Free Republic

Tensions peaked at Greece’s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the weekend after the FYROM army started building a border fence to keep out would-be migrants. FYROM border guards were photographed by foreign news agencies as they erected a 2.5-meter-high fence along the Greek border on Saturday. A FYROM army source quoted by Agence France-Presse said the crossing from Greece to FYROM would remain open and that the fence was aimed at ensuring migrants did not try to slip across at other spots. FYROM authorities had indicated in recent weeks that they might build a fence to...

An error made too frequently is the misuse of the name, "Macedonia." Rather than referring to The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) by its formal name, too many journalists consistently report on events in FYROM as though "Macedonia" were its official name. I, myself, have been guilty of this by not clarifying to whose "Macedonia" I was referring when I wrote about wayward "smart" bombs hitting the wrong targets in my "Open Letter to Lieutenant General Michael Short," where I stated, "Besides hitting the Chinese Embassy, your not-so-smart bombs damaged the embassies of Italy, Switzerland, Pakistan, India, Libya, and...

What's in a Name? A challenge for regonal stability *Why is the Maredonian question so delicate and complex? The term "Macedonia" is not exclusively related to a state Rather, it has always been used to delineate a wider geographical area, approxmdy 51% of which is part of Greece, 37% is in the Former Yugoslav Republic of what's Macedonia, 11% in Bulgana and 1% in Albania. The choice of one state alone to monopolize the name "Macedonia" - the largest part of which lies outside its borders - neither depicts geographical and political reality, nor contributes to stability in the Balkans....

Greece Blocks Macedonia's NATO Bid Greece successfully blocked Macedonia's NATO bid03 April 2008 Bucharest _ Macedonia will only receive an invitation to join NATO once the ‘name’ row with Greece is resolved. "We regret that we were not able to reach consensus to invite Macedonia to join alliance," United States President George Bush said. " The name issue needs to be resolved quickly so Macedonia can be invited to NATO as soon as possible. NATO looks forward to the day that Macedonia takes its place among members of alliance," he added. “We encourage negotiations to resume without delay and expect...

Greek fury over swastika poster Greece has warned Macedonia that its hopes of joining Nato could be damaged by a poster which has appeared in the Macedonian capital Skopje. The poster, advertising a private art exhibition, features the Greek flag with the cross replaced by a swastika. Greece has already threatened to veto Macedonia's Nato bid if a dispute about the name "Macedonia" is not resolved. The Macedonian government expressed regret over the poster, after Greece made an official diplomatic complaint. The Greek ambassador to Washington, Alexandros Mallias, complained about the poster in a letter to President George Bush, Secretary...

29 September 2007, Saturday Three young men, ethnic Albanians, have been shot dead late on Friday on a busy boulevard in Skopje, the Bulgarian national radio reported. One of the victims died on the spot, while the other two were taken to the city hospital but the doctors could do nothing to save them. The men are aged between 20 and 30. There were no immediate reports about the suspected killer. The shootout comes just days after Macedonian police clashed with supporters of an ethnic Albanian party outside parliament as rival MPs exchanged blows inside the building over electoral reforms....

Skopje /01/08/ 14:41 Macedonian police have confirmed reports of gunshots directed toward the police station located in the vicinity of the Macedonia-Kosovo border as well as handgrenades exploding not far from the station. Nobody was injured in the incident that took place Tuesday at about 20:45 hrs, when unidentified persons opened gunfire toward the police station in the village of Goshince. Several bullets ended up in the station's premises. Concurrently, several handgrenade detonations had occurred at about 50-100 meters distance. Police revealed no further details.

S/E Europe Entity’s independence could stir Albanian separatists in FYROM, analysts say SKOPJE - Granting Kosovo independence from Serbia could stir up separatist movements among ethnic Albanian minorities in other parts of the Balkans, analysts said ahead of the start of talks on the province’s future status. Some leaders in the fragile region, where ethnic tensions have led to a series of wars since 1991, fear another change of borders could provoke separatist demands by ethnic Albanian minorities in countries surrounding Kosovo. “All Kosovo politicians, including President Ibrahim Rugova, should sign a declaration that would exclude any possible unification of...

As the European Union struggles to bring multicultural prosperity to the Balkan region of Europe, "the task is proving more elusive than ever," says American legal rights lawyer, Michael Rollins. One reason for the difficulty, says Rollins, is the E.U. policy of preferential avoidance of EU member countries regarding civil and human rights abuses. Rollins says matters between Greece and its neighboring country, The Republic of Macedonia, serve as a good example of how the European Union's policy of benign neglect by its member states has an effect on the socio-economics, trade imbalance, and other limitations to investments in the...

