The nominally “Macedonian” nation of FYROM emerged as a byproduct of Yugoslavia’s dissolution in the 1990’s and suffered a major transformation of the internal relationships after the US-supported uprising of its Albanian population in 2001 which led to a de facto confederalization of the country. As of late 2008, it is led by the charismatic ex-boxer Nikola Gruevski surrounded by a clique of young politicians. Plagued by chronic unemployment standing at the rate of 35%, with economy characterized by collapsing light industry based on primitive technologies and decaying public infrastructure, the nationalistic government of VMRO-DPMNE failed to attract any substantial foreign investments. Most of its economic policies failed to raise the public standard based on average salary of barely 300 USD. At the same time analysts predict that the consequences of the Global financial crisis are yet to strike FYROM, raising the issue of further deterioration of the prospects for decent livelihood.
The main-although progressively marginalized ethnic group-in FYROM are the “Macedonians”, a nation postulated by the Communist internationale in 1934 and created by policies of Josip Broz, Communist’s Yugoslavia strongman after 1944. A basic historical review of their ethnicity reveals that prior to 1941, when the Bulgarian army, invading the remains of royalist Yugoslavia, was greeted euphorically by the local population, this population considered itself Bulgarian and led a combined struggle of civil disobedience and guerrilla warfare against Belgrade in order to achieve either annexation to Bulgaria or a transitional autonomous state with Bulgarian preeminence. Further exploration of the past reveals an ubiquitously attested in historical sources Bulgarian character, an impression complemented with the peculiar character of the local Slavic language which shares features with standard and dialectal forms of the Bulgarian language proper which set it quite radically apart from all Slavic languages. While this ethnic group to a various degrees assimilated in the last two centuries a certain number of Serbs and Vlach/Aromanians (the latter having historically a Greek consciousness), this is almost irrelevant to its ethnological and linguistic qualities which are almost identical as the Bulgarian vernacular.
The other large population in FYROM is the Albanian. Compromised from descendants of the Paleobalkan ethnic group of Dardanians which was to a certain extent influenced by Roman culture and Latin language and which took refuge in the mountains of present-day north Albania (”Ghegnia”) in late antiquity/early middle ages, the Albanians which converted to Islam under Ottoman rule spread to Kosovo and western FYROM in 17th and 18th centuries. Today, in FYROM, they number near 600. 000, with a compact presence in the towns of Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar and representing a significant population in Skoplje, Kumanovo, Kičevo and Struga. Cherishing an archaic formalized code of conduct based on family and clan loyalty, ethos of reciprocity and obligation, Albanians have been historically more successful than the Bulgarians/”Macedonians” in preservation of means of private entrepreneurship and achieving a more vertical socio-economic stratification coupled with elaborated social network designed to minimize contact with the “Macedonian” non-Muslim population.
Among both the “Macedonians” and the Albanians, collectivist, anti-individualist attitude is deep-seated. Within the daily affairs of both ethnic groups there is a strong reverence for authority and hierarchy. The notion of “state”, a concept held identical with the actual government, which has to be obeyed and respected and which represent the supreme reality in which any individuality is lost is particularity prominent among the “Macedonians” having its root in their quite recent and long-lasting premodern feudal historical phase. It is no wonder that having realized that after the 2001 conflict and the subsequent signing of the Ohrid Agreement they lost the privileged status and that both factually and symbolically they cannot cherish the FYROMian state as their own, the elite of the “Macedonians”, realizing that any confrontation with the Albanian factor would be too dangerous, designed a national idea with the purpose of keeping the wider “Macedonian” public mobilized against non-issues. This recent idea is composed of the recycled concept of “Macedonian autonomism”-Bulgarian idea that that any initiative of the Slavs of Geographic Macedonia has to be labeled “Macedonian” in order to gain sympathies by deciding external political factors and the concept of “Ancient Macedonism”, the idea that the Slavs of FYROM are direct descendants of Ancient Macedonians.
