Posted on 11/02/2004 1:50:29 PM PST by Destro
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged Macedonia to resolve an 11-year-old dispute with Greece over its name, saying the former Yugoslav republic should respect Greek historic sensitivities. Greece argues that the name Macedonia belongs exclusively to a northern Greek province.
Schroeder, speaking after talks with Macedonian Prime Minister Hari Kostov, said any effort by Macedonia to join the European Union or the NATO military alliance would require Greek approval. A resolution of the name dispute should be found through political dialogue, and Macedonia needs to take account of Greece's "historical sensibilities," Schroeder said.
Kostov thanked the lower house of Germany's parliament for passing a resolution last week that endorsed the use of Macedonia as his country's official name. "That adds further strength to Germany's support of Macedonia over the past two years," he told reporters.
Schroeder stopped short of endorsing the call by parliament, emphasizing that the government -- not parliament -- sets foreign policy.
But the German leader strongly backed Macedonia's efforts to bolster the rights of its ethnic Albanian minority, expressing "great respect" for the reforms. His remarks came ahead of a referendum Sunday in which Macedonia's nationalist opposition is aimed at blocking legislation granting ethnic Albanians greater autonomy at the local level.
Schroeder said stability in Macedonia is important for the entire Balkan region, and a condition for drawing closer to the EU and joining NATO. Macedonia gained independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991. To join the United Nations, it adopted the provisional name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" to sidestep Greek objections over the name.
Greece imposed a yearlong trade embargo in 1994 because of the name dispute. Tensions have eased since then and economic ties have flourished.
Hi Destro...
How about we call it, what it always was...."Southern Serbia"...???
j/k
The historic kingdom of Macedonia was geographically located in an area which straddles both the modern state of Greece and the modern state of Macedonia.
And while the ruling house of Macedonia became Hellenic through intermarriage, the ancient Macedonians were not ethnic Greeks, nor were they ethnic Slavs like modern Macedonians.
Greece should get over itself.
The dispute is pointless anyway. Macedonia is the very next European state that will fall to Islam. It will then be called the Islamic republic of headchoppers or somesuch.
This is an interesting historical twist. In Alexander the Great's time, the Greek city-states steadfastly refused to consider Macedonians to be "Greek". They considered Macedonia to be the land of the rube, hick or country bumpkin. Of course Alexander's military genius kind of settled the question for all time.
Now, in the 21st century we have the modern country of Greece claiming sole ownership of the name "Macedonia". Go figure.
Makes sense to me: having all but forcibly caused the southern Slavs in Greece to become hellenicized and abandon their native language (in the interest of Greek nationalism and "unity"), Greece would like nothing better than those people's kinsmen on the other side of the border to be squelched. (Gee, does this sound anything like the way Turkey and the Kurds are going at it over Kirkuk? Me thinks the Greeks learned a bit too much from their Ottoman masters.)
I suppose it would be too much for the kingdom to become Macedon and the province Macedonia or vice-versa, possibly according to a coin flip.
Both Demosthenes and Isocrates denounced the Macedonians as non-Greeks, they were numbered among the barbarians, they were prohibited from participating in the Olympics for that reason.
The first Macedonian who was permitted to compete in the games was Alexander, and that was because he claimed that the royal line he personally came from was descended from the Greek deities.
Macedonians only became Greeks when a Macedonian conquered Greece and forced the Greeks to accept his countrymen as Greeks, while simultaneously pushing the Macedonians to speak Greek instead of their native tongue.
Pretty freakin' petty if you ask me.
Also, if you want irony - it was the longing of ancient Macedonians to be considered part of the Greeek world while shunned by Athens and others. If these new "Macedonians" are indeed of those Macedonian origins past - are they not disrespecting the wishes of their ancestors by not wishing to be part of Hellenisim their ancestors fought so hard to gain acceptance into? (including belong to an Orthodox church which is schismatic?).
Welcome to the Balkans.
Demosthenes denounced the Macedonians as non-Greeks - being an enemy of Macedonia. Ironic that the Macedonians of today - if they be of that stock of old - accept the insult thrown at them by Demosthenes (it was the equivalent of the N word of today). Isocrates was a supporter of a unified Greece - accepting the Macedonian claim to being Hellenes - and urging a united Greece to fight the Persian threat.
Call it Vardarska Banovina - what it was called before Tito gerrymandered the area.
Personally I think Upper Volta is more fitting.
Are these some of the same wise Europeans whose counsel Kerry wants to seek?
Any more unreasonable than a French-Norseman-Saxon-Angle-Jute population inheriting the name "Britain" simply because they live in the geographic region?
Secondly the state of FYROM used this "Macedonia" at the break up of Yugoslavia to make territorial claims to Northern Greece based on this supposed link to history which scared the already paranoid Greeks to the max.
Since the "country" was a construct of Marshal Tito in the 1950's, it is long overdue.
Considering the history that encompases the provence, been there AND have the t-shirts, the obvious propaganda political effort of the former Yougoslavia should be put to rest with the rest of the cold war.
Despite the city/state system, the peninsula was unified by language and a common culture.
By analogy, Texas may be texas but it is still part of the USA.
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