Statements made by President Karamanlis are usually referred to as ‘cryptic’. Given the large powers which Andreas Papandreou stripped from the presidency in 1985, it’s a wonder he can be deciphered at all. But being simply himself, the Ethnarch, his few but potent words are carefully recorded, spread around and mulled over.
Once seen as Moscow’s most loyal satellite state, Bulgaria today is a struggling democracy wrestling with the staple problems of a struggling economy and the development of democratic institutions. A visit last month by The Athenian’s diplomatic correspondent reveals neither a bastion of anti-Geek feelings nor a hotbed of pro-Turkish Moslem fundamentalism, as often suspected in Athens. In fact, quite the contrary…
As the rumblings grow louder and closer to the surface, developments indicate that the government is not even willing to accept a diluted version of a name for Skopje like ‘New Macedonia’, a formula being backed by most Western powers.
The EC seems reluctant to enter into the dialectical arguments of Greece and the self-proclaimed republic of Macedonia. Matters appear to be sapping Slavic resistance.