The idea of “Macedonian autonomism” needs no further explanation of its perfidiousness and absurdity. Regardless of the trick character of the concept it still remains a doctrine of the Bulgarian nationalist originating from FYROM: The Bulgarians of Geographic Macedonia should claim that although their singular ethnic identity is the Bulgarian one they are, nevertheless, the exclusive Macedonians. As late as 1960’s this doctrine was restated by the leader of VMRO Ivan Mihailoff with the words “the name Macedonia should be preserved because it is a thorn in the eyes of Greeks and Serbs”.
The enormous success of the idea of “Ancient Macedonian continuity”, which originated among the most primitive sections of FYRO Macedonian emigration in 1970’s (in Sweden, Australia and Canada) needs careful analysis. Although the fallacy of the crude ethnogenetic theory which claims that the “Macedonians” of FYROM and elsewhere speak the tongue of Phillip II and Alexander the Great and that their customs, folklore and other aspects of the culture are either intact or evolved form of the civilization of Ancient Macedon is quite easy refutable, this is not the case in the current conditions under which the national discourse articulates itself in FYROM.
Briefly, Ancient Macedonians were a Greek entity with Greek ethnic name, using exclusively a Greek Doric dialect and later Koine Greek and practicing the same Olympian religion with the rest of the Greek. Ancient Macedonians participated at the Olympic Games, where only Greek were allowed to compete and had theaters on the soil of Macedon, an uniquely Greek concept. All names of Macedonians (with several exceptions) are Greek as confirmed by their Greek etymology. Conclusive to 2008, no scholar outside FYROM has even remotely claimed that the language and culture of Ancient Macedonians are an ancestral type of the present-day FYRO Macedonians, which are descendants of Slavs, an ethnic group originating from North-East Europe. Slavs settled the Balkans from 5th to 7th century and the FYRO Macedonian tribes were homogenized under the rule of the Turkic horsemen tribe of Bulgarians. These Slavs never called themselves “Macedonians”, while Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ottoman sources as well as western travelers and others failed to furnish any reference to a “Macedonian” ethnic group prior to late 19th century.
The issue of the ethnic, cultural and linguistic nature of the Ancient Macedonians deserves a wider and detailed expose, referenced and structured according to the scientific method. However, in light of the present state of knowledge, based on the enormous archaeological wealth and a plethora of historic sources, modern historiography universally accepts the conclusion that Ancient Macedonians were Greeks. The key issue with regard to the “Macedonian” nationalism is how the opposite and improbable conclusion could became a “valid” and all-pervading form of public discourse and the root of national self-identification.
The problems arouse with the way in which the totalitarian VMRO-DPMNE government energized the masses among which the national confusion brought by media exposure of contradictory data grew. Firstly, it reactivated the conflict with Greece by multitude of irredentist moves. Secondly, within FYROM it carried massive policy of introduction of Ancient Macedonian symbols (names of institutions, statues) after the expected and natural Greek negative reaction. The population, feeling threatened, mistook the attitude of aggressive “Macedonization” sponsored by the government as “defiance” against a hostile state (the hostility of which was precisely provoked by FYROM’s initial provocations). Capitalizing on the fact that the vast majority of the general population does not have neither a capability nor a will for sustained scientific research regarding ethnology, history and linguistics, the government managed to capture attention of the whole body of citizens. One can presume that the sheer authority the organized government yields in a conformist society where libertarian principles of critical thinking and individual self-reliance regarding the process of opinion-forming are practically absent is sufficient to impose an entirely absurd idea of identity. In FYROM it is unchallenged by organized bodies from which a better knowledge of the true state of affairs might be expected, including universities, institutes, museums etc. With the sole exception of Internet, all electronic and printed media are participants in government’s monopoly over identity dogmas. Only few individual voices of distaste and revolt against the lies have insofar voiced their concerns (Denko Maleski, Petar Hr. Ilievski) but they got a hostile, unsympathetic public response.
