Breton Publishing House’s Books on Transylvania in Strasbourg

2014-03-14

At the European Parliament’s Intergoup for minorities’ session of 13 March, the main two topics of discussion were the changes in the functioning mechanism of the South Tyrolean autonomy system in the current difficult economic times and the popularization of the Éditions Armeline publishing house from Brittany, focused exclusively on national minority related topics.

Following the invitation of Csaba Sógor, MEP on behalf of RMDSZ, its owner himself, the historian Laurent Planchais-Lagatu, presented the publishing house.
Professor Cristoph Pan, retired director of the South Tyrolean Institute for Ethnic Groups presented the history of the prestigious institute from Bolzano. Beginning from 1962, its collaborators carried out around 250 studies related to the minorities from 30 countries. The professor also talked about the fact that during the course of its existence, due to various government changes the institute was confronted with many challenges, but despite the changing economic, social and political conditions (for example the Austrian-Italian conflict within the UN, the fall of the Berlin Wall), it succeeded to consistently and objectively present the situation of minorities. Since 1994 the institute has had a consultative role beside the EP’s Intergroup for minorities. Beata Sybille Pfeil, the current director of the institute, presented its publications, emphasizing those published together with the Council of Europe. MEP Herbert Dorfmann talked about the foreseeable political and economic future of its community.

Laurent Planchais-Lagatu, owner of the Éditions Armeline publishing house from Brittany, presented its activity, insisting on the collection Peuples en péril (Endangered People). The historian recounted that his house publishes exclusively books on the histories and cultures of autochthonous national minorities from Europe, as he himself is a „supporter of Europe and of minorities”. Éditions Armeline is already known to the Hungarian readers from Transylvania, through the books of professor Bernard Le Calloc’h: Les Sabbataires de Transylvanie / The Sabbatarians from Transylvania, Les Csángós de Transylvanie / The Csangos from Transylvania and Les Sicules de Transylvanie / The Szeklers from Transylvania.

Csaba Sógor thanked his guest for accepting his invitation: “It was a huge pleasure to see in the catalogue of a foreign publishing house several books on Transylvania written by people of other nationalities than Hungarian. The Hungarians from Transylvania need such a professional and effective support, because this way we can make more easily understandable our problems arising from our minority conditions. The fact that the Hungarian community from Transylvania also figures in the plans of the publishing house, confirmed to me that we are not alone.”
Out of the books of Éditions Armeline related to the history of Hungarians Csaba Sógor will offer collections to several libraries and universities from Transylvania.

Vissza