Επιστολή της Παμμακεδονικής Ένωσης ΗΠΑ στον Αντιπρόεδρο κ Μπάιντεν και Υπουργό Εξωτερικών κ. Κλίντον‏

in Articles, Diaspora, documents, FYROM Human Rights, General News, Greece, Modern Macedonian History, politics, Religious Discrimination / by Max / on March 3, 2011 at 9:22 am /

Αξιότιμοι κύριοι Βουλευτές του Ελληνικού Κοινοβουλίου,

Σας παρακαλούμε δείτε την επιστολή της Παμμακεδονικής Ένωσης ΗΠΑ προς τον
Αμερικανό Αντιπρόεδρο κ. Μπάιντεν και την Υπουργό Εξωτερικών κ. Κλίντον με
θέμα την επίσκεψη του Πρωθυπουργού κ. Γκρουέβσκι με τον Αντιπρόεδρο και την
κ. Κλίντον. Η επιστολή μας επίσης αναφέρεται και στο γράμμα των 19 Βουλευτών
οι οποίοι προτρέπουν τον Πρόεδρο Ομπάμα να βοηθήσει την ΠΓΔΜ να ενταχτεί στο
ΝΑΤΟ. Σε αυτό το λινκ:

http://www.novamakedonija.com.mk/NewsDetal.asp?vest=321189493&id=9&setIzdanie=22220

δείτε το άρθρο με τα σχόλια (και το ταρακούνημα) της Σκοπιανής εφημερίδας
Novamakedonija που προξένησε η επιστολή της Παμμακεδονικής Ένωσης ΗΠΑ

Serving Hellenism Since 1947
ΣΤΗΝ ΥΠΗΡΕΣΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1947
Pan-Macedonian Association, Inc., U.S.A.
Παμμακεδονική Ένωση Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών
www.macedonia.info

Βραβείον Ακαδημίας Αθηνών
Honorary President
Academy of Athens Award
Archbishop Demetrios

February 14, 2011

To Vice-President Joe Biden
The White House
& Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
State Department of USA

Dear Mr. Vice-President,
Dear Madam Secretary of State,

We are writing to you on behalf of all members of the Pan-Macedonian
Association USA, one of the largest Greek-American associations in the
United States in anticipation to the Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Mr. Gruevski’s visit to the United States. We
have also read the letter of the nineteen Representatives urging President
Obama to encourage our allies to offer the FYROM a formal invitation to
become a member of the NATO alliance at the November 2010 NATO Summit in
Lisbon. This letter, dated October 1, 2010 stressed that “Macedonia has met
all the criteria for membership in NATO.” and “Although Macedonia is not a
member of NATO, its contributions to peace, democracy, stability and
security in Southeast Europe and elsewhere make it clear that Macedonia is a
close US ally and has been acting as a de facto NATO member for some time.”
[1]

The attempt to encourage the President was not successful, but keeping this
attempt in mind and in advance of Nikola Gruevski’s visit to Washington
D.C., we would like to highlight why Skopje is not ready to be a serious
NATO member yet. The FYROM has not been capable to meet and sustain NATO’s
four criteria in contrast to what members of the U.S. Congress claim. It is
not just our opinion, but also the opinion of scholars with experience in
such matters: Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice-President of the Cato Institute
states: “It is mystery why NATO supporters cling to the notion that adding
small, militarily insignificant allies makes the alliance stronger and more
capable. It is an even greater mystery why opinion leaders in the U.S.
foreign policy community believe that such allies benefit the security and
well being of America. The opposite is true. Such NATO members are
strategic liabilities, not assets, and many of them bring with them
political, diplomatic, and military baggage that could prove very
troublesome for the United States”. [2]

As you well know, in order for the Security of the Alliance to avoid
jeopardy, NATO membership requires the achievement of political and military
preconditions, which all candidate members have to meet before they become
members without discounts. As a result, the aforementioned statement of the
U.S. Representatives is incorrect. The ability to make a military
contribution to the alliance is one of the preconditions to NATO membership
however it is only one of the preconditions that the candidate country has
to meet before it gains NATO membership. The remaining preconditions are:
Treatment of minority populations in accordance with democratic governance,
a functioning democratic political system, and democratic civil-military
relations.

Firstly, treatment of minorities is a major human rights issue that
the FYROM has not met yet. It took a war with the Albanian minority to
establish minority rights via the Ohrid Agreement, which the government of
that country keeps obstructing instead of implementing thereby turning
members of minorities into second class citizens in their own country. It is
clear that there are increasingly more divisions between ethnic Albanians
and the FYROM’s Slavic majority. As a result, the two communities do not
talk to each other, do not learn each other’s language, do not allow their
children to play together, learn history differently, and end up intensely
resenting each other. The problem with minority rights is not exclusive to
the ethnic Albanians though. According to the most recent census, only
62.5% of the population of the FYROM consider themselves “Macedonians” while
the largest minority of the multiethnic state is the Albanian (25%).

European Union member Bulgaria has increasingly expressed concern over the
rights of Bulgarians and Bulgarian Associations that have been harassed in
the FYROM for promoting their identity. Additionally, we note with deep
interest that during the aforementioned census it was not allowed that
anyone identified himself/herself as Greek. How large then is the Greek
minority in the FYROM? It is uncertain but according to Dr. Michael
Chrysanthopoulos in his book, The Macedonia File - The Greek Minority in the
FYROM Under Bondage: “An undeniably large Greek community lived and
flourished in the past in the current neighboring country…it still exists
under indescribably difficult conditions…frightened by the brutal regime
under which they live…” [3]. In the same manner we do wish to cite the
first president of the FYROM, Kiro Gligorov, when he stated to the Czech
newspaper Cesky Denik in 1993 that there were officially 100,000 Greeks
living in his country [4].

