The President of the Hellenic Republic on the FYROM Name Issue
akritas
Athens on November 4, 2009 the President of the Hellenic Republic
Karolos Papoulias in regard to the issue of the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) noted: “The problem is simple. The
geographical area of Macedonia is since the Middle Ages a multiethnic
region. It is not the homeland of one single nation.
The tort of Skopje is that while as a state and an ethnicity is a
Part, it portrays itself as if it is the Whole. They call their
country ‘Macedonia’, their ethnicity and language ‘macedonian’,
because through these names they are trying to register mortgages in
all of Macedonia. The rhetoric for the great macedonian dismembered
homeland is serving this view. “
The President made clear that Greece is not seeking to baptize the
neighboring state, but resists to this attempt of usurpation.
“We support a composite name with a geographical qualifier for the
state that is for all uses, with the exclusive aim of the names to
reflect the reality of the region so as to act as a factor of good
neighborhood and not as a factor that poisons the bilateral relations
and the climate in the wider region.”
“Good neighborly relations between countries are not built on
outstanding issues” said the President, with a particular reference to
his personal efforts as a foreign minister.
“We signed the Interim Agreement in 1995 just to give the possibility
to find in a consensual climate a compromise to be grounded in the
reality of the region. Unfortunately, Skopje turned the planned
negotiation to a speculation process.
As a result, Greece has no choice but to set as a condition for the
membership of the fYRoM in the European Union and the NATO, a mutually
acceptable solution. As long as this outstanding issue finds no
solution, Greece cannot give its consent. “
“fYRoM itself has the key to its integration into the Euro-Atlantic
institutions” he concluded.
http://modern-macedonian-history.blogspot.com/2009/11/president-of-hellenic-republic-on-fyrom.html