Greek press on the Macedonian issue (news in English)

[Foti66]

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Fresh Provocations from FYROM


In his letter to UN mediator Matthew Nimetz a few days before the new round of talks commences in New York, the FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) PM Nicola Gruevski wishes to moot the question of the recognition of the schismatic "Macedonian Orthodox Church" and the FYROM name issue. In the same letter, he escalates his provocations, demanding from Mr Nimetz to examine the re-naming of the "Macedonia" airport of Thessaloniki.

Letter to the UN Secretary General


In his letter to Mr Nimetz, Mr Gruevski requests from the mediator to try to resolve the country’s constitutional name. He also refers to the problem with his country’s Orthodox Church and mainly with the Serb and Greek Orthodox Church and the "close relations" between the two churches.

Regarding the FYROM Orthodox Church he stresses that it seceded from the Serb Orthodox Church in 1967 and declared itself autocephalous under the name "Macedonian Orthodox Church". However, no official Orthodox Church across the world has recognized it.

He adds that he would not have written such a letter if there had not been a divorce between Church and the state in Greece.

He also demands to moot the question of Thessaloniki’s "Macedonia" airport, as tourists are confused when they discover that Thessaloniki is using the word Macedonia for it airport.

Finally, in a letter to the UN Secretary General he accuses Greece of having violated the Interim Agreement with its veto during the NATO Summit Meeting in Bucharest and of raising financial and commercial obstacles in the last months

[Foti66]

FM spokesman on FYROM

Foreign Ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos gave a short response to reporters dubbing as "ludicrous" the new letters addressed by FYROM Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN SecGen Personal Envoy for the Greece-FYROM talks Matthew Nimetz.

Koumoutsakos made the one-word comment in response to questions as regards information that appeared in the FYROM press according to which, the FYROM PM is raising in his letters the issue of an alleged "Macedonian Orthodox Church" while maintaining that the name of Thessaloniki's Macedonia International Airport should also be on the table.

Matthew Nimetz, the UN special envoy assigned to mediate the dispute between Greece and FYROM as regards the latter's name, has invited the negotiators of the two countries, Ambassadors Adamantios Vassilakis and Nikola Dimitrov respectively, on August 14-15 in New York for a new round of talks.

ANA-MPA Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved.

[Foti66]

Gruevski writes to UN mediator

In latest letter, FYROM PM quizzes Nimetz about ‘Macedonian’ church and Thessaloniki’s airport

Athens yesterday described as “hysterical” a letter sent by Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), to the United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz in the Macedonia name dispute which calls for the recognition of the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church and the renaming of Thessaloniki’s Macedonia airport to be discussed in negotiations.

“The FYROM premier’s letter surpasses the limits of diplomacy and borders on nationalistic hysteria, which is bad for his people,” Greece’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Giorgos Koumoutsakos remarked yesterday.

The letter is the latest in a series of notes sent out by Gruevski to officials of the UN, NATO and the European Union as well as government leaders. According to media in Skopje, which published extracts of the letter yesterday, Gruevski blames the strained ties between FYROM’s church and the churches of Greece and Serbia on Greece’s stance on the name issue. Gruevski notes that he would not not have written to Nimetz about the church issue “if there was a distinction in Greece between the Church and the State.”

The FYROM premier also protests against Thessaloniki calling its international airport Macedonia, after the region in which it is located, maintaining that this creates confusion. “We do not feel very pleased when thousands of confused tourists ask why our neighbor is using our country’s name for its airport in Thessaloniki,” Gruevski remarks.

The FYROM premier’s letter came to light just a few days before Nimetz had been due to meet representatives from Greece and FYROM in New York. Talks had been due to start tomorrow but will start today, UN officials said yesterday without giving a reason for the change in schedule.

There had been no response from Nimetz to Gruevski’s appeals by late yesterday.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w.../08/2008_99492

[kzk842]

Originally Posted by Foti66

Gruevski writes to UN mediator
The FYROM premier also protests against Thessaloniki calling its international airport Macedonia, after the region in which it is located, maintaining that this creates confusion. “We do not feel very pleased when thousands of confused tourists ask why our neighbor is using our country’s name for its airport in Thessaloniki,” Gruevski remarks.

Those tourist dont ask why the ancient monuments in your country are in Greek?
How do you explain to them what is written on,with dictionaries?
They are not confused in that case?

[Foti66]

Fresh US pressure over name

Dispute with Athens should not bar FYROM from NATO, Rice says as Nimetz prepares for more talks

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday reiterated Washington’s conviction that the Macedonia name issue should not obstruct Skopje’s bid to join NATO, as a United Nations mediator entrusted with resolving the name spat heralded a new round of talks.

“The hope is that the name issue can be resolved very quickly now,” Rice commented in Washington, without elaborating. She added that the dispute between Athens and Skopje over FYROM’s constitutional name “should not get in the way of the admission of Macedonia to NATO.”

