The Macedonian delegation, led by Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski has ended the official visit to Turkey, at the invitation of the Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. Prime Minister Crvenkovski met with the Turkish Prime Minister and the Turkish President Sulejman Demirel, while the ministers Jane Miljovski and Gjuner Ismail, as well as the Under Secretary in the Macedonian Foreign Ministry Victor Gaber, beside meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister, also met a number of ministers in the Turkish Government.
Before departing from Istanbul, in the meeting with the Macedonian press, the Macedonian Prime Minister assessed the visit as successful and productive. He said that the focal point in the talks was the East-West corridor, which received support from Turkey.
As to political topics, the delegation discussed the situation in the region, in former Yugoslavia, as well as the threat of a spreading of the military conflict.
Prime Minister Crvenkovski informed that Turkey's President Sulejman Demirel will pay a visit to Macedonia next month.
"My country feels that Macedonia has the right to be a member of the OSCE and will continue giving strong support for its membership in this organization and the Council of Europe," the Danish Foreign Minister Nils Petersen stated during his visit to Macedonia and the talks with Macedonia's Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski.
He expressed hope that the problems with Greece would be settled in a satisfactory way, which, according to him, is of great importance for the region, however, Greece should lift the embargo which Denmark has condemned as unfair from the very start, Petersen said.
In assessing the talks with Petersen, the Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski said that they discussed Denmark's to-date support of the accession of Macedonia to the international community and the ways of stimulating the economic cooperation. They also initiated the signing of agreements, for guaranteeing investments, avoiding double-taxation, which, according to the Macedonian minister, should create a favorable climate for the investors.
The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Stevo Crvenkovski is planning to leave for New York soon, that is to say, in some ten days. This will be his 22nd trip to New York in the last 24 months, related to the continuation of the Macedonian-Greek negotiations, Makpress reports.
In New York, minister Crvenkovski is scheduled to meet with UN mediator Cyrus Vance.
The Greek press speculates that the solution of the Macedonian question will be reviewed in New York, which is along the lines of a compromise with the small packet.
The head of the Macedonian diplomatic corps Crvenkovski emphasized, these days, that a "spectacular solution" should not be anticipated as yet, noting however, that "a disposition for overcoming the misunderstandings is being created."
"I've made a couple of more significant efforts for support. We promised a part of the equipment, strategic help, we also promised a type off air support which we delivered through the other UN missions. The U.S. has spent a lot of money and provided enormous support for the UN missions in Bosnia through NATO, through participation in the humanitarian air bridge, which now presents one of the longest air bridges in history," U.S. President Bill Clinton said, among the rest, in Halifax.
"I feel we have taken a very energetic and aggressive stand through NATO," he emphasized, "but I don't believe that the U.S. will send land forces as part of the UN to take part in any kind of combat situation in Bosnia. Our vital interests, I repeat, are in preventing the expansion of the Bosnian conflict, which is why we have troops in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We are also working very hard to help Bosnia and Croatia reach an agreement that would calm the war and minimize human losses."
"Macedonia and Croatia have similar viewpoints on all issues related to the situation in former Yugoslavia, and they feel particularly strong on the issue that the insistence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to be the sole successor of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia is unacceptable." This was concluded at the talks between the President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov and the Croatian ambassador to Macedonia Onesin Cvitan.
HINA reports that in yesterday's talks, Gligorov assessed that Croatia "has shown strength and a chance to get its territory back," and that "it is untenable for them to have occupied territories and that can't last for years."
In the talks, both sides positively assessed the arrival of the forces for quick intervention in Bosnia.
An eventual lifting of the arms embargo could bring about an expansion of the war for the Government in Sarajevo, the Macedonian President and the Croatian ambassador assessed.
HINA adds that Kiro Gligorov sent out an invitation to his Croatian counterpart Franjo Tudjman to visit Macedonia.
Mr. Henryk Sokalski, the newly-appointed Chief of Mission of UNPREDEP arrived in Skopje yesterday, for a three-day introductory visit. This will be his first visit to Macedonia since his appointment as Chief of Mission by the UN Secretary- General.
Following his arrival at the Skopje airport, Mr. Sokalski gave a brief press statement: "I'm very happy to be here. I'm honored as we have a very important mission here and we will do everything in our power to complete it successfully. With your help, I believe we will achieve success," Sokalski said, adding that he remembered Macedonia, i.e. the Skopje earthquake.
During his three-day stay, Mr. Sokalski will introduce himself to President Kiro Gligorov, the Speaker of Parliament Stojan Andov, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski, as well as other members of the Government. He will also meet the UNPREDEP Commander, Brig. Gen. Juha Engstrom and other senior political and military staff, and pay visits to the Nordic and U.S. Battalions serving with UNPREDEP.
