1/3rd of its population to countries around her.

In the hopes of recovering some or hopefully all of its lost territories and peoples Hungary became the ally of Germany during the second conflict of the century. When the defeat was inevitable Horthy Miklós regent tried to negotiate a peace settlement with the advancing Russian armies however, after learning the Hungarian leadership’s intentions, the German army occupied the country thereby prolonging its suffering.

• After the war the Russian army ensured that during the elections the communists received enough votes to form a government and so the second time in the span of 50 years there was a communist rule in Hungary. The communists established a forced labor camp, mimicking the Russian examples of Siberia, to house counter revolutionaries, kulaks, saboteurs and other undesirables and enemies of the state.
• In 1956 the country revolted against the communist control however the interest of the West was occupied by the Suez-crisis and the Russian armies could crash the revolution unopposed after which the acting prime minister Imre Nagy was hanged.

In 1991 the last Soviet soldier left Hungary and once again it is free to pursue its goals and aspirations, although many Hungarians now feel that, with the neoliberal economy, multinational corporations rule the country. A corporation (usually known in the United Kingdom and Ireland as a company) is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name...

These were only some of the larger unfortunate events but by reading this it is clear that, if one is superstitious enough, a clear pattern of mismanagement, negligence and selfishness in the part of the country’s leaders as well as some streak of bad luck is visible. The national character maybe somewhat reserved but living through the events of the last 1000 years in the center of Europe has left an indelible mark on most of the nations in close proximity as well.