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MILS NEWS 24/04/96From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@MILS.SPIC.ORG.MK>Macedonian Information Liaison Service DirectoryCONTENTS[01] FRCHKOVSKI - 'MACEDONIAN-YUGOSLAV AGREEMENT - A PRECEDENT'[02] PIRINSKI'S VISIT POSTPONED BY MACEDONIAN MEDIA?[03] BALKAN COMMERCE CHAMBERS MEETING IN SOFIA[04] FRCHKOVSKI AND PANGALOS WILL NOT DISCUSS THE NAME ISSUE[05] INFORMATIVE MEETING ON THE SUCCESSION PROBLEM[06] ARMED INCIDENTS IN KOSOVO[07] GLIGOROV WILL RECEIVE THE 'CRAN MONTANA' AWARD IN BUCHAREST TOMORROW[08] GLIGOROV MET WITH TIMOTHY WIRTH[09] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE POLICY DISCUSSED[10] SWEDISH MEDIA ABOUT MACEDONIA[11] EMIGRANTS ASSOCIATION JUBILEE[12] MEETING WITH EUROPEAN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES[13] PDPA-NDP - 'VOTING NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW'MILS SUPPLEMENT[14] 'A Diplomatic Scandal' ('Nova Makedonija', 24 April 1996)MILS NEWSSkopje, 24 April 1996[01] FRCHKOVSKI - 'MACEDONIAN-YUGOSLAV AGREEMENT - A PRECEDENT''FR Yugoslavia had made a precedent with signing the Agreement on the Normalisation of the Relations with Macedonia, as it had declined from its previous claim of being the only successor of SFRY. The other former Yugoslav republics will be able to use that in the normalizing of their relations with Belgrade,' said Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski in his yesterday's addressing the Parliamentary Foreign Policy Commission.Referring to the postponed visit of the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Pirinski to Macedonia, Frchkovski said Macedonia is willing to solve the 'funny dispute' between the two neighbours, and Bulgarian party should come to talk about that, and about all other open issues. Frchkovski said the relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria were good so far. He stated the announced visit of the Albanian Prime Minister had still been waited for, in order to complete the good relations with Albania. Positively defining relations with Greece, Minister Frchkovski said the New York discussions on the name issue would continue, adding that Macedonia would firmly keep its stand that it could not accept a complex name for the country. He also informed that, during his Nordic tour, he gained support for Macedonia that the regional approach should not be a condition for certain countries' associating with EU. Nordic governments belive that Macedonia should be treated according to its achievements in the fields valued for associating the Union, informed Frchkovski. He stressed the readiness of Macedonia to have a radical international presence, but, according to him, the various monitoring groups should evaluate the level of the results achieved according to the specifications of each country. [02] PIRINSKI'S VISIT POSTPONED BY MACEDONIAN MEDIA?Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry official yesterday stated for 'Nova Makedonija' daily that Bulgarian Foreign Minister Gjorgji Pirinski had postponed his visit to Skopje because of the 'numerous anti-Bulgarian articles that appeared in Macedonian media'.A-1 Television reported Pirinski's statement for the Bulgarian paper 'Trud' saying he would pay the visit later, when the moment for achieving more concrete results would be more suitable. The independent 'Standard', however, wrote that a scandal between Skopje and Sofia was in perspective. [03] BALKAN COMMERCE CHAMBERS MEETING IN SOFIARepresentatives of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, FR Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Cyprus yesterday attended the fourth meeting of the Balkan Commerce Chambers Association. 'Makpress' agency reported the statement of the Bulgarian Trade Minister that the renewal of production cooperation would improve the trade exchange, adding that there were possibilities for creating such structures in the Balkans. He also expressed his hope that the trade exchange level of $350 million between Macedonia and Bulgaria reached in 1995 would be maintained.[04] FRCHKOVSKI AND PANGALOS WILL NOT DISCUSS THE NAME ISSUE'The name issue will not be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Macedonian and Greek Foreign Ministers in Athens,' stated Minister Frchkovski for the Greek agency 'ANA' yesterday, reported 'Makfax'. As alleged, Frchkovski once again rejected the idea for a complex name of Macedonia, saying that the differences could be solved without changing the name. 'ANA' partialy denied this information, explaining that the talks with Pangolos were not the issue of the question put by 'ANA' reporter in Skopje.In the meantime 'Makpress' reported Minister's statement for the Moscow agency 'Novosti', saying that: 'Regarding the complex disputes with Greece on our country's name, we seem to be making a progress towards a mutually acceptable solution.' [05] INFORMATIVE MEETING ON THE SUCCESSION PROBLEMAt the informative meeting of EU and Macedonian representatives on the succession of former SFRY, Macedonian delegation repeated the stand that all former Yugoslav countries were equal successors. Professor Todor Dzunov, one of the delegates, informed the media that the British lawyer and Senator Arthur Wats will soon visit the capitals of all countries-successors of SFRY. 