While the prospect of organized challenge of the pro-governmental stances regarding the identity issues is something expected given the conventional political dynamics within pluralist societies, this is not quite a case. Nikola Gruevski achieved dominance of his party by calling premature elections in 2008 at the time of peak in the approval rating of his first mandate caused by populist measures. That gave him an unprecedented might against which FYROM has no institutionalized mechanisms of control. Furthermore, in a state of affairs whereby the larger part of the Slavs have abandoned their Bulgarian and Serbian culture in belief that they represent a separate ancient ethnicity in a category of its own, creators of the policy of the opposition (led by the leftist SDSM party) must carefully measure their words of opposition to the lavish Pseudomacedonian rhetorics, since they may be branded as “traitors” given the appropriate circumstances. Consequently, in such occasion they would find themselves ostracized from the ongoing debate.
This leads to the conclusion that the solution to the Pseudomacedonian hysteria which totally dominates public life in FYROM is not only confined to the change in the internal situation which may come as a result of economic collapse or a full-scale civil war, but also from strong pressure from outside which would enable FYROM to conform itself to reality and to rational way of conducting cultural policy. The reign of VMRO-DPMNE, characterized by collectivist, group-centered policies, extensive role of the police in society, new legislature sponsoring religious education, subsidizing biological procreation with wealth redistribution, enforcing ethics of service to the “common good”, emphasizing the feral, folklorist and medieval aspects of local national culture in opposition to modern as well as apolitical high culture, is the greatest political catastrophe FYROM faces in early 21st century. A hope remains that the Slavs of FYROM will reject the artificial and overbearing attempts to instill a connection with chronologically and ethnically distant Greek kingdom as well as to make history the most important aspect of their everyday lives. Only through enduring action from within and from abroad the local state-worshiping, centrally-planned tribal way of life may be liquidated and replaced with a political system based on freedom, a change which will forever put the era of Pseudomacedonism behind, as a doomed ideology based on lies.
Greece is amongst the biggest foreign investors in the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRoM), according to figures presented during an event on investment opportunities in the country, hosted on Thursday by the Federation of Northern Greece Industries in Thessaloniki.
According to official statistics, 80 percent of companies belonging to Greek interests active in fYRoM’s textiles sector (totaling 58 companies) are found in the southern part of the country, primarily in the vicinity of Bitola and Gevgelija, and employ roughly 6,000 people.
Food and beverages is another sector with an increased Greek business presence. Specifically, a total of 22 companies employ 2,500 people, with roughly half operating in the city of Skopje or its outskirts.
The economic and trade secretary at the Greek Liaison Office in Skopje, Eleni Karayanni, noted that the distribution of Greek investments in the neighbouring country shows that 28 percent involves the banking sector; 25 percent in energy; 17 percent in telecoms; 15 percent in industrial production; 10 percent in the food and beverages sector, while 5 percent is in other sectors.
Most opportunities for Greek investments are found in the sectors of energy, transportation and IT technology, according to speakers at the event, which was attended by entrepreneurs from both countries.
Caption: A worker cuts iron parts for recycling in the old iron reprocessing plant at Makstil, one of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYRoM) biggest metal processing factories, located in Skopje, 20 October 2008. The Makstil plant has so far not been adversely affected due to the fact that the company produces final products already ordered by its customers.
Antonio Milososki was born in Tetovo, FYROM on January 29, 1976. Between 1994 and 1999 he studied law at Skopje’s St. Cyril and Methodius University. Between 2000 and 2001 he was Skopje’s government spokesman. From 2001 until 2002, Milososki studied at the Center for European Integration at the University of Bonn, Germany, and between 2005 and 2006 he continued as a Ph. D. and political research assistant at the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His thesis was based on the post-Cold War relations of Greece and his country since 1991.
In September 2006, he became the foreign minister of FYROM as a member of prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s right-wing nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE.
He is the one responsible for starting the false statement that Greece renamed the “province of Northern Greece“ to “Macedonia and Thrace“ back in 2003. This utter lie has now been used over and over by Skopje and its diaspora as an excuse for claiming the Greek name “Macedonia“ for their country. As a lawyer, he surely knows how to distort the truth in order to achieve what he feels is right. For him, dishonesty is the means which will justify an end.
