U.S. position on Macedonia

[Prolet]

It took 19 years for 120+ countries to fully recognize us by our proper name

Actually its 130 countries, maybe even more now.

Rogi, Do you have the latest figures?

[makedonin]

are we sure that she supports the Macedonian state, or the Albanian terrorists, as her husband has done it?

It is all politics, cheat chat.

[Rogi]

My information suggests it is 128 countries. This does not include the South Pacific island nations; some have suggested that a few of them recognise the rightful name of the Republic of Macedonia.

I exclude those South Pacific island nations because as far as I am aware, Macedonia has not yet established diplomatic relations with those nations, despite the Embassy in Australia set to be Macedonia's representative office for some of those nations.

As for the statement above, it did not take 19 years for these 128 nations to recognise the correct name of the Republic of Macedonia - it has been 17 years, but that is if you ignore the reason why, the reason has been that Macedonia has actually been slow in establishing diplomatic relations with many states around the world.

Firstly, after Macedonia's independence, the process for recognition of Macedonia began in 1992, at which time Macedonia was not yet a member of the United Nations and only Slovenia, Croatia and Turkey recognised Macedonia and established diplomatic relations with Macedonia.

Secondly, Macedonia joined the United Nations in 1993 and only then really began establishing diplomatic relations with UN Member Nations - many of which would not do so before hand.


Mainly due to Macedonia's economy, and bad Government that had no real foreign policy understanding, Macedonia was quite slow in actually establishing diplomatic relations with the many nations throughout the world.

However given that Macedonia has (as of 2010) established diplomatic relations with 160 States, of which 128 recognise its' rightful name as Macedonia, it is fair to say that most of the states with whom Macedonia establishes diplomatic relations (at its' own pace), recognise Macedonia's name.

Besides the handful which support Greece, and the others whom the Macedonian Government has not visited, nor does Macedonia trade with, nor are there really any relations besides symbolic, nor has Macedonia really communicated with, it is safe to say that the nations of the world recognise Macedonia's right ful name, as Macedonia.

[MHRMI]

American and European Union Foreign Policy Fails Macedonia

American and European Union Foreign Policy Fails Macedonia

MHRMI and AMHRC Press Release

Toronto, Canada and Melbourne, Australia (October 11, 2010) - "I think that the stance on the name issue is well known. NATO was clear at the summit in Bucharest and at last year’s summit in Strasbourg and Kehl. The stances and the expectations are that Macedonia will receive an invitation for NATO membership as soon as name issue is solved. I hope that will happen soon," stated US Ambassador Philip Reeker.

On April 28, he said "The [name] issue must be solved, because if not, a question mark is put on Macedonia's future." He added, "The clock is ticking, it needs to be done right now, and we encourage both Macedonia and Greece to do this."

The United States views itself as a leader in spreading democracy and human rights throughout the world. So how does it justify asking a country to change its own name?

In her address on September 8, 2010 marking Macedonia's Independence Day, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "The United States is committed to promoting Macedonia’s membership in NATO and the European Union..."

However, this comes with the stipulation that Macedonia changes its name. The United States has already recognized Macedonia, yet it calls for a name change. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Western Europe is being handcuffed by Greece, yet it continues to support Greece in the ludicrous "name dispute", while also bailing it out of its current economic collapse. Every NATO member-state supported Macedonia's membership, yet Greece was permitted to veto it. Greece is being rewarded for its racist and xenophobic policies.

Every Macedonian government has continued the nonsensical name negotiations solely to satisfy American and Western European pressure to find a "compromise" with Greece. Instead of capitulating to countries that demand a change to Macedonia's name and identity, the Macedonian government must immediately end the name negotiations and demand support from these countries.

129 countries, including 4/5 UN Security Council members, have recognized Macedonia. On Sept.24, 2010, Syria joined the growing list.

As MHRMI and AMHRC stated in our campaign demanding an end to name negotations, "We are winning. We have the power to end this. Stop negotiating our own name".

