Image by Emiliantha via FlickrThe following article is a letter to US Vice-President Joe Biden, by the Pan-Macedonian Association in the US. I cannot begin to express the thrill I felt when reading it. I am so proud that the American Hellenic Lobby is finally taking more aggressive action on the issue of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). But then again, I never lost faith in the Greek Omogeneia... for I know deep in my gut, that they are ten times more Greek, than the average Greek in Greece. Their lobbying is imperative on the name issue.
The letter, dated March 22, 2011, regards FYROM Prime Minister Gruevski's visit to the US last October while it also refers to a letter issued in the same period by 19 representatives that urge US President Obama to push FYROM's alliance in NATO. The Pan-Macedonian Association, which is one of the largest Greek associations in the US notes the incapability of FYROM's request to join NATO, since it has yet to achieve political and military preconditions which all candidate members need to have in order to join NATO, while it also points out to the ongoing hostile propaganda that this country continues to do against Greece and finally it also slams the FYROM lobby in North America.
Bravo to the Pan-Macedonian Association in the US. Their voices are medicine to the ears of Hellenes everywhere. The falsehoods and untruths surrounding the issue of FYROM have to be pointed out for all to realize, and allow the real Macedonians, who are Greek, to step forward!
Dear Mr. Vice-President, Dear Madam Secretary of State,
The letter, dated March 22, 2011, regards FYROM Prime Minister Gruevski's visit to the US last October while it also refers to a letter issued in the same period by 19 representatives that urge US President Obama to push FYROM's alliance in NATO. The Pan-Macedonian Association, which is one of the largest Greek associations in the US notes the incapability of FYROM's request to join NATO, since it has yet to achieve political and military preconditions which all candidate members need to have in order to join NATO, while it also points out to the ongoing hostile propaganda that this country continues to do against Greece and finally it also slams the FYROM lobby in North America.
Bravo to the Pan-Macedonian Association in the US. Their voices are medicine to the ears of Hellenes everywhere. The falsehoods and untruths surrounding the issue of FYROM have to be pointed out for all to realize, and allow the real Macedonians, who are Greek, to step forward!
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.
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.”
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 US 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”.
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 US 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”.
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 preconditions that the candidate country has to meet before it gains NATO membership. The remaining preconditions are: Treatment of minority populations in accordance with democratic governance, a functioning democratic political system, and democratic civil-military relations.
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.
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%).
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.
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%).
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 difficultconditions…frightened by the brutal regime under which they live…”
In the same manner we do wish to cite the first president of the FYROM, Kiro Gligorov, when he stated to the Czech newspaper Cesky Denik in 1993 that there were officially 100,000 Greeks living in his country.
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.
Freethinking is not only against the law in the FYROM – it is an unknown and unthinkable matter.
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 was Thessaloniki 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.
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. 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.
Signed
Pan-Macedonian Association USA,
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