The Truth is: Macedonia (ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ) has been the official administrative name of Greece’s province since 1913 when it was liberated from the Ottoman Empire and joined the rest of Greece. Unofficially, the area had been known as Macedonia since the Dorian Greeks migrated to it before the 4th Century B.C. What change? The “Ministry of Northern Greece” (ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΒΟΡΕΙΟΥ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ) changed its name to “Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace” (ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΣ - ΘΡΑΚΗΣ) in 1988.It is very unlikely that Mr Milososki does not know this very simple yet important point. It is more likely that he is purposely distorting facts for his country’s gain. One wonders if Mr Milososki studied Political Science or Fictional Writing in Duisburg-Essen.
The following links can be used to educate anyone about the simple fact that the name Macedonia has been used in Greece before 1988:
The following 2 videos show an interview given by Antonio Milososki on Greece’s SKAI TV. Please pay special attention to what he says during the highlighted timeline:
4 minutes 6 sec: “…in respect to the Greek northern province which was renamed in 1988 from Northern Greece to province of Macedonia and Thraki…“
5 minutes 51 sec: “…we are prepared to share the heritage of this rich historical past of our common region…like Alexander the Great…that greatness goes beyond national borders…no one should have a monopoly over the name…“
6 minutes 57 sec: “We would have been more pleased if…the [Greek] officials could have said, ‛Well, thank you very much for expressing a gratitude and respect to a person being very – of a great importance to our Greek history.’“
7 minutes 38 sec: “We are prepared to go forward and to have a mutual educational historical committee – both sides to delegate experts and professionals in this direction – and they to be able to go through all books in our or in the Greek curricula.“
Essentially what he is telling the reporter is that Greece renamed Macedonia in 1988 so there was no Macedonia in Greece before that time however he continues to say that Skopje accepts that Ancient Macedonia was in Greece! Furthermore, he states that his country is willing to share Greece’s history and Greece should in fact thank his country for honouring Alexander the Great. Moreover, he expresses the idea that his country is ready to go ahead with a common history project involving “experts and professionals“ that apparently will review (and revise) the history of the region. This last statement is very important indeed and in fact this project has already started.
It is uncertain whether he is referring to The Joint History Project of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe (CDRSEE) but if not, it is an impressive coincidence. The CDRSEE is a non-governmental organization formed in 1988 whose motto is Thomas Paine’s quote “An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot“. It is supported by various corporations (e.g. Coca Cola and George Soros’s Open Societies) and despite it being a non-governmental organization, some major sponsors are various governmental bodies (like the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department). It is based in Thessaloniki, Greece and is chaired by Dr. Erhard Busek, an Austrian politician. The first chair of the CDRSEE and a sponsor of this organization is Matthew Nimetz, a New York lawyer and a partner in the private investment firm General Atlantic partners, LLC. He is also the UN negotiator between Athens and Skopje in the Macedonia naming dispute.
Four common history books have been written in languages of countries they are intended for and have entered the educational curricula of various countries in the Balkans. One of the people responsible for overseeing the Joint History Project is the Deputy Secretary of the CDRSEE Costa Carras. So far the books have not entered the Greek educational system but the CDRSEE’s goal is to achieve this. These four books present a common revised history (intended to be politically correct) to the Balkans.
Although superficially the aim of this project seems noble, the major problem is that history is indeed ethnocentric and is a source of a nation’s pride. The history of the Balkans has already been written and needs no revision. It is a tumultuous history and a politically correct revision only serves to “sugar coat“ events that do need to be. Every country has its own history and does not need to be revised by another country’s experts especially when some of the intentions of another country are not noble. A thorough examination of Macedonism is not required to understand the Greek citizen’s mistrust of this Joint History Project. Even though the opinions and books shown in the 2 videos are not those of the Joint History Project, they highlight the problems encountered when a country’s education system is based on historical revisionist irredentism. Consequently, if one plans on using this country’s historical experts to help write your history, there is an obvious conflict of interest.
