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RESPONSE TO ICG
Honorable Gareth Evans, President
International Crisis Group (ICG)
Dear Mr. Evans:
On behalf of the members of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA
inc., I am writing to you to express our dismay and great disappointment at your
Group’s initiative and recommendation to the European Union regarding the future
permanent name of “Skopje” to be “Republica Makedonska” and for Greece to use an
internal name of “Gorna-Macedonia” or “Northern Macedonia”. Of course your
strong position was clearly expressed in your ICG Report: “Macedonia’s Name.
Why the Dispute Matters and How to Resolve It.”, dated December 10, 2001,
article published in the International Herald Tribune.
The ICG is apparently mistaking the patient stance of the Greek
Government to respond to the distortion of History and misappropriation of the
Greek Cultural Heritage of Macedonia and perhaps felt the field was wide open to
espouse and promote Skopje’s position to recognize the country as simply
“Macedonia”. If the ICG fails to comprehend the sensitivities of the Macedonian
Hellenism and their legal right to protect their Human Rights, their Culture,
History, Ethnicity and personal identity, it runs the risk to be transformed
from a crisis-preventing group to a crisis-spreading agency. It is more than a
matter of Foreign Policy; it is a matter of violation of the human rights,
personal identity and History of the Northern Greeks.
One could only wonder if the author of the report
or their prompters have mistaken the time and place of their initiative. Of
course, the author of the report would have discovered the fallacy over the need
to perpetuate the mythical ethnic identity if the analysis considered questions
such as:
A.
Why such insecurity and persistence over a particular fabricated name by
the Slav Nationalists?
B.
Why would the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) regime
continue publication of textbooks of distorted History in order to support its
irredentist aspiration towards Greece that advocates a united or greater
“Macedonia”?
The answers would have assisted the authors,
regarding the fabricated minute “Republic of Macedonia” by Dictator (Josip Broze)
Tito, in confirming the statement by then US Secretary of State, Edward
Stettinius, December 26, 1944, “This Government considers talk of Macedonian
“nation”, Macedonian “Fatherland”, or “Macedonian” national consciousness to be
unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic or Political reality, and sees in
its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece”
.
Indeed, Mr. Evans, you, the former Political leader
of a multi-cultural country, should have realized if FYROM, a mixture of a
multitude of peoples, abandoned the Greek Macedonian name and adopted another
one with the consent of its neighbors, it could well be turned into an element
of peace for the entire Balkan region. However if one aims at being an honest
broker he/she should take into consideration the side where the undisputable
Historical truth belongs, and that is with Greece. Therefore, Historical
justice must prevail for peace in the region to survive and for your highly
esteemed Group to maintain integrity and credibility.
Very Sincerely,
Nina Peropoulos
Supreme President
Pan-Macedonian Association USA
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