Secondly, if with a “functioning democratic political system” one means only
elections, then the FYROM has met the requirements. However, in a democratic
system everyone has the right to have his/her own beliefs, including their
religious beliefs, and to be free to say and write what they think.
Unfortunately, freedom of speech and non-attribution are unknown in the
universities of the FYROM, including the Institute of National History. It
is because Macedonism is protected under the FYROM Criminal Law Articles
#178 and #179, while academic research is limited only to government
projects and is under government guidance according to Article 6 of the Law
on Scientific Research Activity [5]. Freethinking is not only against the
law in the FYROM - it is an unknown and unthinkable matter. The present
government has closed TV stations and newspapers, and has sent their owners
and editors to prison. Even the Church has not been left alone. Archbishop
Jovan VI, the legitimate leader of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric under
the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate, is not recognized by the FYROM State
Religious Commission because it only recognizes the internationally
unrecognized schismatic “Macedonian Orthodox Church”. Therefore, Archbishop
Jovan is in and out of prison, is held under forged manufactured charges and
false witnesses, and frequently exiles himself fearing for his life. These
are but a few examples of what freedom of speech in the FYROM means. One
that follows the FYROM Press is very familiar with these cases.

Finally, we would like to focus on what the FYROM’s irredentist official
policies mean for Greeks and Greece. How is it possible that the
Representatives who cosigned the letter do not see anything wrong with
irredentist maps of Greater “Macedonia” permanently hanging on walls in the
classrooms of the FYROM school system? We cannot believe that it has been
acceptable to them to see the FYROM Diaspora carry the same maps while they
parade through the streets of various cities of the world, depicting a
unified Macedonia turned into a Slavic state under their Slavic culture and
language. Such maps and slogans boldly state: “Solun [Thessaloniki, Greece]
will be the Capital of Macedonia again!” But Thessaloniki is the Capital of
the region of Macedonia in Greece. The question is why they say “again?”
When exactly Thessaloniki was the Capital of a Slavic dominated Macedonia as
they like it to be? That alone states their ignorance of history. How could
anyone expect the Greeks to feel when they see statues of Greeks erected in
the FYROM, when structures and streets are renamed to reflect Greek heroes
and historical figures but adapted as Slavs, and maps depicting a “united
Macedonia” under Skopje’s rule? The FYROM’s official hostile propaganda has
aggravated Greece and has especially angered us Macedonians worldwide, as we
see our identity and heritage being usurped. Current irredentist propaganda,
threats, and vicious revisionism of Greek history by the FYROM’s leadership
have especially injured relations between Greeks everywhere and FYROM’s
Slavic people.

We are dismayed by the fact that in August 2010, two months before the 19
Representatives signed the letter to the President, the “Turkish Coalition
of America”, and the “United Macedonian Diaspora” (UMD) sponsored a trip to
the FYROM for 18 US Representatives promoting NATO membership [6, 7]. We
feel that this blatant example of foreign-interested lobby groups that
influence American politicians by providing trips is nothing short of
realpolitik and propaganda.

We would like to highlight the fact that the UMD is associated with
Maknews.com, an internet website serving the FYROM Diaspora and is based in
Toronto, Canada. Maknews.com frequently engages in virulent racist hate
speech against Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians, and anyone who opposes
Macedonism. This is unacceptable and should raise eyebrows. We are sure that
if the 18 or 19 American politicians knew of this, they would not have been
so eager to be sponsored by the UMD and support its causes. It is almost
surreal that we have to encounter such incidents in the 21st Century.

As American citizens who love this country of ours and who appreciate our
ancestry that was a forerunner of our American experiment, we are very
concerned with such developments in the Balkans, especially the dangers that
a miniscule state is causing to the wider area. The FYROM needs to truly
become a contributor to peace, democracy, stability and security in
Southeast Europe first. It needs to solve all its problems with its own
minorities, its neighbors, especially with Greece on the name issue, and
then join NATO, the EU etc. Domestic instability, irredentist upbringing,
and scapegoating of neighbors and minorities do not contribute to the
Regional Stability, the Western Alliance, or the Security of the United
States. If the FYROM does not change its attitude, the harmony among NATO
members will surely be affected because the FYROM’s problems with all of its
neighbors will become NATO’s internal problems.

Sincerely,

Dr. Antonios Papadopoulos
Demitris Chatzis

Supreme President
Supreme Secretary

Paul Kotrotsios
President of Hellenic American National Council (HANC)

Cc: Senator Olympia Snow
Senator Robert Menendez
Hellenic Caucus Representatives

1) http://umdiaspora.org/images/MacedoniaNATOCongressLtrtoObama.pdf. Last
accessed February 8, 2011.

2) Balkan Tensions and the Future of NATO -Presentation at the 64th
Pan-Macedonian Convention, May 29, 2010

3) Chrysanthopoulos MS, The Macedonia File, The Greek Minority in the FYROM
Under Bondage. (Original Greek by Kadmos Publishing 2006 ISBN:
978-960-6851-04-9). English edition 2010 by The PanMacedonian Studies
Center.

4) Cesky Denik, June 10, 1993.

5) Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, Nos.13/96 and 29/02.

6) http://umdiaspora.org/content/view/493/1/. Last accessed February 8,
2011.

7)
http://www.turkishcoalition.org/TCASponsorsCongressionalDelegationtoMacedoniaandTurkey.html.