Another Greek Canadian on attack..

John Ward, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Published Monday September 24th, 2007
OTTAWA - The federal Tories could run into a ballot-box backlash over a decision to use the name Republic of Macedonia in Canadian relations with the Balkan country generally referred to internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
"We will, of course, voice our displeasure in the next federal election," said Sirios Sotiropoulos of the Greater Toronto Greek-Canadian Association. "Greek Canadians in general view this as the ultimate brand confusion, if you will, on a cultural level."

Greece is virulently opposed to the use of Macedonia, contending the name belongs to a province of Greece, not a Balkan republic. The two countries are negotiating over a mutually agreeable name for the republic.

The Canadian decision to accept the name Macedonia in bilateral relations was announced last week by the government in Skopje. Canada's Foreign Affairs Department made no formal announcement, but the change is reflected on its website.

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis has released what he says is a background document from the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier. It calls the change "a pragmatic approach."

"Canada does not wish to be limited in its relations with either the Republic of Macedonia or any other country because of their dispute over its name," the document says.

It added that Canada will continue to use the longer name in international forums.

The UN, NATO and the European Union all use the more clumsy name, usually abbreviated to FYROM. The United States uses Macedonia.

Karygiannis blamed the decision on Prime Minister Stephen Harper and called it an insult to the Greek-Canadian community.

"Mr. Harper is again dividing Canadians, pitting one community against another," he said. "They are pitting the Greek-Canadian community against the Macedonian-FYROM-Canadian community."

Sotiropoulos said there was no need to take this step.

"In what way does this decision benefit Canada?"

Demetrius Manolakos of the Canadian Hellenic Congress said the name flies in the face of history.

"Macedonia has always been Hellenic," he said, hearkening back 2,300 years to Alexander the Great as a Greek from Macedon.

Manolakos said the name Macedonia was trumped up by former Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito after the Second World War.

"No one ever heard the word Macedonia used to name a country until approximately 50 years ago."

Macedonia sits in the southern Balkans, north of Greece, west of Bulgaria, east of Albania and south of Serbia. It covers a portion of what was ancient Macedon, home to Alexander and his father, Philip.

It's small, about half the size of Nova Scotia, with a population just over two million.

It separated peacefully from the splintering Yugoslavia in 1991, but then was hit by a Greek trade embargo over its name. The embargo was lifted in 1995, but in 2001, an insurgency broke out among its Albanian minority. That ended in an internationally brokered peace setting out new rights for minorities.