Foreign press on the Macedonian issue

[Paulos Melas]

Grueski reveals all his cards. This is it guys! The last round. Everything on the table in a desperate attempt to achieve some short of gains. There shall be none as US and EU both hold massive financial interests in Greece with multibillion dollar business pending.
Grueski is doomed, he knows that and he tries to create some short of confusion.
Panama case that redraw its recognisition and start using again the description FYROM.
Obama will most likely adopt the same stance.
They must finilise the deal now. Otherwise thing shall be worse (not for Greece but for them of course).

[Slayer]

New "Macedonian" government stirs tensions with Greece
Published: Tuesday 29 July 2008

The new Conservative government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who has pledged to make accession to EU and NATO his top priority, was approved by the parliament in Skopje on Saturday (26 July). But an ongoing row with Greece looks to remain a key obstacle to the country's EU aspirations.
Background:

"Macedonia" gained official EU candidate status in December 2005, but official talks have not been opened yet, mainly due to unbridgeable differences with neighbouring Greece. Since "Macedonia" declared independence in 1991, Athens has been calling on Skopje to change the country’s name, which is also the name of a Northern Greek province.

This dispute reached a climax at the NATO Summit this April, when Greece blocked an invitation to Skopje to join the alliance (EurActiv 04/04/08). Athens has made clear that it would also block "Macedonia’s" EU accession, which Skopje had hoped could eventually be opened by the end of the year (EurActiv 14/04/08). If Skopje does not give in, no progress is to be expected in the coming months, as France, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, has joined ranks with Greece on the name dispute.
M
MPs approved the new coalition headed by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, consisting of his centre-right VMRO-DPMNE party - which had won 63 seats in the snap polls on 1 June - and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) - one of the two main parties representing the country's ethnic Albanians. Together, the parties hold a comfortable 78-vote majority in the 120-member "Macedonian" parliament.

There was no vote against the new coalition as the main opposition parties collectively boycotted the session. The Social Democrats did so to protest against the arrest of their Vice President Zoran Zaev, which they considered "politically motivated", while the Democratic Party for Albanians (DPA), the other main Albanian party, abstained saying they would not to return to Parliament before their community rights were better addressed.

The new government has pledged to make improved inter-ethnic relations and the fight against corruption and organised crime a top priority, also in view of the country's EU ambitions.

"We will work day and night to become a member of the European Union and NATO," Gruevski, who also headed the previous government, told deputies when presenting his new cabinet.

New tensions with Greece

But the Gruevski camp has created fresh tensions with Greece by turning to the Commission for support in its strive for better protection and promotion of the rights of the "Macedonian" minority in Greece.

A letter by foreign minister Antonio Milososki to Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban, requesting support for recognition of "Macedonian" as a minority language in Greece, was followed by a letter from Gruevski to Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

He asked Barroso "to personally engage for Greece's strict obeying of the obligations stemming from international instruments regarding human rights, with special emphasis on free expression of ethnic identity and all rights stemming from that."

However, Barroso replied on Friday (25 July) that the Commission had "no general competence" to deal with such issues, which are the responsibility of the EU member states. He also stressed that "Macedonia" had to solve its problems with Greece before making progress on the EU path.

http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargeme...174610?Ref=RSS

[Astoria]

FYROMacedonia-Greece: Premier demands UN mediate in Church dispute






Skopje, 12 August (AKI) – FYROMacedonia's prime minister Nikola Gruevski on Tuesday requested United Nations mediation in a dispute between the FYROMacedonian and Greek Orthodox Churches.

Ahead of new round of talks on FYROMacedonia’s name to be held in New York on Thursday and Friday, Gruevski wrote to UN mediator Matthew Nimitz demanding that the recognition of the FYROMacedonian Orthodox Church by its Greek sister be included in the talks.

Gruevski said in the letter to Nimitz that Serbian clergy had blocked recognition of the Macedonian church because it was strongly under the influence of the Greek Church.

“An important part of the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been schooled, financed and spent considerable time in the Greek churches and monasteries and has remained under their influence,” Gruevski said.