According to former US Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, "The name dispute is unnecessary and unfounded, since Macedonia was called the same in the time of former Yugoslavia and this did not cause any problems then". He added, "Is there anything more immature and more foolish than 'blackmailing' a nation by denying its membership in international organizations, which goal is to preserve the peace and protect their members from aggression of non-members."

The first UN mediator for the name dispute, Robin O'Neil, said that "Macedonia must not and will not change its name in order to appease Greece. If Macedonia succumbs to pressures and changes its name, such events will only give more firepower to Greece until it reaches its final goal - Macedonia to vanish from the map."

MHRMI and AMHRC call on Macedonians, in the Republic of Macedonia and abroad, to join our call for Macedonia to immediately cease name negotiations and demand international recognition.

Our Name is Macedonia campaign

http://www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia

###

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for
Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. For more information, please visit http://www.mhrmi.org, or
contact MHRMI at 416-850-7125, or [email protected].

Established in 1984 the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non governmental organisation
that informs and advocates to governments, international institutions and broader communities about combating
discrimination and promoting basic human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian communities and
other excluded groups throughout the world are recognised, respected and afforded equitable treatment. For more
information please visit http://www.macedonianhr.org.au, or contact AMHRC at [email protected] or via +61
3 93298960.

[makedonche]

MHRMI
Well done, more of these releases please!

[Mikail]

Well done guys! Yes more please. Keep up the good work!

[Pelister]

Great press release.

We need more informative pieces like this. I hope this reaches a wide public audience all over the world. There must be hundreds of media outlets in Europe and the U.S that should have this press release sent to them.

[Prolet]

The United States has already recognized Macedonia, yet it calls for a name change. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Well Said MHRMI, i have been stating this for years and i totally agree with this.

Thousands of US Soldiers,Medics,Engineers,Humanitarian Workers in Afghanistan rely on our soldiers to keep them safe, our soldiers are risking their lives in Afghanistan yet Hillary Rodham Clinton has the nerve to question our identity.

US Ambassador to Macedonia Mr Phillip Reeker once said that USA is Macedonia's best friend, then surly the very least they can do is honor the agreement they signed in 2005 to use our name not only in bilateral meetings but in all international organizations aswell.

[julie]

MHRMI and AMHRC
Keep it up guys

[Dimko-piperkata]

New York Times: Brussels, Washington need to untie knot that tightens Macedonia

New York, 11 November 2010 (MIA)

Brussels and Washington need to untie the knot, which has tightened with every passing year since Macedonia's independence in 1991, say former UNMIK chief, Dane Soren Jessen-Petersen, and Daniel Serwer from the Washington-based Institute for Peace in joint analysis "The Balkans Can Still Be Lost" published in "New York Times".

They say failure in the Balkans is still a possibility and would embarrass Europeans and Americans alike.

"There are three issues that haunt the region: Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that remains mired in continuing — though currently nonviolent — ethnic tension; relations between Serbia and Kosovo remain unsettled; and Macedonia is unable to join NATO or the European Union until Greece's objection to its name is resolved".

"The government in Skopje faces an uphill battle against Athens, which wants 'Macedonia' to be qualified in a way that will distinguish it from what Greeks claim to be exclusively their own domain. Without resolution of this issue, Macedonia faces a long purgatory, without the NATO membership for which it has prepared and without any serious prospect of E.U. membership, a prospect that has kept the country's ethnic groups from descending into internecine warfare", reads the analysis.

The two authors say it hardly seems appropriate for Athens to be thumbing its nose at Brussels at a time when it desperately needs E.U. economic backing.

"For NATO membership, Washington and Brussels should insist that Greece live up to its 1995 agreement to accept Skopje under the euphemistic and anachronistic name 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom).' Provided Skopje is prepared to signal its willingness to add an acceptable geographic qualifier to its name, it is time also for the E.U. to give Macedonia a date for the start of accession talks, a move that would further stabilize the country and also create a strong incentive for Skopje and Athens to come to terms", claim Jessen-Petersen and Serwer.

