ABSTRACT
Transylvania has comparatively easy access to Hungary in the north but only two main passes to the south, through the Transylvanian Alps. After the geopolitical changes of 1989, nationalism emerged as perhaps the most powerful political force in East Central Europe. Part of this process involved the revival of the Transylvanian issue, a Hungarian Romanian dispute with a long history, representing a potentially explosive ethnic conflict. The so-called Three Nations enjoyed self-government under the Hungarians and, after 1526, under Ottoman suzerainty. Transylvania was eventually incorporated into the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. In 1994, the Romanian Parliament passed legislation curbing Hungarian-language education and making the display of the flag or singing of the anthem of another state a criminal offence. Conditions greatly improved following the signing of a new Romanian Hungarian Friendship and Co-operation Treaty on 16 September 1996. In February 1997 the two nations signed a Friendship Treaty confirming existing borders.
