U.S. Official Losing Temper, Supports ”Macedonian” Ethnicity and Language

Matthew Nimetz to visit Athens and Skopje. FYROM holds early elections June 1st
Washington, D.C.- Matthew Nimetz, the UN Secretary General’s mediator, will be visiting Skopje (in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – FYROM) on Thursday and on the next day he will be in Athens to reactivate the process regarding the issue of the neighbouring country’s name.

The development was announced by the UN’s Secretariat, stressing that the talks will be continued afterwards, possibly in New York.

Nimetzʼs is visiting the two capitals despite the decision of FYROM to dissolve the parliament and call an early election for June 1. The government coalition, led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, had backed a motion to dissolve parliament, effectively bringing down the government less than two years since it took office.

“Macedonia needs a new parliament, we need a new mandate for faster reforms and to achieve the standards for a better life,” Gruevski said in a televised address to the nation.

Parliament speaker Ljubisa Georgijevski said the electionwould be held on June 1.

The fall of the government became certain after this month’s NATO summit in Bucharest. Greece blocked an invitation for FYROM to join the alliance in a dispute over the country’s name.

“With the support of the United States we will continue our efforts to become members of NATO,” Gruevski said.

Anti-Greek feelings are running high and some analysts say Gruevski’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party hopes to capitalise on these sentiments to secure a stronger four-year mandate.

Others fear the deadlock with Greece, high unemployment and lack of economic development could feed frustration among the 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority.

President Branko Crvenkovski and his party, the opposition Social Democrats, opposed an early election because they said it would keep FYROM in a damaging limbo.

Crvenkovski and the leading parties of Skopje promised to continue negotiations.

DANIEL FRIED
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, commenting on the outcome of last week’s NATO summit said, during a briefing of foreign correspondents, that one of the “difficult” issues was that of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), adding however that there was a way to proceed to a solution to the land-locked republic’s name and the U.S supported ongoing efforts for resolving the issue.

Replying to a question by a Greek reporter on “so-called language and ethnic entity,” Fried said that “the ‘Macedonian’ language and the ‘Macedonian’ people exist, they are not so-called.”

He added that in this context, the language is being taught at the State Department’s School of Diplomats and mentioned, as an example, that the Bosnian language has also been added, while the language of Montenegro might also be added.
Speaking as a former historian, Fried said, these are codified through historical procedures.

“This, however, is not related to the historic region of Macedonia which is different from the present country of ‘Macedonia’. The government of Skopje, as Greece calls it, or of ‘Macedonia’, as we Americans call it, is not raising claims,” he said.

He noted that “peoples ultimately determine themselves” and added that he himself “is not a negotiator, nor an athropologist to speak of ethnic entity issues.”

Having replied to other questions as well, he concluded by describing Greece as “an ally and a good friend”.

Focusing on the issue of FYROM being extended an invitation for NATO accession, Fried said “of course, the position of the United States is well known. We wanted an invitation to ‘Macedonia’, either based on the Nimetz proposal or as FYROM. Greece didn’t accept that. However Greece has made clear that it wants a solution to the name issue. And the ‘Macedonian’ government has made clear that it wants a solution to the name issue. Both sides want to move ahead. And this became clear during the course of the discussions we had, and President Bush had, with the ‘Macedonian’ leaders. And it became clear in the course of conversations that Secretary Rice and I had with the Greek foreign minister. It’s clear that both governments don’t want to get into a cycle of mutual recrimination. And I think that the press in Skopje reflects this. If you see, it is — the ‘Macedonians’ do want to move forward. They’re obviously disappointed, but I applaud their constructive approach. And frankly I’m quite heartened that the Greek government seems ready to engage intensely. And it’s our intention to try. We’re not going to give up. We support the Nimetz process. Nimetz — well, I can’t speak for him, but I believe he is ready to engage, certainly not throw in the towel. We want to move ahead.”

Greece and FYROM have been engaged in UN-sponsored talks under UN mediator Matthew Nimetz for the finding of a mutually acceptable solution to the former Yugoslav republic’s “name issue”.

In a later clarification, State Department spokesman Tom Casey stated that “the United States does not confer official recognition on either language or ethnicity and any discussion of Macedonian as a language or ethnicity should have no bearing on the resolution between Greece and Macedonia of the name issue. We continue to urge both sides to remain engaged in the UN process and keep working toward a mutually agreed solution as soon as possible.”

ATHENSʼ REACTIONS
Greece on Tuesday again reiterated its standing position over the nagging FYROM “name issue”, days after Athens followed through on its “no solution, no invitation” stance vis-à-vis the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) aspiration to join NATO, and a day after the latest eyebrow-raising statements by a top US State Department official regarding the landlocked one-time Yugoslav republic.

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis was amongst first Greek officials queried on the statements by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Dan Fried — who responded to press questions over the issues of “ethnicity” and “language” in FYROM a day earlier — with the Greek FM merely noting that they (Fried’s comments) “are not helpful”.

Meanwhile, on her part, Bakoyannis in Athens reminded that the “the subject of negotiations is specific, and concerns the finding a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue … “We will live together with the neighbouring country, we are in favour of its stability and prosperity, and we must look to the future … We are ready for a reopening of negotiations under UN special representative Matthew Nimetz,” the Greek FM said in televised comments.

In a later statement, a Greek foreign ministry spokesman noted that negotiations over the FYROM “name have specific subject and target, namely, “to reach a mutually acceptable solution, that will be cohesive, practical and enforceable and does not have winners or losers.”

In response to US Assistant Secretary of State Fried’s more intricate statements from a day earlier, foreign ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos tersely said that “we will not be carried away into discussions that could side-track negotiations from their actual objective.”

“We will keep trying to reach our goal, which is none other than a composite name with a geographical determinant that will be applied in all cases,” Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis reiterated on Saturday, in reference to the FYROM “name issue”, this time in front of ruling New Democracy’s central committee members.

“We are absolutely sincere when we say that we will gladly welcome our neighbours into Euro-Atlantic institutions when a mutually acceptable solution is found,” she said, while once again echoing Athens’ standing position of avoiding a compromise that will leave “winners and losers” or jeopardize, even in the slightest, security and stability in the region.

She also used Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ repeated statement towards FYROM to stop looking back to the past and end, but to instead consider Greece’s overtures of friendship.

Referring to the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Bakoyannis underlined that Greece’s position is now the Alliance’s official position for FYROM’s accession.

Finally, she said Athens had successfully carried out an international campaign in order to better brief foreign government and the wider public opinion on this often obscure, for third parties, issues, underlining that these efforts are instrumental in overcoming the other side’s intransigence.