A major concern is that UN negotiator Matthew Nimetz is involved. This immediately defeats his purpose as a neutral and unbiased catalyst for a resolution to the name dispute between Athens and Skopje.
57 seconds: “If a Macedonian [sic] journalist goes to some school in Yannena [Greece] for example…and especially if these children are – if they are younger – and if you ask them a similar questions [sic] maybe some of them would say Greece ends…[in] Constantinople or um some other let’s say –”
1 minute 23 sec:REPORTER: “No I don’t think so.“
MILOSOSKI: “Well…I don’t think so as well.“
If Mr. Milososki didn’t think so, then why did he say so? Instead of answering the reporter’s question as to why his country’s educational curriculum encourages irredentism against Greece, he tries to turn the tables on her with a sly but unsuccesful attempt to deflect the question and put her on the defensive.
This is the man that supports a common history with Greek Macedonia. He is the first official person recorded to say that Greece renamed Northern Greece to Macedonia in 1988. He has repeated this view many times in his career as is also evident in the following Newsweek article:
The various diaspora groups of Skopje have also adopted his views and so the lie becomes bigger:
The following is an essay Antonio Milososki had written about a book he had read which claimed that Greek Macedonia was in fact Hellenized in 1913 since there was a majority of non-Greek inhabitants there. Again, he uses historical distortion and revision. He further continues the commonly used propaganda idea that the only Greeks living in Macedonia are the Pontian Greek refugees from Asia Minor.
About the Hellenization of Southern (Aegean) Macedonia - A Review of ‘Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood’
By Antonio Milososki Ph.D. Candidate
University of Duisburg
Germany
“Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, the term [en-] dopyi (”local”) is used to refer to Slavic-speakers who had inhabited the region prior its incorporation into Greece in 1913; in the Edessa and Florina prefectures, for example, the phrase dopyos Makedhonas (”local Macedonian”) is used by many to signify a Slavic-speaker, and his descendants.
After the partition of Macedonia, beside the Patriarchate, state-sponsored schools and the Army (through the army-obligation for adult males) undertook the leading role in the process of nation building of the Greek national consciousness among the non-Greek inhabitants, which at that time consisted of the majority of the population in Southern (Aegean) Macedonia. Those were the main assimilation-levers for the realization of the state-sponsored project for the Hellenization of that part of Greece.
Further on, one can understand the significance of the refugees (prosfighas) and their immense importance in the process of “national homogenization” of the young Greek state
The next method that had accelerated this process of state sponsored assimilation was the so called “voluntary resettlement” of the native population, mainly to Turkey and Bulgaria, but also to the East-European countries during and after the Greek Civil War.
Nonetheless, it gives us more than enough evidence to draw the conclusion that Macedonia has never been exclusively Greek. Moreover, at the beginning of the twenty-century, Southern Macedonia was a multiethnic region with an overwhelmingly non-Greek majority. As the Bishop of Florina (Lerin) Augostinos Kandiotis once said, “If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece, Greek Macedonia would not exist today”.
28 November 2008 Sofia _ Bulgaria’s nationalist Ataka party argues Fyromia and Serbia can only become EU members once they return territories taken from Bulgaria after the First World War.
Dimitar Stoyanov, a member of the European Parliament for the Ataka party, made the claim in a letter he posted to Serbia’s ambassador to Sofia, after the Belgrade envoy refused to meet him.
The Ataka party leader Volen Siderov, later announced that they would demand that Belgrade’s and Skopje’s bid to join the European Union hinges on them returning what Bulgaria refers to the ‘Western Outlands.’
This includes the areas around the towns of Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad in eastern Serbia and the town of Strumica in eastern FYROM.
The demand comes as Bulgaria marked the 89th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Neuilly which was agreed after the country was defeated in the First World War.
The treaty, signed on November 27 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine in France, established borders between Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Under the treaty, Bulgaria ceded its Aegean coastline to Greece, and its western territories, which include the present-day towns of and Strumica, to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, present-day Serbia and FYROM.