He pointed out that the problem was that Greek Church in fact wasn’t separated from the state and that its non recognition was a part of the “Greek negation of FYROMacedonian identity.”

Greece blocked FYROMacedonia’s entry into NATO at the summit in Bucharest last April, demanding that FYROMacedonia change its name, which, according to Athens, implies territorial pretensions towards northern Greek province with the same name.

The Skopje government refuses to change the country's name and the 17-year-old dispute has hampered relations between the two Balkan neighbours.

Before the break up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, FYROMacedonian Christians were a part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, but declared autonomy in 1963.

The FYROMacedonian Orthodox Church, however, hasn’t been recognized by other Orthodox Churches, including the Greek one.

Adding another hot issue to the long-running name dispute, Gruevski demanded that the airport in the northern Greek city of Salonica should drop “Macedonia” from its current name.

The Athens government earlier objected to the airport in FYROMacedonian capital Skopje being named after the famous Greek warrior Alexander the Great.

[Astoria]

Greek Army 'Putting Pressure' on FYROMacedonia




14 August 2008 Skopje _ Greek Army exercises near the FYROMacedonian border can be seen as a form of pressure on FYROMacedonia, 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 FYROMacedonian 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 FYROMacedonia 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 FYROMacedonia’s invitation to NATO and threatened to do the same with the EU, pending a resolution of the row.

Athens argues that FYROMacedonia’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.

[Astoria]

Name dispute still the core issue for Greece, FYROMacedonia– UN envoy

15:16 Thu 14 Aug 2008 - Spasena Baramova

As yet another round of talks between Greece and FYROMacedonia was held in New York, United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz said the main problem to focus on was still the name itself, the thorny issue that has poisoned relations between the two neighbours for 17 years now.

“There are many issues between the two countries. Some of them are long-term, some are short-term issues. I think that both countries agree that the core issue is the name. There is a UN resolution and an agreement between the two countries and my mandate is on the name issue,” Nimetz said, as quoted by Makfax news agency.

The special envoy's statement came after meeting FYROMacedonian and Greek negotiators in New York on August 13 2008. Nimetz is to visit the two states for new discussions next week.

The UN representative urging sides to focus exclusively on the name came as a result of FYROMacedonia's recent attempt to bring up a number of other issues for negotiations, among which the official recognition of the FYROMacedonian minority in Greece, and most recently of the FYROMacedonian Orthodox Church, by Greek authorities.

The name issue has been standing in the way of good neighbourly relations between the two Balkan states ever since FYROMacedonia broke away from former Yugoslavia in 1991, with Skopje insisting that it be recognised under its constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia. Greece, however, has argued Macedonia is the name of its northern province and has requested a name change from its neighbour to prove it has no territorial claims over Northern Greece.

The tension between the two states reached its climax in April, when, as a result of the unresolved row, Greece blocked Nato issuing an invitation to FYROMacedonia to join the alliance at a summit held in Bucharest. Now Athens is threatening to block the start of Macedonia's accession talks with the European Union.

[Astoria]

FYROMacedonia Talks Must Focus on Name Alone, Mediator





14 August 2008 Skopje _ The UN mediator between Greece and MFYROacedonia said he would only be addressing the isssue of FYROMacedonia's name, and not other unresolved issues between the two countries.

"My main focus is on the name issue," Matthew Nimetz said, after a meeting with the FYROMacedonian negotiator, Nikola Dimitrov, in New York. Shortly after, Nimetz held a separate meeting with the Greek negotiator, Adamantion Vassilakis.

Nimetz was responding to questions about Skopje’s recent requests for the FYROMacedonian minority in Greece, recognition of theFYRO Macedonian Orthodox Church and the name of airport in Thessaloniki to be included in talks, with the "name" issue.

In the last two months, Skopje has sent several letters to Greece, the UN, the European Union, NATO and to Nimetz himself, asking for these issues to be addressed.