Otherwise, pursuant to the March resolution of the Security Council, the UN Mission in Macedonia received a civilian Chief of Mission at the Assistant Secretary-General level.
"Macedonia has already proven politically, socially and economically that it can have a wonderful future provided certain outside pressure, like the Greek embargo and the UN sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro is lifted or reduced," Mr. Hugo Anson, the Delegate of the Special Representative of the UN said immediately before departing from Macedonia, following his one year-long stay as the civilian Chief of the UN peace-keeping mission.
Anson underlined: "Still, in view of the intensification of the fighting in Bosnia, the danger from an expansion of the conflict, that would create one more conflict region for Macedonia, should not be underestimated. This first preventive peace mission in the history of the United Nations has been successful thus far, however, the leading NATO forces should do everything necessary, with resolute action, to secure the sovereignty, territorial integrity and economic development of Macedonia, " Hugo Anson said.
The organ of the Bulgarian Socialist party, the newspaper "Duma" is promoting an idea of changing Bulgaria's position in the dispute with Macedonia in terms of the languages in which inter-state agreements will be signed.
Without backing down from the Bulgarian stance about the "equality of the roots," the newspaper wants the Bulgarian side to accept the documents from the Macedonian side to be signed in Macedonian language.
Until now, Bulgaria insisted on the formula "in the official languages in the two states," which, with the Bulgarian interpretation, was unacceptable to Macedonia.
"Duma" also quotes the statement of the U.S. professor Victor Freedman for "Nova Makedonija" that "the Macedonian and Bulgarian language have one sole Southern Slav parent," assessing that this is the best solution for settling the dispute.
The mediator of the Conference for former Yugoslavia Gerd Arens is due to arrive in Skopje today afternoon, to mediate in the talks between the representatives of the Macedonian Government and the representatives of the political parties of the Albanians.
This is yet another round in the marathon talks. The last one took place three weeks ago. Reportedly, in this one, beside the education, the central place in the talks will be the Law on local self-government, which is one of the main conditions for Macedonia's accession to the Council of Europe. 1
The church "Sveti Velikomacenik Gjorgji" (tran. note St. George the Martyr) in the village Globochani (Albania), which was unconsecrated in 1967 when the Albanian authorities in power at the time placed a ban on religion, was consecrated yesterday, again. In the presence of a large number of believers from Globochani and other villages from Mala Prespa, the act of consecration was carried out by the Metropolitan of Prespa and Pelagonija Mr. Petar, which was followed by a holy liturgy.
PTT "Makedonija" has issued certificates for the use of subscriber's automatic digital telephone exchanges to the famous U.S. firm "AT&T."
The company "Pikon," which represents "AT&T" submitted an application last year for certificates for the telephone exchanges that range somewhere between 100 and 25,000 subscriber's connections for small, large and middle-sized companies, as well as transit telephone exchanges (complete telecommunications systems).
In the meantime, the Managing board of the Macedonian posts adopted the plan for investments in the communications.
According to the plan, 338,760 telephone connections will be installed by the year 2000, of which 240,366 will be for new subscribers and 106,068 will replace a part of the analogue telephone capacities in the existing telephone network.
The total installed capacity by the year 2000 will amount to 643,080 telephone connections, and the average telephone density in the country will be 33.2 telephone connections to 100 inhabitants.
The plan also foresees the building of main and international telecommunications capacities, a ground satellite station, mobile telephone network in digital technology according to the Pan-European GSM standard, as well as modernization of the technological work process.
While this year, the unemployment rate in Skopje notes a considerable increase of even 21%, the need to employ new personnel is virtually at the same level as last year, without a tendency of intensifying. At the moment, 56,383 people are waiting for jobs at the Employment Bureau, 39,123 for the first time, while the rest have had jobs before, but stopped working for various reasons.
The main reason for this enormous increase in the number of unemployed is the influx of technological and economic surplus, the bankruptcy workers, which is all owed to the implementation of the Law on "loss makers," which encompasses the largest part of the workers from Skopje, i.e. over 7,000.
Meanwhile, 14,000 employment applications of personnel at all levels were submitted in this period, of which 11,007 were realized, 5,036 for the first time.
The two-day consultations on the experiences, problems and perspectives of the workers' participation, organized by the Macedonian Federation of Labour Unions and the Institute for Sociological and Political-Legal Research from Skopje, ended in Ohrid yesterday.
On the last day of the consultations, a number of speakers from the country and abroad expressed their views on this theme, whereby the thesis that self-government is a world trend when it comes to workers' participation, attracted the most attention. The workers' decision-making was also placed in the context of the privatization, however, it was emphasized that it does not guarantee a company's success.
Participating in the consultations were scientists and union members from the country, the International Labour Organization from Italy, Austria, France, Albania, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.