According to them, the peace-building mission in the Balkans is not yet accomplished, even after 15 years of often close U.S./E.U. cooperation.

"Only when all the region's countries are irreversibly on a course toward the E.U. will we be able to celebrate. Likely no more than five more years are required. Until then, we need to keep the Balkans on track, ensuring that Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia remain on the train", underline Jessen-Petersen and Serwer in the "New York Times" analysis.

http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?vId=78543203&lId=2

[Risto the Great]

Provided Skopje is prepared to signal its willingness to add an acceptable geographic qualifier to its name

Hi Dimko, we are talking about this on another thread right now. Meto liked the article you posted above.

Maybe Macedonia should change its name to Macedonia!
Think about it, imagine the whole country gets up one day and decides to peacefully protest in the streets and declare the Republic of Macedonia changes its name to Macedonia.

[Dimko-piperkata]

sry i did not recognized that...delete that one then.

[lavce pelagonski]

Latest Greek letter to Joe Biden & Hillary Clinton

To Vice-President Joe Biden The White House & Secretary of State Hillary Clinton State Department of USA

February 14, 2011

To Vice-President Joe Biden
The White House
& Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
State Department of USA

Dear Mr. Vice-President,
Dear Madam Secretary of State,

We are writing to you on behalf of all members of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA, one of the largest Greek-American associations in the United States in anticipation to the Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Mr. Gruevski�s visit to the United States.�We have also read the letter of the nineteen Representatives�urging�President Obama�to encourage our allies to offer the FYROM a formal invitation to become a member of the NATO alliance at the November 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon. This letter, dated October 1, 2010�stressed that "Macedonia has met all the criteria for membership in NATO." and "Although Macedonia is not a member of NATO, its contributions to peace, democracy, stability and security in Southeast Europe and elsewhere make it clear that Macedonia is a close US ally and has been acting as a de facto NATO member for some time." [1]
The attempt to�encourage the President was not successful, but keeping this attempt in mind and in advance of Nikola Gruevski's visit to Washington D.C., we would like to highlight why Skopje is not ready to be a serious NATO member yet.�The FYROM�has not been capable to meet and sustain NATO's four criteria in contrast to what members of the U.S. Congress claim. It is not just our opinion, but also the opinion of scholars with experience in such matters: Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice-President of the Cato Institute states: "It is mystery why NATO supporters cling to the notion that adding small, militarily insignificant allies makes the alliance stronger and more capable.� It is an even greater mystery why opinion leaders in the U.S. foreign policy community believe that such allies benefit the security and well being of America.� The opposite is true.� Such NATO members are strategic liabilities, not assets, and many of them bring with them political, diplomatic, and military baggage that could prove very troublesome for the United States". [2]
As you well know,�in order for�the Security of the Alliance to avoid jeopardy, NATO membership requires the achievement of political and military preconditions, which all candidate members have to meet before they become members without discounts.�As a result, the aforementioned statement of the U.S. Representatives is incorrect.� The ability to make a military contribution to the alliance is one of the preconditions to NATO membership however it is only one of the four criteria that the candidate country has to meet before it gains NATO membership. The remaining three preconditions are: Treatment of minority populations in accordance with democratic governance, a functioning democratic political system, and democratic civil-military relations.

