FYROM HAS ONLY ITSELF TO BLAME FOR BEING KEPT OUT OF NATO
Nina Gatzoulis
(Supreme President of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA)
Copyright: Nina Gatzoulis on line
Mr. Metodija A. Koloski, President of the so-called United Macedonia Diaspora in the Washington Times, May 4, 2008 Commentary column, titled “A name to reckon with,” reinforces NATO’s wise decision that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM) will be invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization only after a solution to the name issue has been reached with Greece, its neighbor.
It is unfortunate that this small country north of Greece’s border was established with falsehoods and on wrong foundations and on a sandy ground when in 1944 Marshal Joseph Bronz Tito, the communist dictator ruling Yugoslavia, renamed his southernmost province from Vardarska Banovina to “People’s Republic of Macedonia” for purely political and expansionist reasons: to claim and incorporate the northern Macedonia of Greece into communist Yugoslavia, with the port of Thessaloniki as the trophy. After the renaming, Tito continued with the legitimization of his “Macedonia” by commissioning “scholars” to rewrite history books to usurp and incorporate the ancient Macedonian Hellenic history as their own accompanied by perverted maps that included even the northern Macedonia Province of Greece. “Linguists” were also appointed to develop a separate “Macedonian” language, which today is nothing other than a Bulgarian dialect that can be understood by any Bulgarian.
In 1991, this republic declared independence from Yugoslavia and named itself “Republic of Macedonia”, adopted a new flag with the Greek Sun of Vergina at its center, prepared new currency with the Greek White Tower of Thessaloniki printed on it, and developed its constitution which contained articles that implied ownership and expansionist rights to the northern Macedonia of Greece. As anyone can imagine, these actions were very provocative to Greece and Greece rightfully imposed a trade embargo that was lifted when its northern neighbor redesigned its flag, stopped the issuance of the new currency and amended its constitution to clarify that they have no territorial rights outside of their boundaries.
In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly admitted this new nation as a member under the name the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. However, Greece continued to object to their use of the Macedonia name, which Greece considers a Greek identifier for well over 3000 years.
In 1995 an Interim Accord was signed under the auspices of the United Nations and both sides agreed to participate in UN-mediated negotiations to resolve the name issue. This accord contained numerous provisions one which is: Article 7, paragraph 1. Each Party shall promptly take effective measures to prohibit hostile activities or propaganda by State-controlled agencies and to discourage acts by private entities likely to incite violence, hatred or hostility against each other.
Since then, Greece has invested more than one billion dollars in FYROM. Most of FYROM's commerce moves through the Greek port of Thessaloniki. The Greek businessmen have created thousands of jobs in the area. However, FYROM has repaid Greece with abstinence in negotiating in good faith to resolve the name and with constant barrage of anti-Greek propaganda, provocations in the media and the Internet and distortions of history even in their schoolbooks and military books, and continued to ignore numerous warnings from Greece that it must have good neighborly relations with Greece before entering NATO and the EU.
Mr. Koloski states that “The recent Greek veto . . . was unfounded and contrary to the principles of NATO . . . Mr. Koloski fails to note that the FYROM was the one that was irresponsive to diligently negotiate a resolution to the name as agreed in 1995 and rejected a multitude of names put forth on the table. Yet, at the same time FYROM pursued a multitude of paths to have this country recognized with their self adopted name of “Republic of Macedonia”, continued its polices of irredentism evidenced as recently as February 4, 2008 by a map which shows the FYROM to include the Macedonia province of Greece going all the way down to mount Olympus that was shown on a monument when their Prime Minister, Nichola Gruevski, placed a wreath during a ceremony that included FYROM’s first president Kiro Gligorov as well as many clergy from their schismatic church, and continued its unrelenting and greatly accelerated propaganda against Greece.
In an effort to establish a “Macedonian” identity and to further provoke Greece, FYROM has renamed streets and squares in a number of towns with ancient Macedonian Hellenic names, have erected numerous statues of Alexander the Great, and even renamed its airport to “Alexander the Great”.
A recent defacing of the Greek flag in billboards put up in the city of Skopje, the capital of FYROM, in which the white Cross on the flag was replaced with a Swastika, as well as a local magazine's caricature of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis' dressed as an SS officer was especially provocative and brought an immediate sharp condemnation from The historic Jewish community of Thessaloniki in which it declared that these “constitute unacceptable actions and an insult to the Greek people as a whole including members of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. These actions become more heinous because Greece was among the first countries in Europe to clash with the tide of fascism and the first to defeat Axis Forces on the battlefield in WWII where Jewish and Christian Greeks fought side by side. Furthermore, the use -- for the sake of creating impressions -- of symbols that are directly linked with the period of the worst crimes committed against humanity is an insult to the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust and those who survived the horror of the Nazi concentration camps. Our Community welcomes the stance adopted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a descendant of the Mallah family from Thessaloniki, who backed Greece's positions on the self-evident Greekness of Macedonia."
FYROM’s actions resulted in U.S. House of Representatives Resolution HR-356 that has been thus far co-sponsored by 120 Representatives and U.S. Senate Resolution SR-300 that has been thus far co-sponsored by 5 Senators which (1) urge the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to observe its obligations under Article 7 of the 1995 United Nations-brokered Interim Accord which directs the parties to "promptly take effective measures to prohibit hostile activities or propaganda by state-controlled agencies and to discourage acts by private entities likely to incite violence, hated or hostility" and review the contents of textbooks, maps, and teaching aids to ensure that such tools are stating accurate information; and (2) urge the FYROM to work within the framework of the United Nations process with Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals by reaching a mutually-acceptable official name for the FYROM.”
The Greek government again warned the FYROM as cited by the following announcement by Greece’s Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyianni: “Skopje’s leadership is intentionally giving the impression either that they are unaware of or that they question the content of the provisions of the Interim Accord and the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, which have but one objective: The finding of a mutually acceptable solution on the name issue – regarding which Greece has reaffirmed its constructive stance – and not the perpetuation of the problem, which FYROM’s intransigence is leading to. A number of the Skopje (FYROM) government’s decisions and actions have confirmed its persistence with regard to historically groundless and provocative propaganda that assails the principle of good neighborly relations. They have forgotten the obligations they have undertaken, and I am referring to article 7 of the Interim Accord, which explicitly prohibits direct or indirect actions of irredentist propaganda. Let it be clear that the Interim Accord cannot be implemented selectively, as one party sees fit. So Greece cannot and will not rule out exercising any of its rights and options as a member of NATO and the EU.”
Greece, a NATO member since 1952 that participated in all major NATO missions with critical manpower, facilities, logistics and other support and has greatly assisted to assure stability in the area and elsewhere, had no other choice but to defend its interests from the relentless unfriendly provocations from its northern neighbor, who was aspiring to join NATO, and thus exercised its right to veto FYROM’s application. FYROM has only itself to blame for being kept out of NATO, and no one else!