The treaty, known in Bulgaria as the ‘Second National Catastrophe’ was also forced to reduce its army to 20,000 men and pay more than $400 million in reparations.
Ataka’s demands come as Bulgaria’s political parties prepare for next year’s general elections.
This has seen an upsurge in right-wing rhetoric in recent weeks, with another hardline nationalist party accusing Belgrade of human rights abuses against ethnic Bulgarians in Serbia last week, and tensions with Bulgaria’s substantial ethnic Turk minority rising.
Ataka is currently third in opinion polls behind Mayor of Sofia Boris Boyko’s opposition GERB party and Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev’s Socialist Party.
Μετά την ιστορία με την Τουρκοσκοπιανή Αεροπορική εταιρία, οι Σκοπιανοί της διασποράς και συγκεκριμένα του “UMD” έφτασαν να εκδίδουν πιστωτικές κάρτες VISA με…τον δεκαεξάκτινο ήλιο της Βεργίνας και τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο!!!!
Briefly, Ali Ahmeti will open the UCK museum in Skoplje’s neighborhood of Cair.The museum which shall contain photographs, documents, uniforms, weaponry, trophies is financed by private donors and it is endorsed by the FYROMian Ministry for culture.
Διαβάστε απο το MOTW τον ίδιο τον Vasco Gligorijevic, εκ των ιδρυτικών μελών του “Slavic Philhellenic Network“, να περιγράφει τι σημαίνει να εκφράζεις δημόσια, διαφορετική άποψη απο αυτήν που έχει επιβάλει το Εθνικιστικό καθεστώς των Σκοπίων.
“After Cadmus, I joined the club, too. Three thugs in their early to mid-twenties tried to break into my apartment, cursing me as a traitor. That was 50 minutes ago, double doors made of steel and stuffed with kevlar, mounted on the walls with voluminous metal structure. They had no chance to break in, they were using foot kicking and advances with shoulder/upper arm strikes.
I wonder who the hell send these guys? My block with 120 apartments is 90% inhabited by police and army operatives yet nobody reacted regarding the loud bangs.
However I won’t report them to police. They only scratched the door’s finishing layer of color and they left over footprints and couple of graffiti.
Needless to say after I joined American Chronicle I obtained couple of dozens of offensive emails, two of which were from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the “Telekom” corporation. Several of them were threats, one of which included attached pictures of me in the neighborhood.”
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Το παρακάτω υβριστικό κείμενο είναι σταλμένο προς τον Vasco απο Επίσημο Ε-mail που παραπέμπει στην ίδια την Κυβέρνηση των Σκοπίων.
Well You are I guess one of the Macedonians that have converted due to the
severe propaganda. You are nothing more then a traitor.
Keep doing the work, as long as garbage like you exist , that deny the basic
human rights and disrespect the core values of democracy, I am more and more
convinced in the righteousness of the Macedonian cause.
I think that your article is junk and based on completely false premises.
But as I said go ahead you village idiot, You still make faor to Macedonians, because people
in the rset of the world read about us and they can better evaluate the
truth than you.
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Αυτά λοιπόν απο τους ίδιους Υποκριτές που πριν μερικούς μήνες είχαν κανει μέγιστο θέμα την αποστολή e-mail με δήθεν υβριστικό περιεχόμενο σταλμένο απο e-mail Ελληνική πρεσβείας!!!
Μετά απο τις αποκαλύψεις για την άρνηση απο τις Σκοπιανές αρχές να αναγνωρίσουν τον Βουλγαρικό οργανισμό Radko όπως επίσης και την αρνηση ύπαρξης ‘Σλάβων στα Σκόπια που να είναι Βούλγαροι’ εμείς να θέσουμε ξανά την ίδια ερώτηση:
Την ώρα που στην Ελλάδα έχουμε ακόμα ένα συνέδριο του ΟΥΡΑΝΙΟΥ ΤΟΞΟΥ ελεύθερα και αβίαστα όπως σε κάθε δημοκρατική χώρα και την ίδια ώρα που οι γνωστοί Προπαγανδιστικοί κύκλοι των Σκοπίων επιμένουν να κάνουν λόγο για δήθεν καταπίεση μειονοτήτων και άρνηση του Δικαιώματος του Αυτο-προσδιορισμού, ας θυμηθούμε ξανά πως οι ίδιοι οι Σκοπιανοί γελοιοποιούν τους εαυτούς τους με το να αρνούνται πεισματικά και άκρως υποκριτικά στους ίδιους τους πολίτες τους όλα όσα…. κατηγορούν τους άλλους!!!