Nimetz said several ideas for solving the 17-year-old "name" row were discussed in the latest meetings. However, Nimetz did not reveal the content of the ideas and the media in both countries said chances of reaching an agreement were slim, due to the rigid positions adopted by both countries. Nimetz is soon expected to visit Athens and Skopje in order to resume his efforts to find a solution.

Greece-FYROMacedonia relations hit a new low in April after Athens vetoed Skopje’s invitation to join NATO, insisting the country needed change its name first. Greece says the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim to the Greek northern province of the same name.

[Astoria]

Adding Church to FYROMacedonia Talks “Counterproductive”

14 August 2008 Skopje _ FYROMacedonia's President dismissed the Prime Minister's initiative to add the issue of the FYROMacedonian Orthodox Church to the "name" talks between Athens and Skopje as counterproductive.

"We are giving Greece a reason to think that FYROMacedonia is opening new questions and that it wishes to block the negotiations," President Branko Crvenkovski said on Thursday.

Crvenkovski said a solution to the row over recognition of the FYROMacedonian Church should be sought within the frameworks of current talks between the FYROMacedonian and Serbian Orthodox churches. The Serbian Orthodox Church has refused to recognise the independent status of the Church in FYROMacedonia, blocking its wider recognition in to the Orthodox world.

FYROMacedonia’s Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, argues that the real problem lies within the Greek Church, and that the Serbian Church is only acting as a satellite Athens.

On Tuesday, Gruevski sent a letter to the UN mediator in the “name” row asking him to put the church issue into the negotiations with Greece about FYROMacedonia’s name.

[Astoria]

US Working on Deal to End Macedonia Row




14 August 2008 Skopje _ The United States is working towards a rapid solution to the Athens-Skopje “name” dispute that is stalling FYROMacedonia’s accession to NATO, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday in Washington.

"The hope is that the name issue can be resolved very quickly now," Rice said.

She reiterated the US position that the row about FYROMacedonia's constitutional name "should not get in the way of the admission of FYROMacedonia to NATO", adding that the US is working to resolve the problem.

Explaining the US's strong support for NATO's Membership Action Plan for the region, Rice said that it would allow states to overcome longstanding difficulties and differences under the umbrella of a collective security organisation and thus avoid potential conflict like the one in Georgia.

Greece-FYROMacedonia relations hit a new low in April after Athens vetoed Skopje’s invitation to join NATO, insisting the country needed change its name first. Greece says the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim to the Greek northern province of the same name.

Media reports say US President George Bush's administration will make a last-ditch attempt to resolve the issue before US presidential elections in November.

[Astoria]

Katimerini: USA exert further pressure on Athens over FYROM's NATO membership



15 August 2008 | 12:27 | FOCUS News Agency



Athens. The USA has exerted further pressure on Athens for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/ FYROM/ to join NATO despite the unsolved name dispute with Athens, the Greek newspaper Katimariti reports.

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement on Wednesday that there is a hope for the name dispute to be solved soon and that this is not an obstacle for FYROM to become a NATO member, has been the prove for that, the newspaper states.

[Astoria]

Greek media: Negotiations between Athens and Skopje are alive, but stand still



15 August 2008 | 10:47 | FOCUS News Agency



Athens. The reverberations of the new stage of the negotiations between Athens and Skopje in reference to the name dispute have been among the central subjects in the Greek media on Thursday.

The special UN envoy Mathew Nimitz had met with the negotiators, Nikola Dimitrov and Adamandios Vasilakis separately in the frames of the new stage of the talks on Wednesday in New York. He had stressed that the name dispute can be solved and besides that there have been many controversial issues between Athens and Skopje, as the main issue is exactly the name dispute. This had satisfied Greece's positions but Athens hasn’t been satisfied with the fact hat Nimitz hadn’t censured Skopje’s attempt at undermining the negotiations with issues about FYROMacedonian minority in Greece, the Greek Express reports.

The Greek Ta nea reports that Skopje tries to undermine the finding of a solution to the name dispute with its attempts at putting other issues on the agenda.