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 16:50
2001-09-10The Government of Greece addressed to the executive bodies of the European Union with a request to assist in solving the dispute with Macedonia regarding the name of the country. The discussion how to call the former Yugoslavian republic started back in 1991 – right after Yugoslavia’s collapse (within its previous borderline). The independent state of Macedonia appeared on the frontier with the historic district of Greece having the same name. Greece was OK with such a neighborhood until the word Macedonia started being mentioned in the international documents. But after 1991 the relations between 2 countries became rather intense for the reason of the linguistic dispute. By the way Macedonia has owned its name for hundreds of years. Macedonia we know about from history text books was much bigger – the territory of the country embraced the up-to-date Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria and the north of Greece. The Slavs lived on the biggest part of Macedonia in the 6th century of our times; a part of those people separated themselves in the single Slavonian nation – the Macedonians. Only in the beginning of the 20th century when the Turkey’s power over the entire Macedonia was broken, the region was divided between Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. Later the name of the Serbian southern province was legalized within the framework of the administrative and territorial division of Yugoslavia. Thus the state of Macedonia is situated right on the territory which was bearing the same name during 2.5 thousand years. In this situation the attempt to take the name away is absurd (both Macedonia and Greece have equal rights on this name) and there is no analogue to this anywhere in the world. It is enough to recollect that the US and Mexico have their own Californias, that Ireland borders on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, that there is peaceful neighborly relations in Africa between the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nevertheless, the Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou addressed to the EU Secretary-General, the EU’s chief of foreign and security policy Javier Solana at the informal meeting of EU Ministers in Belgium. The Greek Minister asked Solana to interfere in the matter “with a view to solve the name issue quickly”. Greece chose a good moment for that request – NATO’s troops are stationed on the territory of Macedonia and the solution of the Albanian conflict, Macedonia’s future much depends on EU’s position. In this situation the Macedonians are not likely to take risks in case of the negative outcome of the problem which is most probable, experts say. Belgium’s Foreign Minister Louis Michel promised assistance in the linguistic conflict. The EU’s official documents register this small state in the Balkans as “Former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia”. The question pertaining the name of the country is supposed to be completely finished by September of 2002. May be the Greek diplomats will win and the official papers will have some other name instead of Macedonia next year. However the Greek diplomacy can not give the answer to the Macedonians – what their nation is going to be called thousands of years after. Roman Fomin PRAVDA.Ru http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/09/10/14746.html |
AP Photo: Macedonian Parliament
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