Nemzeti Sport has slightly redrawn the map of Central Europe and the Balkans on a map posted on its Facebook page. One thing is depicted as distorted spots on the chart, but one country has been completely wiped off the face of the Earth: Kosovo.
The photo was titled: “In comparison, this doesn't require much comment!” It shows a map of Hungary and some surrounding countries, with the number of medals won by that country in the Olympic Games indicated in each place.
Let's get a joke out of the way: Hungary won 19 medals, while the other countries on the map won between 0 and 12. This can only mean that we are the biggest kings in the region.
One interesting thing about the map is that the country borders run like an oxbow. Based on its shape, many of the countries are unrecognizable: Austria, the Czech Republic, and Albania are disproportionately small, while Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina are disproportionately large.
However, the best part of the map is where Kosovo should be, but isn’t. The artist simply ignored that, depicting its territory as part of Serbia. The post has since been deleted, and the map looks like this:
Source: National Sport Online/Facebook.
It is possible that the Serbian drawing holds irredentist views and believes that Kosovo is part of Serbia. Leaving the country off the map is also a strange decision for the following reasons:
- Kosovo has been recognized as an independent state by more than a hundred members of the United Nations;
- including Hungary;
- The European Union is negotiating with Kosovo as an independent state, and considers it a potential candidate for EU membership;
- In Kosovo, among other things, Hungarian soldiers maintain order and the authority of the Kosovo government;
- Kosovo participated in this year's Olympic Games as an independent state;
- Where he won two medals – unlike Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia shown on the map.
So the National Sports Map is definitely a great piece of work.
We have written more about Hungarian medalists in this article.
