Skopje, July – Kiro Gligorov, President of the as yet unrecognized former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, says he hopes the European Community and the US will, reverse their recent decision not to grant recognition unless this small Balkan state meets Greek demand to drop the word ‘Macedonia’ from its name.
“Despite the EC desicion in Lisbon,” Mr Gligorov said in an exclusive interview, “we believe both the Community and the United States want a final settlement which also satisfies Macedonia, and we know the Community has changed its mind in the past, for example, on Yugoslavia, many times, but if the EC’s decision on the name is final, then it has sealed the fate of a nation. That is unreasonable, unprecedented, and contrary to all its declarations and principles.
“Our history, literature, poetry, school books, even our constitution -all are connected with the name Macedonia and Macedonians,” President Gligorov had written in a 13 June letter to the EC, adding that to attempt to question the existence of a Macedonian nation and state only served the territorial ambitions of its neighbors.
“The change of the name will undoubtedly provoke revival of all these claims and will bring violence and expansion of the war over this part of the Balkans,” Mr Gligorov added, in reference to the wars of neighboring Serbia with Croatia and Bosnia.
At the last EC summit conference, which took place in Lisbon on 28 June, the EC leaders unanimously agreed to recognize the new state and to provide it with all necessary guarantees of its borders, but only once it chooses a name which does not include the word ‘Macedonia’ – a name Greece sees as exclusively its own from a historic point of view and its use by others as implying territorial ambitions on Northern Greece. The US government followed suit, but indicated it still wanted a solution which also satisfied Skopje.
In unanimous parliamentary vote held in Skopje, however, all political parties of Yugo-Macedonia rejected the ruling. This compels the EC and the US to decide whether to ignore these reactions and withhold recognition until Skopje capitulates, or to renew diplomatic efforts for a compromise name.
President Gligorov says he suspects the EC’s decision was the result of a reported ‘package deal’ between Greece and its Western allies. Echoing the socialist opposition in Greece, he said he believes Athens, in exchange for EC support on the name issue, would agree to lift its objections to limited Community financial aid to Turkey, to limit its close ties with Serbia and to back all Western pressure on the Milosevic regime, as well as to proceed rapidly with the ratification of the Maastricht agreements on European unification.
Dismissing these allegations, Prime Minister Mitsotakis said that the EC’s decision was “final” and unalterable, and in repeated statements called on Skopje to accept that decision and to proceed with a “new era of friendship and widespread cooperation with Greece”. In meetings with EC leaders and President Bush, he also called on them to convince Mr Gligorov to accept the decision, in return for generous support from Greece and the EC. He said they assured him they would do so.
President Gligorov and his parliamentary political parties so far are resisting the pressure, yet appear willing to consider a compromise. The former conceded that it would not be easy to obtain a change in the EC’s decision. Depending on what the EC proposed in return, he said he was willing to discuss using ‘Republic of Macedonia’ at home and a different name abroad, or a ‘mixed name’ that included the word Macedonia but differentiated the Republic from Greek Macedonia.
Western governments are trying to convince Skopje to accept a dual name, a formula long applied to many countries, such as Greece (Hellas), Albania (Shqiperia), Finland (Suomi).
Yet President Gligorov stressed that he was bound by his Parliament’s insistence on maintaining the name “Macedonia”. “We can discuss all reasonable ideas,” he said. “What we can’t accept is dictation of our name from foreign powers. Our dignity is at stake. If our name is defaced, then our nation will be defaced. Then the state could disintegrate. That would facilitate the ambitions of our neighbors, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, and might provoke yet another terrible war in the Balkans.”
This was in admission that a half-dozen nationalities make up this fragile state and Albanians, above all, who comprise one-third of the population. Skopje fears the Republic would break up and be absorbed by its neighbors if it lost its Macedonian common denominator.
The President’s apparent difficulty in pursuing a compromise policy is reflected not only by the Parliamentary decision but by the hardline stand of other leading officials. Stojan Andov, the President of Parliament, told me that there is ‘nothing’ to negotiate on the question of the name, even if it means denial of international recognition and subsequent economic ruin.
“No politician”, he said, “from whatever party in Macedonia could afford to reveal that he was even considering discur.ing a name modification, for he and his party would be seen as traitors and would be ruined politically.
“We will not stop pursuing recognition under the name of Macedonia,” he added. “If we don’t achieve it tomorrow, then in one year, two years, five years. Somehow, we will survive.”
On the other hand, there are the realists. Foreign Undersecretary Aleksandr Dimitrov said some politicians feel that the latest EC and American decision necessitated the negotiation of a compromise. “We might have to discuss a package deal with the EC, just as Greece did,” he said. “It all depends on how serious their offer is.”
Similarly, Ismaili Ibrahimi, the Vice-President of the Albanian Community’s Party, the largest in this country in terms of votes, appears somewhat more flexible on the name. “We could accept a name modification as long as it does not offend the Albanians ethnically,” he said. “Something like Vardar Macedonia would be acceptable, but not Slavic Macedonia, since we are not Slavs.”
Greece simply calls the neighboring state ‘Republic of Skopje’, a reference to its capital of 650,000 inhabitants, and refuses to accept any name that includes the word ‘Macedonia’ or a derivation of it. Names tossed around in this international diplomatic volleyball have included Slavic Macedonia, Slavo-macedonia, Macedoslavia, New Macedonia, Upper Macedonia, North Macedonia, West Macedonia, Vardar Macedonia (in reference to the country’s central river valley), or Macedonia Republic of Skopje – the latest compromise formula suggested by the EC.
President Gligorov ended the interview with an appeal to Greece:
“We have done everything necessary to appease Greek concerns, and this has been recognized by all in the European Community. We have amended our constitution to specify that we have no territorial claims, and we are willing to sign agreements on the frontiers and on every form of cooperation. But Greece must realize that we cannot be humiliated. To the contrary, it should help us survive and prosper because it is in Athens’ interest as well. We are a natural land bridge leading from Greece to Europe, and a protective buffer for it on its northern borders. We should find every possible means of cooperating, instead of insisting on one outdated issue to divide us.”
