Meeting of the Pan-Macedonian Association’s Leadership and USA Region’s Coordinator with UN Special Mediator Matthew Nimetz

The meeting of the leadership of the Pan-Macedonian Association and the U.S. S.A.E Coordinator, Mr. Theodore Spyropoulos, with the UN Special Mediator Matthew Nimetz was held in a mild and friendlier climate than other times in the morning of Friday 6, 2009. “We are cautiously optimistic by this meeting,” said the President of the Pan-Macedonian Association, Mrs. Nina Gatzoulis “this time the meeting was held in a friendlier and milder climate.” Indicative of the climate is the fact that while our meeting was scheduled for thirty minutes it actually lasted for one hour.

                According to Mrs. Gatzoulis the Special Mediator Mr. Matthew Nimetz, after listening carefully to what she and Mr. Spyropoulos had to say, replied that he is merely an employee of the United Nations and advised to contact the U.S. government as well as European countries mainly France and Germany, as they have greater power and influence than he does in regards with the name issue of FYROM.

Mr. Nimetz indicated, “The new U.S. Administration could take a different path.” He also added that the actions of the FYROM such the renaming of airports, roads etc and naming them after Alexander the Great and Philip II, and raising statues and monuments using Greek symbols, clear provocations for Greece do not contribute to finding a solution to the name issue.

Mr Nimitz, referring to the arrest by the police of the Serbian student, citizen of the FYROM and philhellene Vasile Gligorov, who is a strong critic of the extreme nationalist practice of “macedonism” of the Slavs, mentioned that he read online that the student is suffering from schizophrenia. The Greek delegation disagreed with Mr. Nimetz, stating that reliable sources informed that the authorities of the FYROM have abused Mr. Gligorov and are holding him in prison. They also stressed that the international community should intervene in this case.

The two leaders of the Pan-Macedonian Association and S.A.E. mainly discussed the FYROM propaganda, which now exceeded all limits, and they both expressed their belief that the Greeks around the world would never accept the so-called “Macedonian” language and nationality. Mr. Nimitz tried to downgrade the importance of the fact by saying that it is merely an adjectival determination that the United Nations uses. Mrs. Gatzoulis elicited Mr. Nimetz’s concern when she brought up the impact of the presence of a “Macedonian” Army within NATO in Thessaloniki.

Mrs. Gatzoulis handed a relating memo to Mr. Nimetz and various articles regarding the FYROM propaganda distorting the Macedonian history. She also expressed her dissatisfaction regarding Gay MacDougall’s visit to Greece who under the UN mandate did an investigation on the alleged violations of human rights on minorities in the area of Macedonia and Thrace. 

                Mr. Spyropoulos stated that U.S.A S.A.E. Region supports the positions of the Pan-Macedonian Association as it expresses the Hellenic American community as a whole on this issue, adding that the Association is one of the founding members of S.A.E. He expressed the belief that the Greek government is doing its best regarding the interests of the country. Also he stated the Greek government will make use of the change of the US administration in the negotiations on the name issue of FYROM: «The Pan-Macedonian Association of U.S.A. has done an excellent job in the U.S. counteracting the FYROM propaganda. Always in cooperation with the Greek Embassy in Washington promotes the Greek positions, offering valuable services to Hellenism.”         

Dr. Tony Papadopoulos Vice-President of the Pan-Macedonian Association, the President of the Alexandeion Foundation Mr. Fotis Gerasopoulos, the Second Vice-President of the Foundation and representative of the Hellenic American National Council Mr. Bassilios Gatzoulis and Mr. Spyropoulos’ wife Mrs. Erika Spyropoulos participated at the meeting.

Following is the full memo, handed to UN Special Mediator Mr. Matthew Nimetz, by the Greek delegation:

We are very grateful to meet with you. As American citizens of Macedonian cultural identity (Macedonians are the Hellenes originally from today’s Hellenic province of Macedonia) we are very concerned with the latest events unraveling in the Balkans and of course with the recommence of the discussions between Athens and Skopje, regarding the name issue of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM), on February 12, 2009. 