https://www.macedonia.info

HEADQUARTERS
149-141th Ave. Whitestone, NY 11357-1730 USA
Tel: 718-747-0488 – Fax: 718-747-0489
President�s Office
Dr. Antonios Papadopoulos
Email: [email protected]
Home: 630-368-1328
Fax: 630-782-9781, Work: 630-782-9780, Beeper: 630-255-0871
�
Firstly, treatment of minorities is a major human rights issue that the FYROM has not met yet. It took a war with the Albanian minority to establish minority rights�via the Ohrid Agreement, which the government of that country keeps obstructing instead of implementing thereby�turning members of minorities into second class citizens in their own country. It is clear that there are increasingly more divisions between ethnic Albanians and the FYROM's Slavic majority. As a result, the two communities do not talk to each other, do not learn each other's language, do not allow their children to play together, learn history differently, and end up intensely resenting each other. The problem�with minority rights is not exclusive to the ethnic Albanians though.� The problem�with minority rights is not exclusive to the ethnic Albanians though. According to the most recent census, only 62.5% of the population of the FYROM consider themselves “Macedonians” while the largest minority of the multiethnic state is the Albanian (25%). Greeks were not allowed to declare their identity in the aforementioned 2006 census.
European Union member Bulgaria has increasingly expressed concern over the rights of Bulgarians and Bulgarian Associations that have been harassed in the FYROM for�promoting their identity. Additionally, we note with deep interest that during the aforementioned census it was not allowed that anyone identified himself/herself as Greek. How large then is the Greek minority in the FYROM? It is uncertain but according to Dr. Michael Chrysanthopoulos in his book, The Macedonia File - The Greek Minority in the FYROM Under Bondage: "An undeniably large�Greek community lived and flourished in the past in the current neighboring country...it still exists under indescribably difficult conditions...frightened by the brutal regime under which they live..." [3].�In the same manner we do wish to cite the first president of the FYROM,�Kiro Gligorov,�when he stated to the Czech newspaper Česky Denik in 1993 that there were officially 100,000 Greeks living�in his country [4].
Secondly, if with a "functioning democratic political system"�one means only elections, then the FYROM has met the requirements. However, in a democratic system everyone has the right to have his/her own beliefs, including their religious beliefs, and to be free to say and write what they think.�Unfortunately, freedom of speech and non-attribution are unknown in the universities of the FYROM, including the�Institute�of National History. It is�because Macedonism is protected under the FYROM Criminal Law Articles #178 and #179, while academic research is limited only to government projects and is under government guidance according to Article 6 of the Law on Scientific Research Activity [5].�Freethinking�is not only against the law in the FYROM -�it is an unknown and unthinkable matter. The present government has closed TV stations and newspapers, and has sent their owners and editors to prison. Even the Church�has not been�left alone.�Archbishop Jovan VI, the legitimate leader of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric under the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate,�is not recognized�by the FYROM State Religious Commission because it�only recognizes the internationally unrecognized schismatic "Macedonian Orthodox Church". Therefore, Archbishop Jovan is in and out of prison, is held under forged manufactured charges and false witnesses, and frequently exiles himself fearing for his life. These are but a few examples of what freedom of speech in the FYROM means. One that follows the FYROM Press is very familiar with these cases.
Finally, we would like to focus on what the FYROM's irredentist official policies mean for Greeks and Greece. How is it possible that the Representatives�who cosigned the letter do not see anything wrong with irredentist maps of Greater "Macedonia" permanently hanging on walls in the classrooms of the FYROM school system? We cannot believe that it has been acceptable to them to see the FYROM Diaspora carry the same maps�while they parade�through the streets of various cities of the world, depicting a unified Macedonia turned into a Slavic state under their Slavic culture and language. Such maps and slogans boldly state: "Solun [Thessaloniki, Greece] will be the Capital of Macedonia again!"� But Thessaloniki is the Capital of the region of Macedonia in Greece. The question is why they say "again?" When exactly Thessaloniki was the Capital of a Slavic dominated Macedonia as they like it to be? That alone states their ignorance of history. How could anyone expect the Greeks to feel when they see statues of Greeks erected in the FYROM, when structures and streets are renamed�to reflect Greek heroes and historical figures but adapted as Slavs, and maps depicting a "united Macedonia" under Skopje's rule? The FYROM's official hostile propaganda has aggravated Greece and has especially angered us Macedonians worldwide, as we see our identity and heritage being usurped. Current irredentist propaganda, threats, and vicious revisionism of Greek history by the FYROM's leadership have especially injured relations between Greeks everywhere and FYROM's Slavic people.
We are dismayed by the fact that in August 2010, two months before the 19 Representatives signed the letter to the President, the "Turkish Coalition of America", and the "United Macedonian Diaspora" (UMD) sponsored a trip to the FYROM for 18 US Representatives promoting NATO membership [6, 7]. We feel that this blatant example of foreign-interested lobby groups�that influence�American politicians by providing trips is nothing short of realpolitik and propaganda.
We would like to highlight the fact that the UMD is associated with Maknews.com, an internet�website serving the FYROM Diaspora�and is based in Toronto, Canada. Maknews.com frequently engages in�virulent racist hate speech against Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians, and anyone who opposes Macedonism.�This is unacceptable and�should raise eyebrows. We are sure that if the 18�or 19�American politicians knew of this, they would not have been so eager to be sponsored by the UMD and support its causes. It is almost surreal that we have to�encounter such�incidents in the 21st Century.��
As American citizens who love this country of ours and who appreciate our ancestry that was a forerunner of our American experiment, we are very concerned with such developments in the Balkans, especially the dangers that a miniscule state is causing to the wider area.�The FYROM needs to truly become a contributor to peace, democracy, stability and security in Southeast Europe first. It needs to solve all its problems with its own minorities, its neighbors, especially with Greece on the name issue, and then join NATO, the EU etc. Domestic instability, irredentist upbringing, and scapegoating of neighbors and minorities�do not contribute to the Regional Stability, the Western Alliance, or the Security of the United States. If the FYROM does not change its attitude, the harmony among NATO members will surely be affected because the FYROM's�problems with all of its neighbors will become NATO's internal problems.�
Sincerely,
Dr. Antonios Papadopoulos Demitris Chatzis
Supreme President Supreme Secretary