'It should be followed by conforming the stands for the Draft Agreement on the Succession at the beginning of the summer', added Dzunov.Slovenian, Croatian, and Bosnian delegations are also meeting EU representatives these days. Meanwhile, the European Commission yesterday confirmed the EU Ministers' stand that all five newly formed countries were legal, political and material successors of SFRY. [06] ARMED INCIDENTS IN KOSOVOFR Yugoslav agency 'Tanjug' informed yesterday that five people were killed and four were wounded in yesterday's armed incidents in Kosovo. One woman was killed during the attack of a police car near Kosovska Mitrovica, and one police officer was murdered in front of the police station in Shtimalj. The worst incident happened in Dechani, where a disguised person opened fire in a Serbian inn, when three people were killed, and more were wounded.The doers have still not been caught, but the ruling Serbian Party SDS leadership had accused Albanian separatists. They said Albanians had turned to the terrorism since the international community clearly stated that Kosovo must remain within FRY borders. According to Macedonian Television, the incidents were a reaction to the murder of the Albanian student Armendo Daci last Sunday, who made an attempt to steal the car of Zlatko Jovanovic from Pristine. [07] GLIGOROV WILL RECEIVE THE 'CRAN MONTANA' AWARD IN BUCHAREST TOMORROWMacedonian President Kiro Gligorov will leave for Bucharest tomorrow to attend the 'Cran Montana' Forum session and to receive this year's award of this Association from Romanian President Ion Iliesku.[08] GLIGOROV MET WITH TIMOTHY WIRTHTimothy Wirth, Under-Secretary for Global Affairs in the US State Department and Macedonian President Gligorov yesterday talked about the current situation in the Balkans and the development of the US-Macedonia relations. They expressed satisfaction with the improvement of the mutual relations and with the close stands regarding the maintaining of peace and stability in the region.Wirth also met with Macedonian Internal Affairs Minister Tomislav Chokrevski, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ministry Victor Gaber. He discussed the actions for protection of Ohrid Lake with the Mayors of Ohrid, Struga (Macedonia) and Podgradec (Albania), and the cooperation with the American State of Vermont. [09] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE POLICY DISCUSSEDMacedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Hanjiski yesterday informed a high delegation of the Economic Cooperation Sub- Committee of the North-Atlantic Assembly, led by the British MP Harry Cohen, on the basic characteristics of the Macedonian defense system, on the decision of the Parliament for Macedonia to join NATO and on the negotiations with the Alliance. As Macedonian Defense Ministry officially announced, the situation in the region and the need for extending the UNPREDEP mission mandate in Macedonia had been also subjects of discussion.[10] SWEDISH MEDIA ABOUT MACEDONIAMacedonian Television reported the article titled 'Macedonia-Bright Spot in the Balkans', issued by the Swedish weekly 'Tempus', which described Macedonia as a small country which had managed to avoid conflicts with the neighbouring countries and to control the tensed relations between the ethnic groups internally. President Gligorov's policy was estimated by the paper as a guarantee for the political stability of the country, due to his firm stand of keeping the country out of any kind of regional or Orthodox alliances, and of the orientation towards NATO and EU.Macedonian economy was described as positively developing, which gave the country the opportunities to obtain favourable credits from the international finance institutions. The article concludes that the young political leadership had very successfully and wisely met the requests of the numerous Albanian minority in Macedonia, by offering them solutions in the frames of the wide democratization process of the society. [11] EMIGRANTS ASSOCIATION JUBILEE'Macedonian emigrants association ('Matica na iselenicite') will mark its 45th Anniversary since 25 July till 5 August this year in Skopje, under patronage of President Gligorov,' was said at its annual meeting yesterday in Skopje, attended by Macedonian Orthodox Church officials and guests from Australia.The President of 'Matica' Dimitar Keramitciev informed the media that the Anniversary would be marked actively, by meetings and talks of the emigrants with the Church and governmental officials, in order to harmonize the stands and ways for improving the cooperation. [12] MEETING WITH EUROPEAN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVESToday's 'Dnevnik' informs that a Democratic Party delegation left yesterday for Strasbourg, for an official visit to the Council of Europe (CoE). The Party representatives Petar Goshev and Gjorgji Marjanovic will talk to high CoE officials about the efforts of Macedonia to reach the standards of this institution and to establish a more intensive cooperation.