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Macedonian MFA: No reasonable arguments for Macedonia to be left out of NATO
07. February 2012. | 08:38
Source: MIA
Macedonia has met NATO membership criteria, but Greece's blockade due to the name dispute remains. The Chicago summit will not focus on the enlargement process, its participants will mainly discuss security challenges in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of combat troops from the country.
Macedonia has met NATO membership criteria, but Greece's blockade due to the name dispute remains. The Chicago summit will not focus on the enlargement process, its participants will mainly discuss security challenges in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of combat troops from the country.
Up until the summit and afterward, Macedonia will make efforts to elaborate that there is no single reasonable argument the country to be left out of NATO, officials in the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) have said.
The goal, they add, is to get what the country deserves - a seat in NATO and in this respect all possible arguments to be presented that need to be taken into consideration in the decision-making process. Consequently, Macedonia's participation in ISAF is being underlined, being the fifth contributing country in the mission, and in the Adriatic Group (A5), led by the United States.
NATO membership is not only a benefit for Macedonia, but also for NATO in terms of concluding security challenges in the region, it has been stated. One aspect that needs to be taken into account is the fact that the US has invested a lot in the countries in the region in being transformed from importers to exporters of security.
Commenting the possibility Macedonia after all to be included in the summit's agenda by engaging several members of the North Atlantic Pact, MoFA officials have stressed that 27 out of 28 member countries are absolutely sure that Macedonia should join NATO immediately, however the decision-making mechanism needs to be taken into consideration, where an approval from Greece is necessary.
Athens is behaving in a fashion suggesting that Greece fails to see the judgement of the International Court of Justice as an encouragement for dialogue, instead it postpones a substantial dialogue to take place. An additional factor used by Greece are its primary attempts to tackle the debt crisis. MoFA officials have estimated that it is a good opportunity for UN name mediator Matthew Nimetz to visit the two countries in due time in order to instill a fresh momentum in name talks.
There is absolutely not a single reasonable argument - political or related to security and at bilateral level - for ongoing hindering of something that is considered illegal by international law and that is not beneficial neither for Greece nor for the Alliance from a political point of view, MoFA has said.
They point out that the practice established by the Interim Accord has been breached at the Bucharest summit, which was the reason for filing a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. After Greece violated the agreement, which was affirmed by the Hague court, there is a new element that the decision in Bucharest in 2008 was reached in an environment where a member state had violated an international legal framework. In fact, from a legal point of view, Greece failed to abide by its obligation stemming from the International Accord.
Considering the EU accession, MoFA official have said they expect Macedonia with the high-level accession dialogue to keep on making headway in meeting its priorities. The goal is to get a date for start of membership talks as soon as possible, which is also in the interest of the European Commission.
With respect to Macedonia's chairmanship with the SEE Cooperation Process, which is to be taken over in June, it has been announced that activities will aim at making practical steps by forming a so called economic council of wise men in the frames of the oldest initiative for cooperation in the region.
Comments (7)
Enter text:
07. February 2012. 19:25:16
| Ime
10
The International Court of Justice found Greece Guilty of blocking Macedonia from joining NATO.
Should Greece attempt another such blockade; it will be dragged before the ICJ as a repeat offender, and the ICJ will then have no other option but order Greece to cease and desist from any such actions and will impose fines that will amount to billions.
Whatever credibility and reputation Greece has left as a result of this financial fiasco of their own making, will be lost.
The judges at the ICJ are not silly to have reached the decision they did.
For the last 20 years Greece has been using and abusing their NATO and EU membership as a means to destroy this small country.
The ICJ ruling is sufficient evidence that shows for all to see that the World is waking up and saying to Greece; hey, we will no longer tolerate your illegal behaviour.
08. February 2012. 09:07:59
| Ime
5
The ICJ judges that voted for FYROM are all from nations that decided to reference the former Yugoslav republic as Macedonia. They lost all moral credibility by pretending not to notice FYROM's sudden identity change into "ancient Macedonians" and ignoring the other clauses of the agreement (including clauses against theft of history and irredentism)
08. February 2012. 16:36:34
| Ime
2
the ICJ has not decided on stealing and using Hellenic history and pretend it is not Hellenic history by people. No-one who calls himself historian or even went to school (other than FYROM schools) thinks that the people who reside nowdays in FYROM have anything to do with Alexander the Great. check out the list of history professors http://macedonia-evidence.org/obama-letter.html "this silliness has gone too far"
09. February 2012. 08:37:44
| Ime
1
Come on grow up you people from archaia the Great King of Macedon Philip the second territory from the Adriatic on the west,River Danube to the north,to Thessaly&Epirrus to the South.
No matter whether you like it or not The Republic of Macedonia is part of Ancient Macedon end of story.
09. February 2012. 08:37:44
| Ime
3
When I write a comment I base it on factual information
The Greek side has for some time now offered their version of events in the time of Philip and Alexander
However, as they say there are two sides to a story and the new evidence that is coming out of the Macedonian side is not to be ignored
New evidence shows that the Macedonians were a completely different race from the Greeks
It is an undeniable fact, had you even mentioned the name MACEDONIA twenty years ago, you would have been arrested by the Greek police and tortured for betrayal of the Hellenic cause.
All of a sudden, the Greek Government is slapping the name of MACEDONIA on anything and everything. WHY?
In your comments you claim that the country you call fyr Macedonia is stealing Greek history and identity, which is absolutely absurd.
It is time Greece realises the reality of the situation and stop lying to yourselves.
Taking Philip the second for example...this fellow was a merciless killer.
He killed for sport and his own enjoyment!
And do you want to know what he wanted to kill most; Athenians he hated them.
His armies would burn, pillage and rape.
The situation was so bad the Athenians had a name for Philip; “the pestilent knave from the north”
Why it is his armies DIDN’T burn Macedonian villages, take their belongings and rape Macedonian women? The answer is; they are his people!
As far as your professors are concerned,with new reliable evidence and DNA coming, they will be left red faced for telling lies.
19. February 2012. 23:22:04
| Ime
2
"it is an undeniable fact, had you even mentioned the name MACEDONIA twenty years ago, you would have been arrested by the Greek police and tortured for betrayal of the Hellenic cause."
It is an "undeniable fact" you are a liar. Greece has been using the name Macedonia since BEFORE it liberated our homeland from the Ottomans during the Balkan wars (schools, newspapers, churches, adminstrative regions, etc). What Greece objects to the usage of the name by the former self-identifying ethnic Bulgarians of FYROM who attempt to exploit the name to usurp not only territory by out very identity.
19. February 2012. 23:22:04
| Ime
2
"it is an undeniable fact, had you even mentioned the name MACEDONIA twenty years ago, you would have been arrested by the Greek police and tortured for betrayal of the Hellenic cause."
It is an "undeniable fact" you are a liar. Greece has been using the name Macedonia since BEFORE it liberated our homeland from the Ottomans during the Balkan wars (schools, newspapers, churches, adminstrative regions, etc). What Greece objects to the usage of the name by the former self-identifying ethnic Bulgarians of FYROM who attempt to exploit the name to usurp not only territory by out very identity.