Macedonia, was officially recognised by the U.S. today...much to the displeasure of age-old antagonist Greece...who has blocked Macedonian recognition for a decade.
GA Resolution 47/225 (1993)28 admitted Macedonia to UN membership subject to the acceptance of the following points: (i) Macedonia was to be referred to by the provisional name ‘the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ for all purposes within the United Nations, and (ii) it was to negotiate with Greece over its name.
Since modern Macedonians claim Bulgarian ancestry, not Greek, this is a very big deal in the Balkans and pokes the EU and UN squarely in the eye.
Row as U.S. 'recognizes Macedonia'Greece 'summons U.S. ambassador'
The United States has recognized the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia as "Macedonia," the name strongly disputed by Greece for the past 13 years, a senior Macedonian government official said.
"Yes they have recognized Macedonia by its constitutional name," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
In Athens, Greece's Foreign Minister said it had urgently called in the U.S. ambassador Thursday to explain reports that Washington plans to recognize Greece's northern neighbor with the disputed name.Greece has opposed the adoption of the name since the republic won independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Until now it had the support of all NATO allies, except Turkey, for refusing recognition.
Greece's Foreign Minister said in a statement that Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis has also abruptly cancelled a visit to a European Council meeting in Brussels over the issue.
"There actually is this information and the Minister has cancelled his trip to Brussels for the European Council," the statement said.
Macedonia is also the name of Greece's northern province, birthplace of Alexander the Great. The two neighbors have been involved in U.N.-led talks for an acceptable name for both sides for over a decade.
Macedonia is a member of the U.S.-led military alliance in Iraq.
I suspect we will see more of this sort of thing, small, but meaningful rewards, as Bush shores up our alliances.
Posted by feste at November 4, 2004 03:35 PM | TrackBack
Moral values? Yeah.
I thought about why Kerry went down,
and tried to remember what really
hit me in the gut. Here's what made
me want to throw up: the movie stars
helping him. The rest of the crap --
news media bias, fake hunting, flip-
flopping -- only affected my brain.
But Affleck, Cher, The Boss, et al.,
was what really made me sick!
:)
Posted by: jaspar at November 4, 2004 06:55 PMI served in the area and on getting back did some study of the issue in grad school.
this is no small issue. fact is it is the the United States which started this problem. We are the ones who told Greece that use of the term macedonia was a threat against Greece. It is in scores of diplomatic calbes etc. during the civil war in Greece which was a proxy hot war during the cold war, Washington encourgaged the view that Yugolslavia's naming of its Macedonia province was a terriotorial claim on Greece.
There are not really any good analogies to this situation, Macedonia historically has been a region which has always been defined as being in what is now Greece, the new "Macedonia", and Bulgaria. this predates any Macedonian ethnicity created by Tito.
For decades every school child in Yugoslavia Macedonia was told that their country legitimately included huge chunks of Greece. when I was there I saw maps which showed this!
The Greeks did react sharply and clumsily 13 years ago, but during this time the US never encouraged Skopje to compromise.
Yes certain parts of this issue are sentimental and should be ignored, but a good deal of the Greek position is based on real concerns over stability. Greece has actually been very good to "Macedonia" with large aid packages, they are the biggest investor etc., all helping stabalize their neighbor. this is liable to have them close the borders, block EU aid, start booting otu the huge number of workers (due to not accepting their passports) etc.
this is hardly a poke in the eye of the EU or the UN. It is a very dumb decision by the State Department. It certainly hurts "macedonia" more than it helps!
Right now Greece has a a pro-US conservative government, we just screwed them pretty bad.
Posted by: kyle at November 5, 2004 07:14 AM