Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
May 19, 1995 07:47 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 414 words
HEADLINE: Greece's adhesion to WEU in doubt
DATELINE: BRUSSELS, May 19
BODY:
Greece's membership of the Western European Union (WEU) has been thrown into
doubt by its unilateral addition of a special clause to the act ratifying its
adhesion to the defence club.
The clause, which expresses a reserve on Athens acceptance of the International Court of Justice's jurisdiction, means that Greece has ratified a different document from the other nine WEU members.
Alfonso Cuco, a member of the Spanish Senate and the WEU's parliamentary assembly, has raised the issue with the WEU Council, the organisation's governing body, arguing that the reserve could only be valid with the formal agreement of the other WEU states.
The WEU Council is currently considering its response to the situation and could ultimately decide to declare either the reserve or the entire ratification document invalid, thereby disqualifying Greece of full membership of the organisation, which it only obtained on March 6.
Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain all ratified Greece's adhesion on the basis of a protocol signed in Rome on November 20, 1992 in which the competence of the court was accepted without any reservation.
The Greek document says Greece will not accept the court's competence in disputes related to national defence. This reserve is seen as protecting Athens in the event of conflicts with its neighbours: the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and Turkey.
A senior Greek diplomat said the ommission of the reserve from the 1992 protocol reflected a normal diplomatic procedure which excludes well-known reserves from documents.
This applied to the Greek reserve on the international court because Greece had applied it consistently since 1933. WEU diplomats however cast doubt on whether this explanation could justify the changes to the Greek document.
You've stolen our heritage, say the Greeks, referring back a couple of millenniums to the time of Alexander the Great. Indeed, there was an Alexander, but he was King of Macedonia, the modern Macedonians note.
The temptation is to dismiss the feud as farcical. Unfortunately, it is no trivial matter, certainly not for diplomats trying to contain the Balkan conflict.
Macedonia's stability is undermined by a Greek economic embargo, which is contributing to shortages and higher prices for everything from consumer goods to oil. Twice before in this century, the geographic region known as Macedonia has been a cause of wars. And should the Balkan war spread beyond Bosnia and Croatia now, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey might all be drawn in again.
To prevent such an explosion and deter the territorial ambitions of President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, who has not recognized Macedonia -- he considers it part of southern Serbia -- the United Nations has a peacekeeping force in Macedonia. Underscoring its concerns, Washington has contributed 500 troops. At the same time, however, Macedonia is kept in a precarious position, because, out of deference to Greece, Washington has not established full diplomatic relations with Macedonia.
Stirred in with the external threats from Serbia and Greece is the ethnic conflict within Macedonia between the Government and the country's Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the population of 2.2 million people, and who are campaigning for greater political and cultural autonomy.
Of all the destabilizing factors, the quarrel over the name should be easy to resolve.
Even though there was a Macedonian kingdom 2,500 years ago, Slavs and Bulgars moved into the region in the 5th and 7th centuries, and a Macedonian nationalism did not arise until the end of the last century. A discrete Macedonian state did not exist until the 1940's, when Tito created an autonomous Republic of Macedonia as part of Communist Yugoslavia, which still left a Macedonian province in northern Greece and a sliver of Macedonia in Bulgaria.
Even when Yugoslavia began to collapse in the late 1980's, the majority of Macedonians weren't clamoring for independence, preferring to remain part of a federal Yugoslavia. When that entity ceased to be viable, with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia, Macedonia declared its independence. Having been called the Republic of Macedonia for 50 years, it seemed reasonable to continue with that name.
For some Macedonians, there are other reasons.
"If I am not Macedonian, what am I?" asked 37-year-old Gordana Stosic, director of Macedonia's largest independent television station, overlooking the fact that the Albanians consider themselves Albanians, not Macedonians. Even for those without strong nationalist feelings, the name has come to symbolize resistance and survival against the Greeks. That will make a compromise name -- like "New Macedonia" -- even harder for Macedonians to accept. Greece has said that it will not accept that name either, nor any name with "Macedonia" in it.
Hail Alexander
For the Greeks, the name is theirs because Alexander the Great is theirs. Never mind that back then the Macedonians were not considered Greeks, that indeed the Greeks viewed them as barbarians -- meaning, literally, that they didn't speak Greek. That was before Alexander displayed his skills as a general and by the age of 30 -- after subduing rebellious Greek states -- had established an empire of some 2 million square miles, from the Adriatic to the Hindu Kush. After a couple of thousand years, Alexander is firmly established in the pantheon of Greek heroes.
