Macedonia and NATO

[Frank]

Change the name of your Country and then your very name first
Germany whilst you recognise the ethnic "Sorbs"

[George S.]

the path to nato & eu needs to be with no conditions like the name issue.Greece needs to learn yo accept macedonia as it is.Why should macedonia needs to compromise?

[Dimko-piperkata]

well, germany has itself bigger problems @home so that they give a shit about our strife with the greece.

[Bratot]

This remind me of Bitove case.

[Soldier of Macedon]

I have heard about Macedonia’s readiness to find compromise

What is the German talking about? What 'compromise' has he heard about? Is this your idea of support, Dimko?

[Dimko-piperkata]

Germany supports Macedonia on its path to NATO

13:42 GMT, October 27, 2010

Germany supported Macedonia on its pat to NATO as we believe that many important steps have been made in that respect. We are interested in finding a compromise to the name issue, as it is somewhat related to the issue of the overall stability of the Balkans, stated the Minister if Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany, Karl Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, after yesterday's first official visit in Berlin with the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia, Zoran Konjanovski, held several weeks prior to the NATO summit in Lisbon.

"I have heard about Macedonia’s readiness to find compromise, let us hope that the other side will demonstrated the same readiness," said Guttenberg, underlining that if NATO continues the enlargement with another member that has already completed its homework, that would be a contribution to stability of the region.

Even through Macedonia is on a good path, this path cannot be defined by a single country, the Alliance, constituted of a great number of member countries makes the decision, which is the strength of NATO. Still, Guttenberg asserted that Macedonia has been participation in joint missions abroad for years, and the standing Minister Konjanovski, as he said, is a man who keeps his word and maintains the required criteria.

According to Minister Konjanovski, all the reforms that Macedonia has conducted have made the country ready to become a full-fledged member of NATO even today.

"The same as the Republic of Macedonia is asking for a fair attitude with respect to the NATO membership, we should continue with our fair attitude," underlined the Macedonian Minister or Defence, emphasizing that full-fledged membership in the Alliance is a priority of the Government and the citizens.

As part of the two-day visit of Berlin, Konjanovski had a meeting with the Chair of the German Bundestag Defence Committee, Suzanne Kastner.

On the meetings of the Macedonian delegation, led by Minister Konjanovski, both ministers reaffirmed the friendly and bilateral relations between the two countries, especially the high level of cooperation in the defence issues segment. In that respect, around 140 members of the ARM have been trained in the German Army, and we are preparing for a join engagement as part of the EU BG in the second half of 2012.

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/19136/

why supporting ?
in a few month greece will not exist anymore...we dont need any help anymore...time will fix the problems in our favour

[Prolet]

Risto, Sam Vaknin made a good point about the EU, he said its good for the long term of our country however it wouldnt give us anything more once we join and in return we're gonna have to start paying for what we are already recieving. He also said that once we're in the EU the Albanians wont be able to smuggle anymore and that they dont want to see law and order in place.

[Risto the Great]

"Maybe one day the EU will realize that Macedonia, due to its geostrategic position, is quite important for them and vice versa. And maybe they 'will beg' to see you as member, under the constitutional name", underlines Kotschy.

I am quite sure of this.
What concerns me is how fast Macedonia will accept the membership, no matter how much of an attack on its sovereignty it must endure.

[Frank]

And we are their hostages

[Prolet]

Austrian Ambassador: Greece Violates International Law

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

It is the sovereign right of every state to choose its own name in line with international law. No country has the right to interfere or ask another sovereign state to use a certain name or change the existing one. Therefore, Macedonia's stance to preserve its name is fully supported by international law, says Harald Kotschy, former Austrian ambassador to Macedonia and expert on Balkan affairs in an interview at a NTV station program.

According to him, Greece clearly violates international law and all principles of good neighborly relations by blocking Macedonia's NATO and EU integration.

"I believe Greek policy towards Macedonia can be compared, in a way, with blackmail", says Kotschy.

