The US is determined to isolate the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and prevent it from spreading into Macedonia, Macedonian Television quotes US General Leslie Clark as saying at a session of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. US troops deployed in Macedonia, he added, clearly show the interests of America and the West in maintaining stability in the region.
Macedonian Radio says Paul Tompson, Head of the International Monetary Fund's Mission, is to arrive on a several-day visit to Macedonia. He is to exchange opinions with Macedonian ministers on the realization of the stand-by arrangement over the past few months.
Niels Peterson, Foreign Minister of Denmark, will arrive in Skopje next Friday, June 16, to meet Macedonian officials to discuss ways of improving the bilateral relations and the situation in the region. Peterson will also be received by President Gligorov.
Representatives of parliamentary groups of the parties in the Alliance for Macedonia (SDSM, Liberal Party and Socialist Party), led by parliament vice-president Tito Petkovski, arrived on a two-day visit to Sofia yesterday, as invited by parliament members of the Bulgarian Democratic left wing. At a meeting yesterday, MP's from both countries agreed that the visit can and should initiate an intensified development of Macedonian-Bulgarian relations, especially in the fields of economy and culture, which are in a state of rest, due mainly to a misunderstanding over the language to be used in signing agreements between the two governments. Petkovski pointed out that both parliaments are mainly dominated by progressive forces that can influence their governments to overcome the differences, with due respect to history but without blindly sticking to it.
The suggestion was supported by the Bulgarian side which said history should be left to historians. Europe, they said, looks upon Bulgaria as a good example of how ethnic relations should be regulated, since Bulgaria - and this was underlined as particularly important for Macedonia - has no territorial aspirations toward any of its neighbors. Yesterday the Macedonian delegation was received by President Zelju Zelev and other senior politicians. Petkovski stated the hope that Macedonia will, as it has so far, be able to rely on Bulgaria's support for becoming admitted into the OSCE and the Council of Europe. The Bulgarian president stressed the good relations between the two countries as a basis for stability in the Balkans, expressing a strong personal belief that Macedonia's independence is a guarantee of the peace and stability in the region. All neighbors, he said, must realize this and recognize Macedonia. 'The previous boring past,' Zelev said, 'is known to us all but, unfortunately, we still have not found a formula for signing the several essential agreements. The obstacle to this is the language. No one is trying to deny the existence of the Macedonian nation, but examples have also been known of two nations speaking the same language. At the time being, there are no conditions for Bulgaria to acknowledge the Macedonian language and any attempt to do so could give rise to great inconveniences. The agreements have to be signed, even if we have to do it in English, since it is in the interest of both countries. We have failed to help Macedonia in any way thus far; Macedonia is a reality and this must be realized by all, especially by Greece, whose embargo is imposing damage on Bulgaria as well.' The Macedonian parliamentarians today met with Bulgarian Parliament President Blagovest Sendov and Prime Minister Zhan Videnov.
Macedonian and Bulgarian delegations met yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce in Skopje to discuss transportation of goods to and from Macedonia via the Bulgarian sea port of Burgas. Following the Greek-imposed trade blockade, this port is the only exit to the sea for Macedonia. A record of over 5 million tones of goods transported through Burgas was registered in January 1995, 770,000 tones of which was headed for Macedonia. With this in mind, Macedonian and Bulgarian businessmen met to agree on ways to intensify mutual cooperation. They concluded the first thing to do is to set priorities in exports and imports, and then to include insurance companies in the exchange of goods. Macedonia representatives presented problems faced by Macedonian companies when transporting goods through Burgas, as well as the need for imports of raw materials and payment through compensation.
Macedonian ambassador to Germany Srgjan Kerim met in Bonn yesterday with Sadzika Bashev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazahstan. They discussed bilateral relations, focusing on aspects of economic cooperation. The talks also included the possibility of engaging Macedonian construction companies in Kazahstan.
Yesterday, in Skopje, the Search for Common Grounds organization arranged a meeting between officials of the Macedonian Ethnic Council and Mr. Bolling and Mr. Nedzie, outstanding consultants and ex-congressmen with long experience in settling ethnic conflicts throughout the world. Members of the Ethnic Council spoke of past activities of this parliamentarian agency and its contribution to resolving ethnic problems in the country. The consultants expressed satisfaction with Macedonia's constitutional provisions dealing with ethnic relations. Both of them said the only place to seek solutions to all ethnic problems are local forms of government.
Macedonian Television reports that representatives of the Macedonian community in Australia met in Melbourne last weekend with Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia, and Nick Bolcus, Federal Minister on Ethnic and Emigration Issues. The meeting occurred on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Australian Law Against Racial Discrimination. Representatives of the Macedonian community expressed dissatisfaction with the situation of Macedonians in Australia and presented a bitter protest against the Federal Government's and the Government of Victoria's decision to rename them as Slav-Macedonians. This, they said, is contrary to multicultural principles and Australia's declared policy on equality of all ethnic communities on the continent.
They also announced an intention to initiate court proceedings against the Federal and the government of the state of Victoria, pointing out their decision has been supported by the Australian Human Rights Committee.
