Transylvania
Transylvania is a region of southeastern Hungary that during the Middle Ages was an semi-independent principality. Certain elements of its Romanian population have in modern times (roughly since the successful establishment of Muntenia) have called for Transylvania to become part of a Greater Romania. Such groups still exist, many having arisen from secret Anti-SNOR factions. Their avowed goal is to create an independent state that would become the fourth member of the Romanian Federation.
By and large this is a minority viewpoint, but one whose advocates have proven themselves sometimes dangerous. The Black Hand is a violent group dedicated the creation of an independent Transylvanian Republic. They take their name from a similar ethnic-nationalist society from the era just prior to the First Great War. They declared their existence in a manifesto sent to newspapers and government officials in 1997. For the most part, the Black Hand has committed only minor crimes since then, such as graffiti, assault, burglary and arson. However, they claim responsibility for at least three murders (one of whom the local police insist was a domestic killing) and the rape of a university professor's wife. Tension between Hungary and Oltenia has been on the rise with the suspicion that some elements in Oltenian society (including perhaps some in the government) support the Black Hand.
Prince Igor Nicolescu has refused to comment on the Black Hand or upon the "question of Transylvania," a fact some Hungarian authorities regard as provocative. Not surprisingly, some Oltenian public figures as well as some in Muntenia and Moldova have indeed expressed sympathies with the Black Hand's goals, if not their avowed methods.