He claims the Macedonian diplomacy did not use the possibility to convince other member-states to stop supporting Greece in the name row at the time when everyone was shocked and angry from Greece's cheating over the Euro.

Pertaining to the EU accession, Kotschy says all positive and negative aspects should be taken into account when decision day comes, adding Macedonia should not haste in this regard.

"Maybe one day the EU will realize that Macedonia, due to its geostrategic position, is quite important for them and vice versa. And maybe they 'will beg' to see you as member, under the constitutional name", underlines Kotschy.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/16716/1/

[fyrOM]

AMERICAN INSTITUTE AND tells the U.S. administration

Press Macedonia to join NATO

http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=CD500EFA956B2F4A90F4659AB0B719E3

United States to increase pressure and support for Macedonia's entry into NATO at the upcoming summit, which in November will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. This proposal, referred to the administration of President Barack Obama, came through the analysis of the American Institute of Policy "Heritedzh Foundation.
The authors of the analysis, analysts Sally McNamara and Morgan Roach wrote that U.S. support for Macedonia is not enough, and offer a combined pressure from Europe and the U.S. over Greece.
"The administration will have to use its diplomatic channels in Europe, in coordination with U.S. officials in Athens, to increase international pressure on Greece urgent issue to be resolved. Considerable diplomatic pressure would also have to make Europe the Athens, particularly from France and Germany and the United States should call on Berlin and Paris this issue a priority at the summit, "the analysis of Heritedzh Foundation.
According to this analysis, Macedonia has long deserve a place in NATO as it met the criteria for it, and the entrance would give in accordance with the Interim Accord between Macedonia and Greece in 1995, but also to continue negotiations on the name, within the United Nations.

[fyrOM]

look like it could be on

Ivanov: Macedonia in NATO under reference in accordance with the Interim Agreement

http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=A6B52761C004E348B1F658AD47B6E307

Macedonia has achieved all its obligations and deserves membership in NATO, and it made all know and analysts in the state, "President George Ivanov, responding to a question how realistic the initiative of the American Foundation" Heritage ", the administration of President Barack Obama and countries - NATO to pressure Greece to Macedonia to join the alliance at a summit in Lisbon.

[George S.]

I agree with RTG that the macedonians are just there to run with the status quo.They suffer from an inferiority complex.They hope for an easy solution to membership with nato & eu.Under yugoslavia they just went along willingly & it's true didn't want the disintergration
to happen as they were quite happy to just plod along.

[Mikail]

I don't see Macedonia changing it's name. This conversation keeps going round in circles for years now and the name is still not changed.

We have got support from Slovenia, Croatia, Cechs, Slovaks, Turks, Poland.........

Recently a meeting was held with representative ministers from Balkan region. Greece did not attend. Macedonia was discussed and all agreed this "name issue" was dead. They all voted for Macedonia to be in EU and stated will formally vote that way.

Let's get pro-active folks. Stop being so pessimistic.

[Big Bad Sven]

BBS, Believe it or not we broke away from Yugoslavia one month before the Croatians did, their independence day was 9 days ago. In order to keep somebody quiet you need to keep them happy, give them a job,decent income,travel etc Keep in mind that we were much better situated then Bulgarians,Albanians,Polish,Eastern Europe they couldnt travel anywhere. Now we are living in reality and that we have to look after ourselves not rely on others to look after us, its difficult but at least we are a sovereign country.

Its going to take more years for us to settle in and rebuild our economy, but we are on the right track. There is still much more to be done dont get me wrong, but we have to be grateful too, it could have been alot worse.

Apparently in June 1991 Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. Macedonia declared independence in January 1992. According to this timetable:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yugotimeline1.html

"Slovenia and then Croatia were the first to break away, but only at the cost of renewed conflict with Serbia."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4997380.stm

Like i said Slovenia and Croatia were the first to leave Yugoslavia, then in 1992 Macedonia and then Bosnia left. Remember in the early days a lot of the commie macedonian and Bosnian politicians still wanted to stay in a lose federation with Serbia even though Slovenia and Croatia left Yugoslavia.