United Nations special envoy on Macedonia's name issue Matthew Nimetz admitted on March 5 2008 that he had no new proposals to make after holding a two-hour meeting behind closed doors with Macedonian politicians in Skopje, Focus news agency reported.
“I did not bring a new proposal. We talked on a number of ideas and discussed different options. The government here has substantial remarks on the February 19 proposals. The other part also has considerable comments too. The two countries have a different view on history,” Nimetz was quoted as saying.
The visit was part of his shuttle diplomacy efforts, which he hoped would yield a result. From Skopje, Nimetz headed for Greece to meet Greek negotiator Adamantios Vassilakis.
The thorny name issue has been poisoning the bilateral Greek-Macedonian relations for 17 years now. Since Macedonia broke away from former Yugoslavia in 1991 it has insisted that it be recognised under its constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia. Greece, however, has claimed Macedonia is the name of Northern Greece and that having the Macedonians use it as the official name of their state is indicative of their implicit territorial claims over the northern Greek province.
Therefore, Macedonia's current formal name at the UN and other international organisations is former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). However, a big number of countries recognise Macedonia under its constitutional name.
The name issue is becoming increasingly important with the nearing of Nato's April 2008 summit in Bucharest, since Greece has threatened to veto Macedonia getting invited to join the alliance unless an acceptable solution be found. Athens has also threatened to block Macedonia's European Union aspirations if the issue remains unsettled.
Comments by john - 06:26 06 Mar 2008 |
 | the name can not be changed,every person has the rights too call there country how they wish,greece already recognised the macedonians as barbarians in the ancient times,now they are acting childish,if theres no macedonia,theres no nato! |  |
Comments by Andrew - 15:52 06 Mar 2008 |
| Good for Greece..."The Republic of Macedonia". Was Yugoslavia till 1991. The Slav people have insisted that the name Macedonia including King Phillip and Alexander the Great were Yugoslavians. This belief is ridiculous....The name Macedonia has been greek for Centuries. The Slavs are wrong. | |
Comments by nicola fabrizio - 07:09 07 Mar 2008 |
| 1913-bucharest treaty to partition macedonia was illegal and not valid get it greeks know it very well and clear.
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Comments by Ion - 19:38 07 Mar 2008 |
| Macedonia is a geographical name, not the name of an ethnicity. If the Slavs have sole use of the name Macedonian then the rights of the 2.5 million Greeks and Bulgarians that live in the other 60% of the region called Macedonia are violated. Skopje has played the victim well in this issue and the truth is the politics is more than just about the "name". In the late 1940s when Tito lost the support of the USSR, he continued the support of the communist forces then fighting in Greek Macedonia with the purpose of annexing the Bulgarian and Greek portions of Macedonia into Yugoslavia. This is the main cause of bitterness on the Greek side and why there are irridentist connotations to the use of the name by Slavic Macedonians. There are national issues on both sides and also in Bulgaria that are really the major destabilizing factor here. My proposal is that the southern Slavs use the historical name of Vardarska for the name of the republic. No one has shown me why this name is not valid. | |
Comments by John - 15:11 11 Mar 2008 |
| FYROM is a fake state, just like Kosovo. If you listen to the illiterates in that country you will see how ludicrous their historical claims to ancient Macedon are while still claiming to be Slavic.
As long as they persist to agitate Greece, they will never be able to join any of the major organizations they aspire to and will remain a backward and non viable state. | |
Comments by Jim Grey - 20:46 12 Mar 2008 |
| Seems to me that the people of FYROM are suffering from mass delusion.
How they can possibly believe they are descendents of Alexander the Great, while all the evidence in the world is clear Ancient Macedonia was Greek, is amazing to me.
Don't take the Greeks word for it, read the historical and archeological accounts of British, French, German, American and other non Greek scholars who have shown through an abundance of evidence that Macedonia is part of the Greek world and that a distinct Macedonian ethnicity does not and never has existed. | |
Comments by reader - 09:26 13 Mar 2008 |
| @Grey; the same could be said of current day Greece. There was no "Greece" until the Brits made them stop fighting among each other.
Ancient Greece is something completely different from the current country.
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Comments by Jim Grey - 20:51 13 Mar 2008 |
| @reader: Obviously you realise how stupid your remark is thus not posting your name to save face. The modern day notion of a nation state is only a fairly recent phenomenon. However that does not mean that there has not been a continuous recorded Greek existence and history in the region. Likewise the Greek language has a documented history of 3,400 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family.
As for the Brits, they were not even a concept when the ancient Greeks were fighting each other, so I don't know where you got that ludicrous idea.. Please argue with fact not fiction...that is if you have any real facts to support your position. | |
Comments by Georgios - 00:13 14 Mar 2008 |
| FOR THOSE THAT ARE SEEKING A NAME FOR "MACEDONIA".
THE NAME OF THAT AREA BEFORE WORLD WAR II WAS VARDARSKA.
THE NAME MACEDONIA WAS GIVEN TO THEM BY THEIR CRYPTO-JEWISH LEADER JOSEF BROSTEIN (THE YUGOSLAV LEADER KNOWN AS TITO).
ATTACHED YOU WILL FIND THE MAP BEFORE 1940.
A FEW NOTES FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW:
1. ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND HIS TEACHER ARISTOTLE SPOKE HELLENIC. NOT ANY SLAVIC LANGUAGE.
2. THE CAPITAL OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA WAS PELLA. NOT SKOPJE.
3. ALEXANDER'S SISTER WAS CALLED THESSALONIKI. NOT SOLUN LIKE THE SLAV(E)S CALL IT.
4. VOUKEFALAS WAS CALLED ALEXANDER'S HORSE. NOT A ZASTAVA.
SO, VARDARSKA IT IS AND STOP PLAYING WITH THE REAL MACEDONIANS!
WE'VE HAD ENOUGH WITH THIS JOKE.
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Comments by Geros - 23:40 15 Mar 2008 |
| The problem with most of my fellow Greeks is that they do not see the positive side. If the people of FYROM claim to be descendents of ancient Macedonia, then what they are essentially claiming is that they are Greeks! It's obvious that union with Greece offers both economic and military security. So let's stop the biggering and begin the process of uniting our countries. | |