[13] PDPA-NDP - 'VOTING NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW'PDPA-NDP coalition leaders, on yesterday's press conference, said the voting that took place last Sunday in 102 Electoral Unit was not in accordance with the law, as it was helped by the governmental institutions and the police, and the international help was misused. According to them, the Candidate Rizvan Suleimani and the PDP Party in general were assimilated in SDSM.The leaders of these two opposition parties consider the Macedonian-FR Yugoslav agreement is contrary to the interests of all nations in the region and will not help in preserving the peace. It is, as alleged, a continuation of the secret actions of both governments and ignoring of the Albanian political subject in Macedonia, who fully support the independence of Kosovo. MILS SUPPLEMENT[14] 'A Diplomatic Scandal'('Nova Makedonija', 24 April 1996)After the Bulgarian police prevented the 'OMO - Ilinden' members from paying respect to the grave of the Macedonian revolutionary Jane Sandanski at Rozen Monastery, the eastern neighbour again surprised Skopje. Namely, the previously fixed and agreed on visit of the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Gjorgji Pirinski to Macedonia was postponed only two days before his coming. The two explanations given for the postponing have a quite negative connotation, are definitely untrue, and make one think that Bulgarian policy towards Macedonia is not always sincere.Strahil Cervenkov, Chief of the Bulgarian Foreign Affairs MInistry Department for South-Eastern Europe, said that Pirinski would not pay the planned visit to Macedonia because of 'the great number of anti-Bulgarian articles issued in the Macedonian media, which do not create a favourable atmosphere for a ministerial visit' (?!). The second reason was said to be that 'the formulas suggested for solving the disturbed bilateral relations are not constructive'. Republic of Macedonia had already witnessed other moves of the Bulgarian side which could hardly be qualified a normal diplomatic behaviour. But this last one, that is nearly a diplomatic scandal, makes Sofia a non-serious partner, with whom we could not communicate according to the diplomatic norms and standards. Macedonia does not need to justify itself, nor do its media, but it should be reminded that there were no 'anti-Bulgarian articles' at the period of accepting Minister Frchkovski's invitation and of organizing the visit. Even Cervenkov himself stated that nothing that had happened recently provoked the postponing, also excluding the Rozen Monastery incident. One has to conclude that the first reason is only a curtain behind which Bulgaria hides its true reasons. On the other hand, that accusation sounds funny when one takes into account the fact that the Bulgarian media had been using every chance to question the existence of the Macedonian nation. And similar, mildly said, provocations coming from the highest Bulgarian officials, definitely do not contribute to the strengthening of good relations, nor to a relaxed situation in the region. Just as reminding, the Chief Bulgarian Prosecutor Ivan Tatarchev rudely denied the existence of the Macedonian nation. The second reason, i.e. 'the non-constructive formulas suggested for solving the disturbed relations', refers to the statement Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski gave in Helsinki, that the stand of our Republic is that all agreements should be signed both in Macedonian and Bulgarian language, i.e. in accordance with both countries' Constitutions. Bulgaria, obviously not free from the historical confusion, can not accept that. The fact that the Bulgarian side had proposed signing of the agreements in both languages makes the situation even more absurd. Their pointing out this as the reason for the postponing of Pirinski's visit once again shows how serious partner Macedonia has in this case. Although it is difficult to find out the true reason for the non-exemplary diplomatic behaviour of neighbouring Bulgaria at this moment, it is definite that its attitude toward Macedonia is neither sincere nor friendly. The reason might simply be the bad timing calculations of Pirinski's headquarters. Namely, it is probably not exactly the best time for him to visit Macedonia now, when his chances to become a presidential candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and of the democratic left wing are very big. It might be considered risky for the future Bulgarian President to declare himself openly for good neighbourly relations with Macedonia. Especially at the time when Macedonia had normalised its relations with FR Yugoslavia, which is a result of the Macedonian foreign policy persistantly based on the principles of equi-distance with all its neighbours. But it is obviously in disagreement with the Bulgarian taste. (end)mils news 24 April, 1996 |
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