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Macedonia's EU and NATO membership priority, but not at identity price, Gruevski tells "Die Welt"
27. February 2012. | 09:47
Source: MIA
According to Gruevski, EU membership is important for the country's economy, but one cannot compromise over the country's defining and statehood.
NATO and EU membership is in Macedonia's national interest and we are doing everything to achieve this. However, our accession has been delayed for too long due to the name row. Macedonia is ready for talks in settling this dispute, but they require two sides. The solution should not harm Macedonian identity and statehood, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski says in an interview with German daily "Die Welt".
"Our NATO and EU accession has been delayed for too long due to the name row. This is vital for our economy, but also for peace on the Western Balkans. However, our identity is at stake here. Greece disputes our right to name ourselves as we see fit - Macedonia. The International Court of Justice is on our side, ruling that we can join all international institutions under our name, which we chose after the breakup of former Yugoslavia, one in line with our history", stresses PM Gruevski.
Asked if something has changed since the Papademos government has taken over in Greece, Gruevski says there have not been any changes.
"Unfortunately, I have to say no. The new Greek PM has clearly said that the name settlement is not in his agenda. He probably has enough problems as it is. Nothing is budging. But, we continue to have hopes", says the PM.
Gruevski adds there is no other plan for the dispute's settlement besides talks.
"The Americans attempted to do something within their Balkan policy, but failed. There were also contacts on the part of the United Nations. However, there is no breakthrough on the horizon", he says.
According to Gruevski, EU membership is important for the country's economy, but one cannot compromise over the country's defining and statehood.
He says Germany is Macedonia's main economic partner, providing enormous assistance, and added, "we are successfully exporting wine, agriculture products, metals and textile, because we are price-competitive".
Gruevski stresses the name row has no effect on economic relations with Greece, which is Macedonia's third business partner.
"Increasing number of Greek companies want to invest on our side of the border. This is based on lower salaries, but also due to the lack of bureaucratic barriers, which halt industrial development", underlines PM Gruevski in the interview with "Die Welt".
Comments (7)
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28. February 2012. 08:22:05
| Ime
2
Perhaps if ultra nationalist Gruevski stopped playing "Macedonia" word games, stoped hiding FYROM's ethnic Bulgarian past, stopped stealing Greek history, and stopped encouraging his citizens to see parts of Greece as belong to the former Yugoslav republic someone other than FYROM apologists could take him seriously.
Whats truly disturbing is how some of FYROM smug apologists now pretend not to notice FYROM's identity change into "ancient Macedonians". Much like the Axis during WW2 Every single one of them are now colluding in FYROM ultra nationalists subtle attempts to ethnically erase Greeks.
28. February 2012. 08:22:05
| Truth Pravo
0
QUOTE:"The International Court of Justice is on our side, ruling that we can join all international institutions under our name, which we chose after the breakup of former Yugoslavia, one in line with our history", stresses PM Gruevski".
The ICJ ruling did nothing of the sort. Its a BLATANT LIE! Gruevski is deceiving its own people inorder to get Macedonia into EU/Nato organisations and have our god given name and identity changed forever. Here is a fact regarding this ICJ ruling. If Macedonia was to get accepted it would be under the name of fyrom, or a name settlement that Gruevski push's possibly "Skopje". Are the citizens of Macedonia that naive that not a single person can see and question Gruevski's tactics? wake up Macedonians.
28. February 2012. 12:43:19
| Ime
3
keep dreaming my greek friends macedonia...it was makedon..ia later romans changed it to macedonae...and alexander was alexandroy not alexandros. now go back read more greek history lies. London Protocol Of 1830 Created A Small(VILLAGE SIZE KINGDOM), Independent Greak Kingdom was Nafplion not Athens... 800,000 Greaks Lived In, Ruled By 17 Years Old Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig Of Bavaria, A German Prince. greaks official geographical books.. www.scribd.com/full/2575392?access_key=key-2h4cyy2rj3ahlu8ztga0
28. February 2012. 12:43:19
| Kosta67reth YouTube King
2
We Greeks are the RULERS of the world and will not allow a nation with an inferior complex tell lies, lies and more lies.
They shall not steal our history dated all the way back in the 19th Century when the Turkish set us free and gave us a German King named Otto which we made him 100% Greek named "Otho". He taught us to speak Greek and Hellenized us again since we only spoke Albanian. Today after 35 years of EU funding we have become so powerful that Germany itself is jealous of us superior Greeks. They have sent the IMF to tell us when to eat, sleep and poo. We tell them that they will not lose our pride and dignity. We have 5000 years of stolen history to brag about.
Now that can't be bought...only fabricated.
28. February 2012. 12:43:26
| Ime
3
The comment from Truth Pravo does not make any sense. Mr. Gruevski would never deceive the Macedonians by accepting a name other than Macedonia.
29. February 2012. 08:01:32
| Ime
1
History is always open to interpretation especially ancient history.Its important that today's Macedonians have the right to identify themselves as an independant group. Their identity has been denied ever since they became subjects of Rome and yet two thousand years later they still do exist. If Greece wants a geographic qualifier then it can call its northern citizens Greek Macedonians.
01. March 2012. 07:20:41
| Ime
0
@FYROM natioanlist Kosta67reth
Your smug straw man arguments don't hold up to facts dear. There are records of Greeks speakers in Greece leading back in an unbroken chain to... drumroll please... .the Koine Greek spread spoken by ancient Macedonians!
All of which makes it that much more curious that FYROM nationalists don't notice their Bulgarian dialect Yugoslav communists renamed "macedonia" is utterly unrelated. Apparently FYROM nationalists believe ancient Macedonian communicated by their Bulgarian dialect by telepathy because not a single artifact has ever been found written in it.
Which all begs the question, if the co-called "Macedonians" are so "proud" of their pure ancient roots as they claim... why in Hades don't they identity as Greeks... just as ancient Macedonians did? IN fact why are they downright anti-Macedonian?
I suggest the current inhabitants of the ancient Kingdom of Paeonia focus on learning about their BULGARIAN history before lecturing Macedonians in THE Macedonia (aka in Greece)about their identity.
"The political and military leaders of the Slavs of Macedonia at the turn of the century seem not to have heard Misirkov's call for a separate Macedonian national identity; they continued to identify themselves in a national sense as Bulgarians rather than Macedonians." - US Anthropologist Loring Danforth, "The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World", Princeton Univ Press, December 1995