Paul Kotrotsios
President of Hellenic American National Council (HANC)
Cc Senator Olympia Snow
Senator Robert Menendez
Hellenic Caucus Representatives
1) http://umdiaspora.org/images/Macedon...LtrtoObama.pdf. Last accessed February 8, 2011.
�2) Balkan Tensions and the Future of NATO –Presentation at the 64th Pan-Macedonian Convention, May 29, 2010
�3) Chrysanthopoulos MS, The Macedonia File, The Greek Minority in the FYROM Under Bondage. (Original Greek by Kadmos Publishing 2006 ISBN: 978-960-6851-04-9). English edition 2010 by The PanMacedonian Studies Center.
�4) Česky Denik, June 10,�1993
�5) Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, Nos.13/96 and 29/02.
�6) http://umdiaspora.org/content/view/493/1/. Last accessed February 8, 2011.
�7) http://www.turkishcoalition.org/TCAS...andTurkey.html. Last accessed February 9, 2011.

[Vangelovski]

Looks like UMD and Lubi will be forced to "moderate" their views (read align with our oppressors) even further...if that is at all possible.

Maybe UMD will write a "carefully worded" letter explaining how they didn't really mean "end" the negotiations

I do like this groups executive titles - "Supreme President" and "Supreme Secretary".

[lavce pelagonski]

I didnt post the link becouse its from the Hellenic Prosfig news.
Its the same stuff they have allways been writing but thye nerve of these people talking about treatment of minorities and human rights in Macedonian when they are the ones who have vialated this basic of rights to its people.
And what is up with them claiming that Gligarov said we have 100,000 Greek living in Macedonia, where are they:
In Ohrid - Leskoec - Svinista - Bitola - Prilep - Resen - Prespa - Gevgelija or maybe in Lazec (lol) if they count the Macedonians from Lerinski Bouf. I have it they all must live in Skopje and the Tetovo region idioti.