In the negotiations that brought Macedonia’s 2001 war to an end, Albanian militants were amnestied and took up new jobs in the state administration - some even in the ministry of defense. With the farcical situation now unfolding in Kondovo, you have the lunacy of the same people who benefited in such a way going AWOL from their jobs, and now showing up in black uniforms in the hills and demanding to be amnestied again. Yes indeed, the Balkans is truly an exercise in pointless, futile cyclic idiocy. But the militant demands – if not met, the gunmen promise to...

December 6, 2004 U.N.-APPROVED TERRORIST TO RUN KOSOVOby Srdja Trifkovic Imagine a "multi-ethnic" Palestine, administered by the United Nations, in which a Hamas leader notorious for terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians is certified as the Authority's "democratically" elected chief executive. Imagine Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being approved by a future UN governor as Iraq's prime minister. Imagine that in Kosovo a KLA murderer . . . but then in Kosovo you don't have to imagine anything. On December 3 the provincial parliament in Pristina voted to elect Ramush Haradinaj as prime minister. This 36-year-old former commander of the "Kosovo Liberation...

Kosovo is in the news again, this time with the election of the new prime minister, nationalist and former guerilla fighter Ramush Haradinaj. In a power-sharing agreement with the Democratic League of Kosovo led by Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, Haradinaj is the new leader of the government while Rugova carries on as president of the Serbian province. The new PM brings some troubling baggage to the position, however. Most recently, he has been questioned, twice, by Carla del Ponte the head of the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. While he is innocent until indicted and proven guilty, the questioning,...

"Upper Macedonia" Suggested for State Name Politics: 11 November 2004, Thursday. The leader of Macedonia's Democratic Alternative Party Vassil Tupurkovski suggested the name Upper Macedonia to replace Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He was quoted saying by MPA news agency that his country should adopt a name that would contribute to the good cooperation between Greece and Macedonia. Macedonia needs a partner in the face of Greece, Tupurkovski stated, on the small Balkan state's path toward the European Union. He ruled out the direct role of the US in the conflict over Macedonia's official name, after Bush's administration officially recognised...

A referendum called by opposition parties in Macedonia to revoke critical, EU-backed decentralisation legislation failed Sunday due to low voter turnout. Sunday's (7 November) referendum on Macedonia's new decentralisation laws failed due to insufficient turnout. [Tomislav Georgiev] A referendum seeking to block decentralisation reforms in Macedonia failed Sunday (7 November) due to low turnout. According to provisional results announced by the State Election Commission, only 436,202 (26.24 per cent) out of 1,709,536 eligible voters went to the polls. Around 855,000 voters needed to cast ballots for the referendum to be successful. The decentralisation legislation is a critical final element of...

Tapes May Unlock Macedonia Crash Mystery Fri Feb 27, 2004 12:42 PM ET By Nedim Dervisbegovic ROTIMLJA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Instrument and cockpit voice recordings from the plane in which Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski died are being examined to determine the cause of the mystery crash, officials said on Friday. The accident in the mountains of southern Bosnia on Thursday was at first attributed to aircraft failure, but Macedonian officials said there were signs other factors were involved. They gave no further details. "They've found two black boxes and those black boxes were taken away by the (Bosnian) civil aviation...

<p>Greece, which views with deep suspicion the use of the name Macedonia by its northern neighbor, officially known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, appeared doubly riled yesterday when the name cropped up in an official international document it also views with disfavor.</p>

This article was published by F18News on: 13 January 2004 MACEDONIA: Serbian Orthodox Archbishop arrested again By Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service Serbian Orthodox Archbishop Jovan has again been arrested by Macdonian police, along with four monks, seven nuns, and a Bulgarian theology student from Bulgaria currently studying in Greece, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The Archbishop and the monks and nuns have been held in jail, and the theology student has been deported and banned for two years from entering Macedonia. The latest arrests took place when police interrupted a church service, and appears to...

Kosovo's terrorists continue to wage war In the midst of conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Mid dle East, I cannot help but wonder: Whatever happened to the Balkans? We Americans spent more than a decade listening to and watching CNN and BBC clips of the war-torn region and the countless war crimes that had taken place at the hands of various ethnic groups. What about Kosovo? A 78-day bombing campaign was undertaken to "liberate Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population" from the hands of "terror-invoking Serbs." Why was there no media follow- up of the accomplishments of peace-loving and newly liberated...

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush (news - web sites) announced agreements with another four countries to exempt Americans from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which it staunchly opposes. The 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court has been ratified by 90 countries, but the court faces opposition from the United States. Bush administration officials fear that Americans, particularly soldiers abroad, could fall victim to politically motivated prosecutions. The Bush administration has signed bilateral treaties with more than three dozen countries that have agreed not to hand over American citizens to the court. The latest, according to a statement...