Macedonia and NATO

[Onur]

Also, this was in the news of Turkish media yesterday. I found English version of it in this web site;

Ivanov in Istanbul: Macedonia to boost economic ties with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

President Gjorge Ivanov, will take part Tuesday in Istanbul at the 3rd Conference of Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) as honorary guest of the country’s chairmanship of the Council of Europe.

The conference will be attended by chiefs of state and government of 20 CICA member states among whom Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich as well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. President Ivanov in his address will present Macedonia's foreign policy characterised by "openness towards all."

Ivanov on the conference sidelines on Monday met Kazakh and Azerbaijani Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev and Ilham Aliyev. Meetings focused on boosting economic cooperation. They mutually concluded that little did they know about each other and opportunities for investments. Contacts at all levels to be strengthened and bilateral ties to be created in legal framework, including economic - technical cooperation, agreements on mutual protection of investment and on double taxation avoidance. Nazarbayev and Aliyev invited Macedonian President to visit Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, MIA reports.

Also interest in investments in agriculture and tourism in Macedonia was expressed at the meetings. Nazarbayev opened the opportunity for presentation of Macedonian companies for industrialisation of his country. They also discussed about energy connection of Macedonia through transit gas line from Azerbaijan to Turkey - Greece - Italy. Nazarbayev and Aliyev said that they respect strategic determination of the Republic of Macedonia for full-fledged membership to NATO and EU. Although the Republic of Macedonia established diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in 1994, the opening of diplomatic - consular offices in two countries is not yet realised.

Ivanov on Wednesday will meet Kuwait's Crown Prince, HH Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

8 June 2010

http://www.idividi.com.mk/English/Ma...439/index.html

[makedonche]

Onur
Many thanks for this, I enjoy reading all of the information you post on many threads!

[Prolet]

Onur, Spolaj Ti

Here is video footage of President Ivanov who highly praises Turkey and it seems like Ivanov wants to push in the south eastern region to establish closer relations with the former USSR countries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Ivanov said that Turkey is prepared to support Macedonia wherever our country is not present and its urging other countries to recognize our name, if only the Americans can take a leaf out of the Turkish book but either way this has been a big success in the Turkish Summit.

I've never seen a Prime Minister and Premier from Macedonia travel so much and be actively involved in pushing for closer ties especially with some countries that we dont even have diplomatic relations established with, the whole point was the renew our relations with some countries aswell as build new ones with others.

http://sitel.com.mk/video/makedonija/ivanov-obnoveni-starite-i-vospostaveni-novi-diplomatski-kontakti

[Onur]

Onur, Spolaj Ti

Here is video footage of President Ivanov who highly praises Turkey and it seems like Ivanov wants to push in the south eastern region to establish closer relations with the former USSR countries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

I read some articles in Turkish media from political experts. They were saying that the Macedonian president asked for a support from our prime minister to be some kind of mediator between Macedonia and Azerbaijan/Kazakhstan for inclusion of Macedonia to the new gas and oil pipeline projects.

According to experts, Turkey gladly accepted this and will encourage Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to meet with Macedonian authorities for new pipeline routes.

[julie]

Its good to see, and wonderful to have the support

[Prolet]

Onur, Tell me a bit more about this pipeline, this kind of makes it scary when you think about it, look at what is happening with BP in USA, the oil is leaking everywhere.

Where exactly is this pipeline going? From Russia and where is the final destination?

[Onur]

Onur, Tell me a bit more about this pipeline, this kind of makes it scary when you think about it, look at what is happening with BP in USA, the oil is leaking everywhere.

Where exactly is this pipeline going? From Russia and where is the final destination?

As you can guess, underground pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas but it`s only a privilege belongs to the friendly neighbors who are close to the energy sources.

If you are not close to these sources, then there is no other way than transport oil/gas with giant ships over the sea. Ofc this is a risk as we saw with the BP`s transport ship in the USA coasts.

AFAIK, Macedonia wanna enter to the pipeline projects which starts from "Azerbaijan - Turkey - Bulgaria - *Macedonia - ...". Also this is not only for getting your own energy. It allows you to earn a commission fee from the next country in line and allows you to control the "Chesme" . Like for this project, Energy will come from Azerbaijan to Turkey and from Turkey to the Europe.

[UMDiaspora.org]

Turkey is one of Macedonia's best friends!

[Makedonetz]

Turkey has alot of history with us macedonians and know we existed prior to greece's claims we are a creation of hellenism.

God bless Turkey & Macedonian relationships for the future.

[Prolet]

Onur, So from Turkey it would either have to go via Bulgaria or Greece to get to Macedonia. I thought the Russians were involved with this project?

As for BP it was a pipeline that burst and the oil is spitting out rapidly, its not a tanker otherwise it wouldnt have spilled so much oil out.

[Makedonetz]

Great if it goes through Greece or Bulgaria this could impose some serious problems? Greeks or Vulgars boycotting our share of oil coming in?

[Risto the Great]

Poll: Macedonians choose Name over EU & NATO

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/16048/2/

Preserving the name is more important than Macedonia's EU, NATO membership, according to the results of a poll, conducted by the Institute for Political Research on July 3-4 that upon a request by the Secretariat for European Affairs.

A total of 66,5 percent of 1,110 respondents chose the name against 26,2% who favored Macedonia's EU, NATO membership. However, the results are rather different in regard to the respondents' ethnic origin. For 82,1 percent of Macedonia the name is more important that the accession to the EU and NATO, while 77,8 of ethnic Albanians favor the country's integration with the European, Euro-Atlantic institutions.

In order to bring the country closer to EU, priority should be given to the economy, say 46,1 percent. A total of 22,3 of respondents considered that special attention should be paid to the judiciary and 15, 1 percent -- to the security. Both Macedonians and Albanians believe that the country's economic development is top priority.

A total of 65,5 percent said they considered to be citizens of Macedonia, 28,5 - of both Macedonia and Europe, while 3,4 percent - of Europe.

I guess this is a good thing.
So almost 2/3rds of the respondents believe they are citizens of Macedonia .... brilliant. The rest should go elsewhere.

The 17.9% of Macedonians who think EU/NATO is more important than the name are morons.

But since the ethnic Albanians vote is more important than the Macedonians vote due to the rules imposed by the EU/NATO/UN, there can be little hope for Macedonia until Macedonians choose to take charge of their own destiny.

[Big Bad Sven]

Thats why i dont want a reffrendum on the name, because its a safe bet that all of the shiptar population will vote for the name to be changed. Consider the small percentage of macedonian morons and SDSM supporters who will be willing to change the name then the prospect of the vote to change the country's name looks even more realistic......

[Prolet]

BBS, I think the Government should strip the illegal citizenships that Branko Crvekovski gave to those in Kosovo aswell as others from Albania. There isnt that many of them in reality, when you have under age and dead people voting in Western Macedonia.

Still with all the vote rigging, with Albanians voting in Struga who live in other countries DUI still managed to get less then 110,000 votes. While the other Albanian parties get much less.

[fyrOM]

You can debate the number of Macedonians who would vote one way or another but the real danger in a referendum is the referendum itself. We have all heard how elections have been won or lost and later the people revolt saying the results cannot be right because no one knows anyone who voted the other way. In the course of the revolt the country goes to the dogs that’s why even a referendum should be avoided if possible although this looks like the likely path down the road if current efforts fail.