Greek diplomats yesterday interpreted Rice’s sudden push on the name issue as a last-ditch attempt by Washington to bring FYROM into the NATO fold before US President George W. Bush bows out of office in the fall. Also, following its support for Georgia in the recent conflict with Russian forces, Washington may want to send out a message to other countries in the region that it is willing to support them if they come under its wing, the same diplomats said.

The fresh pressure from Washington comes as UN mediator for the Macedonia name dispute Matthew Nimetz calls a new round of talks. Nimetz, who met with representatives from Skopje and Athens last week, is next week due to visit both capitals to push for a breakthrough. Sources say that new name proposals are likely to be laid on the table. A series of alternative names for FYROM proposed by Nimetz over the past few months – including compound titles featuring words such as Upper and New – have been rejected outright by Skopje, though Athens has insisted that any new name should include a geographical qualifier.

Meanwhile in a related development, media in FYROM report that residents planning to spend their holidays in Greece are being mistreated by the country’s border authorities who are subjecting them to excessively long inspections and delays.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w.../08/2008_99565

[Paulos Melas]

Greek Army 'Putting Pressure' on Macedonia


Zoran Konjanovski14 August 2008 Skopje _ Greek Army exercises near the Macedonian border can be seen as a form of pressure on Macedonia, the country's defence minister, Zoran Konjanovski, said on Wednesday.

"We cannot see them as a military threat, but as a pressure, yes", Konjanovski said.

Over the course of the summer, the Greek military has performed a set of exercises and maneuvers in the northern Greek province of Macedonia. Some were held under the slogan "Macedonia is one and Greek".

Athens has said it has every right to perform military activities on its own soil. In late June, the Greek party, Rainbow, which represents the unrecognized Macedonian minority in Greece, said the slogan under which some of the army exercises were being held was a "flagrant provocation" towards Skopje.

"We wonder whether the title 'Macedonia is one and Greek' may be used for an attack on Macedonia in case of instability in the Balkans," the party said in a press release.

The two neighbours have a long-running dispute over the use of the name Macedonia. In April, relations dived after Greece blocked Macedonia’s invitation to NATO and threatened to do the same with the EU, pending a resolution of the row.

Athens argues that Macedonia’s name could imply a territorial claim towards its own northern province of the same name. Ongoing UN-sponsored talks have failed to deliver results.

The UN mediator in the talks, Matthew Nimetz, started a fresh round of consultations with ambassadors from both sides on Wednesday. However, the media reported slim chances of a solution being reached any time soon, owing to the insurmountable differences between Skopje and Athens.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main...8/#add_comment

[Foti66]

UN chief reply to FYROM


The leadership of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) met here on Tuesday to ponder the Balkan country's positions vis-à-vis the most recent negotiations in New York City last week on the thorny and still unresolved "name issue", a meeting that coincided with an unambiguous reply by the UN Secretary General to first settle the "name issue" before delving into other issues.

The letter by UN chief Ban Ki-moon was the latest high-profile international rejoinder to an unprecedented "letter-writing" campaign by FYROM Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to promote recognition of a so-called "Macedonian minority" in Greece's own northern province of Macedonia.

In using the most delicate of diplomatic language, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon responded to Gruevski's letter by saying "I hope that by resolving the name issue, a way will be paved for better ties that will contribute to tackling these other issues and possibly to finally settling them..."

The UN general secretary's reference to the "name issue" echoed comments by UN mediator Matthew Nimetz late last week, who stressed that "…my main focus is on the name issue," following separate meetings in NYC with both the Greek and FYROM negotiators.

According to local media reports here, Ban also wrote that he welcomes Gruevski's intention to inform him on the landlocked country's positions regarding various issues.

"The UN Secretariat will resume working with you and with the members of your Government on issues that are of mutual interest. Particularly, my personal envoy Mr. Matthew Nimetz will resume his efforts towards finding a solution to the name issue row. I am aware of the existence of other issues, which you consider should become the subject for Skopje-Athens talks," the UN secretary general added.

The government in Skopje said the UN chief's letter was delivered on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, FYROM President Branko Crvenkovski chaired the Skopje meeting that was attended by PM Gruevski, the country's foreign minister and its top negotiator to discuss the latest ideas presented by Nimetz last Wednesday for overcoming the 17-year-old impasse -- the only remaining difference in what were more-or-less burgeoning bilateral relations following the signing of the September 1995 "interim agreement". Failure to find a compromise solution to the "name issue" doomed FYROM's NATO bid in early April 2008, causing a deterioration in bilateral relations and even generating a snap election in FYROM

Nimetz is expected in Skopje this week. (ΑΝΑ-MPA / hkt)

http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showpl...058&service=10

[Paulos Melas]

ΟΛΕΣ ΟΙ ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΦΩΤΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΑΣ ΩΡΑΣ, ΓΥΡΩ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΚΟΠΙΑΝΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ "ΒΟΡΕΙΑ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ" ΜΟΝΟ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ taxalia

