NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/news/macedoni/179

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From: [e-mail] (Mike Worden)
Subject: Victim of Cynical Balkan Power Play (Macedonia)
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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 03:41:29 GMT
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                Victim of cynical Balkan power play
        by Chris Popov

   The Republic of Macedonia finds itself in a unique position in
the wake of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

   While the European Community and the United States have accorded
diplomatic recognition to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,
thay have not done so in relation to Macedonia. The reason for this
is the irrational opposition of Greece within the EC because the
Republic of Macedonia dares to call itself by a name that Greece
argues is of Greek origin, and which, Greece says, implies a
territorial threat to Greek territory (Greece's preferred option
is the "Republic of Skopje").

   This is an absurd and paranoid claim that flies in the face of
historical reality and universally accepted principles of
self-identification and self-determination.

   The ancient Macedonians (about 1200 BC) were most certainly not
Greek, even though their court had become Hellenised by 4th Century
BC. The ancient Macedonians possessed a distinct language and
culture of which few traces now remain.

   The ancient Macedonians either brought their name with them,
took it from the land in which they settled (Macedonia), or may
have appropriated it from an ancient Illyrian tribe, the Macedoni.

   The Slav tribes, which arrived in Macedonia from the early Sixth
Century onwards, assimilated and merged with those peoples already
settled there, including remnants of the ancient Macedonians, and
through a process of ethno-cultural development created a distinct
ethnic group -the Macedonians- in much the same way that the Angles
and Saxons eventually became the English. Macedonians have for
centuries used the name of the land in which they live to describe
their unique identity.

   They are not merely "Slavs" (a purely genetic term) or
"Slavomacedonians" as Greek propaganda would have the world believe.

   In 1913, when Macedonia was partitioned between Greece, Bulgaria
and Serbia, ethnic Macedonians formed 40 to 50 per cent of the
population in that 51 per cent of Macedonia which now forms part of
the modern Greek state. They have since been reduced to a minority
of 15 per cent (300,000 to 400,000) by the massive resettlement of
ethnic Greeks from Turkey, the former Soviet Union and Albania.

   But Macedonians today form 67 per cent of the population of the
Republic of Macedonia and 80 per cent in Pirin Macedonia (that 10
per cent of ethnic Macedonia within Bulgaria). In Albania there
are upwards of 130,000 ethnic Macedonians.

   The brief historical overview provides the key to understanding
Greece's vehement opposition to the so-called "monopolisation" of
the name Macedonia. Greek objections to our name are not based on
any realistic fears of territorial loss, but a desire to continue
its repression and denationalisation of its Macedonian minority.
Greece realises that the Macedonians' peaceful struggle for human
rights within Greece would undoubtedly be given added impetus by the
pride attached to an internationally recognised Macedonia.

   In this context, the Greek position on our name represents a
convinient smokescreen behind which to continue the cultural genocide
of Macedonians in pursuit of national security objectives.

   It should be noted that the Republic of Macedonia has been known
as such (until recently the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) since 1944
when it was constituted as a unit of federal Yugoslavia. The name did
not miraculously materialise when Yugoslavia disintegrated.

   On 11 January 1992, the Badinter Report commissioned by the EC
recommended recognition of Macedonia as an independent state and
refuted Greek argument regarding territorial loss. Mr Badinter stated
that "Consequently, the use of the name Macedonia does not imply any
territorial claim in regard to another state..."
   Such an unambiguous endorsment is made even more emphatic by the
fact that Macedonia is a small country of just over two million
inhabitants, with no armed forces to speak of, economically depressed
and would be a weak state in comparative terms.

   The Badinter commission moreover affirmed that Macedonia has a
continued commitment to international arms control, observes existing
internal and external frontiers, adheres to international conventions
on human rights and guarantees to protect the rights of ethnic
minorities, thus giving the lie to recent Greek attempts to stall
recognition by focusing on the alleged oppression of the Albanian
minority (21 percent of the population).

   Greece has allied with Serbia in conducting psychological and
economic warfare. The economic blockades imposed by Greece and Serbia
have severely debilitated Macedonia's economy, leading to a plummeting
standard of living. The goal is to strangle Macedonia economically,
thus forcing it to give up its struggle for independence and re-enter
the newly formed, Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. Greece would then find
the old order, with which it had grown comfortable, re-established.

   Alternatively, such economic strangulation could lead to severe food
riots providing Serbia with a pretext to invade in order to enforce
"law and order" to its south and to "defend" the allegedly oppressed
40,000-strong Serbian minority.

   Either way Macedonia's independence is severely threatened unless
the EC and the US, and indeed Australia, accord to quick diplomatic
recognition and substantial economic aid.

   However, to date the EC has indulged the tempe tantrums of Greece
in the interests of European unity and the desire to maintain Greek
cooperation in forging economic and political integration. In addition,
the EC wishes to maintain in power the pro-EC conservative Government
of Mitsotakis, which has a majority of one.
   Whatever the reasons, EC procrastination is contributing to creation
of another tragedy in Macedonia in a region already raveged by the
terrors of war.

   Dr Chris Popov is secretary of the Macedonian Human Rights Committee
of Melbourne and Victoria.

   Printed with another article by V. Maghinas in "The Age" of 26th of May,
1992, under Features, Macedonia - more than a name.