More than a million Greeks demonstrated in the streets two years ago against the Macedonians' use of the name, a reflection of the political consequences for any Greek government that suggests compromise. A Greek journalist, Takis Machis, knows what it means to suggest conciliation. After writing two years ago that perhaps the Government's position on Macedonia was wrong, he was branded a traitor, and people offered to beat him up in the streets.
The 47-year-old Mr. Machis stepped into the fray again recently when he interviewed the historian Eric Hobsbawnon the subject. Mr. Hobsbawn, one of the leading scholars on nations and nationalism, said Greece did not exist as a nation in antiquity, that the Greek nation-state was a modern invention. He added that Greece had no exclusive claim to " Macedonia" because ancient Macedonia had not been part of a Greek state. These views, published in a Greek newspaper in late March, have generated hundreds of angry letters. Mr. Machis said that one reason several callers condemned him for giving space to Mr. Hobsbawn was because Mr. Hobsbawn is Jewish.
Not all of the Greek inflexibility over the name is rooted in antiquity and culture. During Greece's civil war, from 1946 to 1949, Greek Macedonia was the Communist stronghold, and Tito had plans for a broader Communist Macedonia that included at least the part of the region that now lies in Greece.
Tito and communism may be dead, but there are plenty of strident Macedonian nationalists who believe that all Macedonians, including those in the Greek province of Macedonia, should live in one state. Greece fears, with reason, that recognizing a " Macedonia" will stir these irredentist embers.
If Athens had had its druthers, Macedonia would have remained part of Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia. Like the Greeks, the Serbs are Orthodox Christians, and Athens has been generally sympathetic to the Serbs, who they see as the bulwark against Islam in Europe. In this era of nationalist conflict in which emotion seems to prevail over reason, the Greek position is easier to understand.
Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
May 19, 1995 17:55 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 374 words
HEADLINE: Greek - and Turkish- Cypriots to begin "secret talks"
DATELINE: NICOSIA, May 20
BODY:
Greek and Turkish-Cypriot representatives are to begin secret talks in London
on Monday to try to bridge the gap between the two sides on the divided island
of Cyprus, state television said Friday.
The talks, suggested by Washington and London, will take place in the London office of US President Bill Clinton's special envoy to Cyprus Richard Beattie, said the television, quoting diplomatic sources.
US and British officials will join in the talks, which will last several weeks. Attorney General Alecos Markidis will represent the Greek-Cypriots while an advisor to Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, Necati Munir Ertegun, will speak for breakaway northern Cyprus.
They will try to pave the way for the resumption of direct talks between Denktash and President Glafkos Clerides, a Greek-Cypriot, who have not met since October.
Government spokesman Yiannakis Cassoulides, a Greek-Cypriot, announced Thursday that representatives of the two communities could hold secret talks abroad with US and British diplomats acting as intermediaries to break the deadlock.
News of the talks came as UN special envoy Joe Clark ended a mission to Cyprus, after failing to get face-to-face talks going between the two leaders.
Clark left "empty-handed" after meeting separately with Clerides and Denktash, the official Cyprus News Agency reported.
Cyprus has been divided since Turkish mainland troops invaded the northern third of the island in 1974 following a coup in Nicosia backed by the junta then ruling Greece.
The United Nations, backed by the United States and European Union, is brokering efforts to set up a bizonal, bicommunal federation in Cyprus.
Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
May 20, 1995 18:06 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 334 words
HEADLINE: Greek Orthodox Church urges boycott of human rights conference
DATELINE: ATHENS, May 20
BODY:
The Greek Orthodox Church called Saturday on its followers to boycott a
conference this weekend grouping intellectuals and militant human rights
supporters.
It said in a statement that the "main objective" of the Athens "freedom to think" session was to "defame the Church, notably by condemning its so-called racism toward religious minorities."
The Church, which is linked to the state, urged authorities to be "vigilant" over the conference, saying "unfounded accusations" against it "attack national interests and are exploited by the enemies of our country."
Meanwhile human rights activists in Greece accused the Greek youth ministry of withdrawing patronage of the conference after pressure from the clergy.
The debates, which opened Friday and have been organised by the Pan-Hellenic Historical and Philosophical Society, include representatives from the minority Roman Catholic and Protestant churches.
They called Friday on the state to revise the constitution, which describes Greek Orthodox as the "dominant" religion, and denounced discrimination against non-orthodox minorities.
Human rights groups and Greek Roman Catholic leaders have stepped up calls recently to end what they label discrimination against minority faiths and the intolerance of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The conference is due to end Sunday with debates on racism, human rights and the role of the media.