Application no. 74651/01
by the Association of citizens “Radko” and Paunkovski
against the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
lodged on 30 July 2001
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 8 July 2008 as a Chamber composed of:
Peer Lorenzen, President, Karel Jungwiert, Volodymyr Butkevych, Renate Jaeger, Mark Villiger, Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre, Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 30 July 2001,
Having regard to the initial observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants in 2006,
Having regard to their additional observations of September 2007 and May 2008,
Having regard to the comments submitted by the Bulgarian Government who had exercised their right to intervene (Article 36 § 1 of the Convention and Rule 44),
Having regard to the parties’ and the third party’s oral submissions at the hearing on 19 June 2008,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The first applicant is the Association of Citizens “Radko” (“the Association”). The second applicant is Mr Vladimir Paunkovski, the Chairman of the Association, who has dual Macedonian and Bulgarian nationality. He was born in 1954 and lives in Ohrid, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The applicants are represented before the Court by Mr Y. Grozev and Mr B. Boev, both lawyers practising in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the oral hearing on 19 June 2008, Mr Y. Grozev was also assisted by Mrs N. Dobreva.
The Macedonian Government (“the Government”) are represented by their Agent, Mrs R. Lazareska Gerovska.
The Bulgarian Government (“the third-party intervener”) are represented by their Agents, Mrs M. Kotzeva and Ms S. Atanasova; only the latter attended the oral hearing.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
On 24 May 2000 ten Macedonian nationals, including the second applicant, founded the Association in the city of Ohrid. On 19 June 2000 the Ohrid Court of First Instance registered the Association in the register of associations of citizens and foundations under the following name: “Association of Citizens Radko-Ohrid”.
…..
After the opening speech by the chairman of the Association and a solemn performance of the anthem of Todor Alexandrov, three young men threw gas bombs inside the conference hall, which caused a temporary delay. Some of the participants started to beat and kick the young men. The latter managed to escape, but a retired journalist was injured. According to the daily newspaper “Utrinski vesnik” of 30 October 2000, he sustained a “fracture of his left hand and blood on his face”.
…..
There was a strong media campaign before and after the launch of the Association, condemning its foundation and functioning as contrary to the Macedonian national identity.The Association was described as “fascist” and as rehabilitating “terrorism and fascism, which were the basic characteristics of Hitler’s collaborator Vančo Mihajlov” (excerpts from the newspapers “Utrinski vesnik“, mentioned above, and “Dnevnik” from 24 October 2000).
….
In or about October 2000 three practising lawyers from Skopje, together with a political party and the Association of War Veterans from the Second World War filed a petition before the Constitutional Courtchallenging the conformity of the Association’s Articles and Programme with Article 20 of the Constitution. They alsochallenged the lawfulness of the Ohrid court’s decision to register the Association
The petitioners, inter alia, stressed that:
“…the aims of the Association are the infiltration of Bulgarian linguistic elements into the Macedonian language and alphabet
“The Association promotes Vančo’s (meaning Ivan Mihajlov’s) ideology for a change in the national conscience of the Macedonian people in favour of another one, whichdestroys the Macedonian national texture andleads to the encouragement of and incitement to national hatred and intolerance. The Association rehabilitates and legalises terrorism and fascism as crucial characteristics of the work of Hitler’s collaborator Vančo Mihajlov, as an “act of holy liberation” and as a legacy that is left to someone to complete…The Slavs from Macedonia who appeared as Bulgarians (Болгари) throughout the centuries…are unknown in the Republic of Macedonia. They do not exist as a nation, any nationality or legitimate entity whatsoever.There are only Macedonians in Macedonia, and there also might be Bulgarians, Serbs…as affiliated to different people and nations. However, there are no “Slavs from Macedonia-Bulgarians”.