The Macedonian Government held a session yesterday to discuss the proposal for a law on elementary education and suggestions for changes to the Law on Archives. Cabinet members also went over several proposed international agreements of Macedonia with Poland and Ukraine.
At an annual meeting, held in Prague June 7-9, member countries of the International Airport Council talked about financing, investments and management of airports. Officials of the Skopje airport 'Makedonija' also attended the meeting to promote the two Macedonian airports as a part of the overall air traffic in Europe. Zoran Krstevski, General Manager of the Skopje airport, said the meeting's resolution are aimed at increasing the flow of passengers and goods, as well as the need for foreign investment in small airports in countries in transition. The Skopje airport, he said, is a good example of investments in such airports, as it has obtained a $15 million reconstruction credit from the Bank of Europe for Reconstruction and Development.
The leadership of the Macedonian Association of Cultural and Scientific Manifestations, at a session in Ohrid, stated that the letter sent by PDP to the Council of Europe is just another anti-Macedonian gesture inspired by Greater Albania ideas. Blinded by large ambitions, the Macedonian Muslims say, parties of Albanians in Macedonia fail to see the enormous step the Macedonian state has made toward securing equality for ethnic groups, and especially for ethnic Albanians in the country.
(Nova Makedonija, 13 June 1995) The Democratic Party of Turks in Macedonia recently announced a decision to withdraw its two members from the State Ethnic Council. The reason for this, stated at a press-conference last week, was the behavior of the two representatives, Nebi Alushevski and Amet Kenzovski, who, in the eyes of the party, acted in accordance with personal beliefs instead of upon coordination with the party. The press-conference was also used to express dissatisfaction in the party with the number of ethnic Turks included in the political life of the country and top leaders said the party will just have to correct its platform to introduce a more offensive approach to problems.
Erdogan Sarac, president of the party, says the goal and functioning of the Ethnic Council was supposed to be quite different from what it is today: it should have been a place where issues of interest for minority groups can be initiated and then submitted on to parliament. The Council, he says, was also to act as a means for alleviating political tensions in the country. 'Mr. Alushevski is a former party secretary. His greed for personal power, however, disgraced and damaged all ethnic Turks he was supposed to represent. His violation of basic principles of the party was the reason why he was recently excluded from its managing committee, as well as from his local organization in Resen. His behavior is below all criticism and we believe he is not representing or struggling for interests of the Turks in this country,' Sarac says. He added that neither of the two members have so far raised the question of the position of Turks in Macedonia.
'We are fully aware that it will be difficult to replace them by new members, as it is the Parliament that appoints members of the Council, but we will not give up. To start with, we dissociate from all their statements and behavior in the Council,' Mr. Sarac says.
As for the announced change in the course of the party, Sarac firmly reiterates that the party believes a dialogue within the framework of the system is the only way to resolve problems. But, he says, it seems that only the Turks in this country are the sole ethnic group that appear to think so. All other political subjects are aggressive and gain the minimum they are entitled to through maximized demands. In any case, the change will not bring anything radical into the party's program, he explains. 'We will only correct and make more precise some of our demands based on the constitutionally safe-guarded rights of minorities, in accordance with international conventions.' Asked to comment on the party's decision to withdraw him from the Ethnic Council, Amet Kenzovski, a lawyer from Kicevo, said he had not been informed of this and expressed skepticism on the reasons for the decision. Unlike him, Nebi Alushevski - the other Council member - thus commented on this: 'The differences are not between me and the party; they exist between me and Mr. Sarac himself, who is trying to introduce absolute power in the party and dislikes all who happen to think differently from him.' He said both he and Kenzovski are attacked for 'contacting enemies of the Turks'.
'Although the Ethnic Council was formed two years ago, it has been working really actively only during this year. I have attended all sessions and tried to participate in a constructive manner; this can be seen from the records from all the sessions,' Alushevski stresses. It is the party, and not its Council representatives, which is to be blamed for the fact that the interests of Turks in the country have never appeared on the agenda, as it was the party that thought it unnecessary to contact its own representatives and submit whatever demands it considered of priority. Other ethnic groups submit all of their demands through their Council representatives. Being aware of this, I myself, as a representative of the Turks in Macedonia, decided to undertake my own personal initiative and contacted several meetings with representatives throughout Macedonia over the past few months. My plan is also to come up with a draft- resolution on all problems faced by Turks in this country. Being a Council member, I do not feel as a representative of the party, but of all Turks here. In fact, just like all other members of the Council, I also do not believe that we can be blinded by party interests; just think what would happen if all ethnic groups had several political parties - like the Macedonians and Albanians do - whose interests would we struggle for then?'
In conclusion, he says, 'I would resign from the position only if I myself felt I was incapable of presenting and defending the interests of Turks in this country. Attacks on us are just another proof that certain individuals feel they can more easily justify their own faults by attacking others. I would only like to mention that things have really started to move toward improvement over the past two years, while the leadership of the party has no evidence whatsoever that it has achieved any of its program goals. All it succeeded in was to introduce a row between the Turks in the country and the system institutions, even failing to establish good relations with the Republic of Turkey.'