22/8/2008. Συναντώνται σε λίγη ώρα (στις 9.00') στο ξενοδοχείο HYATT, στη Θεσσαλονίκη, o Mathew Nimetz με τον Έλληνα διαπραγματευτή Αδαμάντιο Βασιλάκη. Ο Νίμιτς θα παραδώσει τις γνωστές προτάσεις των Σκοπιανών στις οποίες υπάρχει ταύτιση απόψεων Γκρούεσκι και Τσερβένκοφσκι, δηλαδή
1. ΝΑΙ ΣΤΗ ΣΥΝΘΕΤΗ ΟΝΟΜΑΣΙΑ "ΒΟΡΕΙΑ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ" ΓΙΑ ΧΡΗΣΗ ΕΝΑΝΤΙ ΟΛΩΝ (ο Γκρούεσκι προσπάθησε να την περιορίσει σε διμερή χρήση, αλλά τον "επέπληξε" αυστηρά ο Νίμιτς)
2. ΡΗΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΕΠΙΦΥΛΑΚΤΗ ΑΠΟΔΟΧΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ, ΟΤΙ ΤΟ ΕΘΝΟΣ ΠΟΥ ΚΑΤΟΙΚΕΙ ΣΤΗ "ΒΟΡΕΙΑ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ" ΕΙΝΑΙ "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΕΣ"
3. ΑΝΑΓΝΩΡΙΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ, ΥΠΑΡΞΗΣ "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΑΣ".
Στο "πακέτο" δεν περιλαμβάνονται φυσικά οι ανοησίες περί Μακεδονικής μειονότητας στην Ελλάδα (τις οποίες έχουν όλο το χρόνο να επαναφέρουν σε μερικά χρόνια)

[Foti66]

Nimetz to arrive with a ‘clear message’
United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz will arrive in Greece today having received a clear indication of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s position on the name dispute after talks in Skopje yesterday.

“I received clear messages of what is and what is not possible,” said Nimetz after separate talks with FYROM Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and President Branko Crvenkovski. “Now I have a clear position from Skopje and will go to Thessaloniki to continue the talks.”

Nimetz was asked whether the name Northern Macedonia, in various forms, had formed the basis for yesterday’s discussion but he refused to confirm or deny the rumors.

Relations between Greece and FYROM have been strained recently after Gruevski angered Athens by writing to the leaders of various international organizations, raising issues that included the existence of a so-called Macedonian minority in Greece. Nimetz said this would not hamper the talks and suggested instead that there is mounting pressure to resolve the dispute.

“I would say that exactly this period is important in the talks and we must not miss the chance to try to make some progress,” he said.

Sources told Kathimeirni that variations of Northern Macedonia and Upper Macedonia were discussed during yesterday’s meetings.

“It’s no secret that we are looking for a solution that will satisfy both sides,” said Nimetz.

The mediator also made a point of saying that resolving the name dispute is so complex that there is no room for other issues, such as that raised by Gruevski, to be included in the discussions.


© 2008 H KAΘHMEPINH All rights reserved.

[Foti66]

Nimetz talks on 'name issue'

Serious intent on the part of Greece and FYROM for resolving the FYROM name issue was ascertained by the UN secretary general's special mediator on the name issue, Matthew Nimetz, after talks in Thessaloniki on Friday with Greece's negotiator to the name talks Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis.

Nimetz, who had similar talks in Skopje on Thursday in separate meetings with FYROM president Branko Crvenkovski and prime minister Nikola Gruevski, told reporters after his Thessaloniki talks that both countries were serious, with respect to their disposition for a solution of the name issue.

Asked whether he had submitted a new proposal, Nimetz said that things have not been particularized, adding that when does make a proposal, he wants it to be specific.

"More time is needed to see where we are," he said.

Nimetz explained that both sides had specific views on what was acceptable and what was not, adding that the solution would be found when both sides feel comfortable with a solution proposed.

Asked whether additional issues beyond that of the name have been put forward in the talks, Nimetz replied that "a series of matters have been put forward, which I would describe as peripheral to the central issue of the name, of which some are more relevant and others less, to the central issue of the name".

Those matters, he added, prospectively comprised an issue, "but they are not the core". He said that the name issue was quite difficult in itself, and there was no need to burden it with other matters. "I would propose that we put those (matters) aside and deal with the name issue, and try to find a solution," Nimetz stressed.

Asked whether talks would be held at a higher level, Nimetz said that he could not make predictions, noting that the UN General Assembly would be held in September and that this was a year of great interest.

To a question on whether a timetable existed for resolution of the name issue, Nimetz replied that "personally, I don't believe in timetables".

"Resolving the issue is necessary, but we will not set a timetable," he added.

Ambassador Vassilakis, in turn, said in reply to questions that prime minister Costas Karamanlis' letter of reply to his FYROM counterpart was on public record, as were foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis' statements, and therefore known to all, so "consequently, we are proceeding slowly on this basis, and will see what will happen".

Asked if there has been any progress in the talks, Vassilakis noted: "I am an optimistic person, and say that, if there is patience, a solution can be found".

"It is necessary to be patient, and to take things slowly," he added.

Caption: UN special mediator on FYROM name issue in Thessaloniki on Friday 22 August. ANA-MPA/NIKOS ARVANITIDIS


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