Αυτά λοιπόν για το πως αντιλαμβάνονται και εφαρμόζουν οι ίδιοι οι Σκοπιανοί το δικαίωμα του “αυτο-προσδιορισμού” στους ίδιους τους πολίτες τους. Αν λοιπόν στο συνέδριο του ΟΥΡΑΝΙΟΥ ΤΟΞΟΥ βλέπουμε πανώ για το “Ελληνικό Apartheid” ενώ οι ίδιοι ελεύθερα κάνουν συνέδρια εφόσον αναγνωρίζονται απο το επίσημο Ελληνικό κράτος χωρίς να μπουκάρουν μέσα νεαροί και να τους πετάνε μπόμπες, με το ΣΚΟΠΙΑΝΟ APARTHEID ΠΟΥ ΑΠΑΓΟΡΕΥΕΙ την λειτουργία αντίστοιχων οργανώσεων στο κράτος των Σκοπίων, ΤΙ ΘΑ ΓΙΝΕΙ???
22/11/2008
O Z. Μπρεζίνσκι μιλά στη “Καθημερινή της Κυριακής”
Ιδιαίτερα σημαντική για τον κόσμο θεωρεί την εκλογή του Μπάρακ Ομπάμα στην προεδρία των ΗΠΑ και την αλλαγή πλεύσης της χώρας στην εξωτερική πολιτική, ο πρώην σύμβουλος εθνικής ασφαλείας επί προεδρίας Κάρτερ, Ζμπίγκνιου Μπρεζίνσκι.
Σε συνέντευξή του στην “Καθημερινή της Κυριακής”, τάσσεται υπέρ των αποφάσεων του Ομπάμα για απόσυρση των στρατευμάτων από το Ιράκ, το κλείσιμο του Γκουαντάναμο και την προθυμία του να συνομιλήσει με το Ιράν.
Ο Μπρεζίνσκι τάσσεται κατά της αντιπυραυλικής “ομπρέλας” στην Πολωνία, αλλά χαρακτηρίζει υπερβολική την αντίδραση της Ρωσίας στο όλο ζήτημα.
Αναφερόμενος στο όνομα των Σκοπίων, τονίζει ότι το “Βόρεια Μακεδονία”, ενδέχεται να υπονοεί ότι υπάρχει και κάποια “Νότια Μακεδονία”, και άρα η καλύτερη λύση είναι το “Νέα Μακεδονία”.
As our friend from Skopje, Vasko informed us, it has been established in Skopje the “Slavic Philhellenic Network”.
The registration in court was done yesterday. The aims of the operation “Vardar-Axios” shall be:
1. Restitution of the Slavic identity of FYROM
2. Creation, promoting and archiving publications regarding Greek culture
3. Sponsorship of Classic and Byzantine studies
4. Struggle against Pseudomacedonism
This organization has 4 members, all of them anonymous, with the exception of Vasko. The site of SPN shall be launched in Wednesday 26-XI and it will serve as an online platform for publication and coordination of activities.
The nominally “Macedonian” nation of FYROM emerged as a byproduct of Yugoslavia’s dissolution in the 1990’s and suffered a major transformation of the internal relationships after the US-supported uprising of its Albanian population in 2001 which led to a de facto confederalization of the country. As of late 2008, it is led by the charismatic ex-boxer Nikola Gruevski surrounded by a clique of young politicians. Plagued by chronic unemployment standing at the rate of 35%, with economy characterized by collapsing light industry based on primitive technologies and decaying public infrastructure, the nationalistic government of VMRO-DPMNE failed to attract any substantial foreign investments. Most of its economic policies failed to raise the public standard based on average salary of barely 300 USD. At the same time analysts predict that the consequences of the Global financial crisis are yet to strike FYROM, raising the issue of further deterioration of the prospects for decent livelihood.