                We are profoundly disturbed with the Brussels-based “International Crisis Group” (ICG) which lately issued a new report on the “name dispute” between Athens and Skopje, concluding by recommending, the “Republic of North Macedonia” as a suitable name for international usage, rewarding the Slavs, Albanians, Roma, Turks, Vlachs, Bulgarians and Serbs of the FYROM with the “Macedonian” ethnicity and the language of the Slavs as “Macedonian.” Republic of North “Macedonia” however might convey the impression of a divided country, one that should be reunited in the future. On the other hand the report of the ICG cannot and should not have any effect on the UN mandate which you have exclusive responsibility.

                Any attempt, no matter where it comes from, to reward the FYROM inhabitants with the “Macedonian” ethnicity and language is of course unacceptable to all Hellenes. Without bringing up the historical facts, the undisputable connection of the ancient Macedonians with the current Hellenes whose place of origins is Macedonia, the northern province of Greece, we would like to pose a question: how are today’s inhabitants of the FYROM connected with the ancient Macedonians?  Or better yet, with what logic the inhabitants of the FYROM are using the Macedonian name ethnologically, a name that preexists their very existence for thousands of years? It automatically demonstrates ethnic, cultural, and linguistic continuation.   

                Mr. Nimetz, it is your responsibility to explain to both parties in the strongest terms that under the UN mandate they have no authority to debate anything regarding FYROM, except the name of the country. Therefore you are responsible in blocking the FYROM leadership’s attempts to promote their so-called language and ethnicity in any way through the United Nations.

                In a few days the FYROM representative, the Greek representative and you Mr. Nimetz, will begin negotiations again about the name dispute. How could any logical individual cooperate with such lunacy as that displayed lately by the FYROM leadership’s initiative? In additions to erecting statues of Alexander the Great, his father King Philip, changing the name of the Skopje airport, naming a highway after Alexander the Great, promoting an ad on international CNN which appropriates the Hellenic history (especially on the website of “Macedonia”- Timeless), they have also decided that God himself told them that they came from the Aryan race, while everyone else is inferior.

                It was recently self-exposed when they promoted through National TV channels an approximately nine minute video, entitled “Macedonian Prayer.”  In the video God himself [!] appeared, telling the people of the FYROM that he “had populated the earth with three races of people, the white race or Macedonoids, the yellow race or Mongoloids and the black race or Negroids, while all other people in the world are mulattos”.  These extreme racial beliefs, which underlie a virulent ethnocentric narrative are especially troubling and dampen enthusiasm about the prospect of a viable and lasting solution to the perennial name problem.

                Also reportedly on January 28, 2009 the FYROM police charged into Mr. Vasil Gligorov’s apartment where they arrested him purportedly because of his activist actions. Mr. Gligorov, a university graduate in history, has devoted his efforts at improving Slavic-Greek friendship through the advancement of historiographic and anthropological scholarship about Southern Slavs in the Balkans and Greeks, as well as the various aspects of their mutual cultural and political relations. He is a strong critic of the extreme nationalistic narrative of “Makedonism” and one of the leading members of the Slavic Philhellenic Network. At this time, the whereabouts of Mr. Gligorov are unknown although we have learned that he has since been imprisoned and suffered physical and mental torture.

                FYROM must abandon the mentality of its communist past era that has resulted in hostile irredentist behavior towards its neighbors. The FYROM leadership’s eerie fascist performance is continuous. It is incredible that the FYROM Article 6 of the Law on the Scientific Research Activity as published in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” Nos.13/96 and 29/02, proscribes the development of any scientific research on the national identity of the FYROM Slav inhabitants in the 21st century!!

                FYROM is a small landlocked country in the southern Balkans with serious domestic issues, which exports problems and instability to its neighboring countries.  It is the only country in Europe that reciprocity and compromise are unknown, while irredentism and aggression are the norm.  It is the result of an ultra-nationalistic government that follows Macedonism, a nationalistic concept created by the communists, based on a history that they purposely falsified in order to hide imperialistic views.

                We wish to inform you that there has never been a Region of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad Organization, accepting a compound name for the FYROM, including the World Council Youth. This is exact the same position of the Pan-Macedonian Associations representing the four continents, as well as the majority of the Greek people in Greece.

                We feel very strongly that the irredentism and aggressive behavior of the FYROM escalated significantly, destabilizing the Balkans, after their recognition as Republic of “Macedonia” by the United States. We strongly feel that the UN should condemn the irredentist and aggressive behavior of the FYROM against Greece and demand that FYROM negotiates in good faith with Greece for a new name for their country.

Nina Gatzoulis, President                               Dr. Antonis Papadopoulos, Vice-President