UN envoy with clear message on name issue - Bulgaria and the World news

UN envoy with clear message on name issue

17:00 Fri 22 Aug 2008 - Spasena Baramova

Matthew Nimetz, the United Nations special envoy on the name issue between Greece and Macedonia said after meeting high ranking Macedonian officials on August 21 2008 that they had been very clear regarding their stance, Greek daily Kathimerini reported.

“I received clear messages of what is and what is not possible. Now I have a clear position from Skopje and will go to Thessaloniki to continue the talks,” Nimetz said, as quoted by the daily, but refused to go into detail.

In Skopje, Nimetz had separate talks with Macedonia's prime minister Nikola Gruevski and president Branko Crvenkovski. The mediator is scheduled to meet Greek negotiator on the issue Adamantios Vassilakis in Thessaloniki on August 22.

Website Balkan Insight quoted Gruevski as telling media ahead of his meeting with the envoy that Greece would do anything to stop the issue from reaching a solution in September.

“Greece would do everything it can to prevent the successful ending of this process in September and blame Macedonia for it,” Gruevski said, adding that Athens did not want a solution “at least until the middle of the next year, until the European Parliamentary elections,” Balkan Insight reported.

Prior to the August 21–22 talks, diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity told Greek daily Eleftheros Typos, as quoted by Balkan Insight, that the mediator would informally suggest that both sides consider several variants of the name Northern Macedonia, which he would formally bring up at the end of September.

The name dispute between the two Balkan neighbours focuses on Greek demands that Macedonia change its name since it coincides with that of the northern Greek province. According to Athens, this implies Skopje's territorial claims towards Greece.

The climax of the name issue came in April 2008, when Greece vetoed Macedonia getting invited to join Nato at a summit of the military alliance in Bucharest. Since then, ties between the two have been exacerbated and now Athens is threatening to block the launch of the official accession talks of Skopje with the European Union.

Recently, Gruevski tried to add up a number of other issues to the bilateral negotiations, such as the Greek recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece and of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but his strivings were cooled by Nimetz and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who said the only topic of talks for the time being should be the name.

Comments

Comments by M - 22:30 22 Aug 2008
	Gruevski is such a troublemaker . He has some slavic "inferiority complex" but Tito started it all! Tito and the communists had territorial ambitions on Greece. Look here dated 1944 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,796967,00.html A quote from a 12/26/44 memo sent to all U.S. consular officials by Secretary of State E. Stettinius: "The Department has noted with considerable apprehension increasing propaganda rumors and semi-official statements in favor of an autonomous Macedonia emanating from Bulgaria, but also from Yugoslav partisan and other sources with the implication that Greek territory would be included in the projected State. This Government considers talk of ‘Macedonian Nation’, ‘Macedonian Fatherland’, or ‘Macedonian National Consciousness’ to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic or political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece.” [Foreign Relations, Vol. VII, Circular Airgram (868.014)] Sadly, the communists have gone but the propaganda and lies still remain...
Comments by JAMES GABRIEL - 00:40 23 Aug 2008
	the slavic bardaskan pm? oh! has no just, Inferiority complex! also, megalo! maniac! tendecy,! as one slavic bardaskan! i don,t know what wrong ? to accept what really you are !
Comments by cons - 15:58 25 Aug 2008
	Blame Greece all you want. All you have to do Mr Gruevski, is suggest a name.
Comments by Peter - 19:25 25 Aug 2008
	Republic of Macedonia has no need to change its identity.First of all Northern Greece is a Province,wheareas Republic of Macedonia is an independent Nation.The UN has imposed these talks on Macedonia just because Greece objected to our identity.Furtheremore,the UN has no right to intrfear to the name of an independent country,rhey have no such mandate to do so.The General secretary of the UN is in a different world it seams.We are very well aware that Mr. Nimitz is pro Greek like his Democrats in USA.The UN and EU must look into the violations of Greece againts its Macedonian minority.The treaty of Serves of 1925 under Articles 7,8 and 9 must be respected,and the UN and EU must demsnd that Greece follow through these Agreements.Here is a quote of a Greek high representative at the League of NationsMr. Vasilis Dendramis comment"The Macedonian language is not Bulgarian nor Serbian but an independent language" The high Greek official representing the Greek State not only recognized the existance of Macedonian identity,but openly defended and supported it.A Greek newspaper wrote in 1932 "What we have in Macedonia are neigther Greeks nor Bulgarian nor Serbs but the Macedonian people,the Macedonian minority which, in spite of all the blows and in spite of all the represion,preserves its economic and its national existance and a seperate culture"It is these Macedonians states another corespondent who:"Clench their teeth, stubbornly speak their Macedonian language of their own,for a free Macedonia"The Greek and Serbian churches dont want to recognize the Macedonian Church because they live in 1913 and beyond.Why these churches are entangled in politics is beyond reason.A church is a place of worship,not politics. The Macedonian minorities in Greece and Bulgaria must be recognized as such and not go back to the mythilogical era.The Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia is right to ask of UN on the question of the Macedonian minorities in these countries who are violating the basik Human Rights againts its citizens.Bulgarias claim that the Macedonian language is Bulgarian,in actual fact the Bulgarian language is an offshut of the Macedonian language.The Macedonian language is much older than that of Bulgaria.The alphabet is Macedonian,there is no two ways about it.History will discover,if only Greece and Bulgaria seat down together with Macedonian historians to analyze the Balkan history and all Agreements made in that area of the Balkans.
Comments by Peter - 20:12 25 Aug 2008
	I have never seen more stubborn government than that of Macedonia. They refuse to understand the problem with the name Macedonia. Even they are going further with their policy to steel names from Greece's history. Here in US the Macedonian company is importing vodka Alexander on the name of Alexander the Great who was one of the greatest rulers of old Greece. I would not be surprised if Skopje introduces product with the name of Athens or Pirin. The last is mountain in Bulgaria.
Comments by Peter - 05:03 10 Nov 2008
	I aint got no history, i aint got no identity to call my own, i cant even understand history but it dont matter because i'm the one who steals your own. NOthing but the VARDASKAN the way I'm are, Nothing but the Vardaskan the way I'm are, Love me the Vardaskan the way I'm are,it's Probably the Vardaskan the way I'm are......I'm VARDASKAN everything is what it is!