As invited by Turkish President Tansu Ciler, Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski will pay an official visit to Istanbul on June 16 for two days. He will be accompanied by Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski, government spokesman Djuner Ismail and Foreign Under Secretary Victor Gaber. The delegation will meet Turkish President Suleiman Demirel and Parliament President Husamedin Dzindoruk. The prime ministers of Macedonia and Turkey are to sign agreements on the protection of investments and avoiding double taxation.
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov yesterday received Mr. Marasli, the newly appointed ambassador of Turkey to Macedonia, who handed over his credentials. The ceremony was also attended by Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski.
In an interview with the Greek TV "Mega", Minister of Defense Gerasimos Arsenis said that the so-called small package is applicable and resolvable almost immediately. For the first time officially, Arsenis said that the package includes corrections to Macedonia's constitution, removal of the Vergina Star from the Macedonian flag, lift of the Greek embargo and renewal of trade cooperation between Greece and Macedonia. According to him, the name issue will be left for a later stage of the negotiations, as no solution is possible now. The small package would normalize relations considerably, enabling the two countries to continue talks on the 'difficult name issue'.
Athens's News Agency reports that farmers' associations from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will hold their first inter- Balkan meeting in Greece on Friday.
The two-day meeting, organized by the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Greece, will focus on the condition of agriculture in the Balkan countries, prospects for cooperation among the agricultural associations of the Balkan countries, and joint actions and prospects for incorporation with European agricultural organizations.
The Government of Switzerland approved 10.2 million Swiss francs as part of their technical cooperation and financial aid for Macedonia. Eight million francs are to be used for financing infrastructure projects and protection of the Ohrid lake, and the remainder is to cover Macedonia's debts to the World Bank.
Macedonian Parliament President Stojan Andov gave an interview yesterday for the Sofia daily, The Standard. A1 Television reports that Andov said Macedonia will continue its policy of equal readiness to cooperate with all 4 neighbors. He said the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations struck a good start, but that official contacts have slowed down. It would not be good, Andov said, to delay the necessary process of establishing civilized and friendly relations because of political reasons or burdens from the past. He said the language dispute was one of the obstacles to the process. Everyone knows, he said, that a language is called as it is referred to by the people using it.
In conclusion, Andov denied that there is an internal dispute in Macedonia over its European orientation. Membership to European institutions will only secure better protection of human and civil rights of all citizens and open doors to economic progress, he stressed.
Upon returning from a visit to Bulgaria, Macedonian Parliament vice-president Tito Petkovski gave an interview with Macedonian Television, to say, 'It will take a certain amount of time before the Macedonian state, nation and language are accepted in Bulgaria as a living reality. We avoided arguments aimed at proving what happened throughout history and did not insist that Bulgarian historians and academicians change their opinion on Macedonia. As politicians, we went to Bulgaria to explore pragmatic ways to open perspectives for inclusion of both Macedonia and Bulgaria into civilized European nations that are sincerely interested in economic, political and all other kinds of cooperation. It is only in this way that we believe all disputed issues can be overcome. What we could conclude was that problems exist only in the signing of official agreements and recognition of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.'
Balkan relations and stability were the topics discussed at a recent NATO session in the Bulgarian capitol Sofia. Ljubomir Popovski and Dimitar Trpenovski, members of the Macedonian Parliament, attended the conference at which Macedonia was officially invited for the first time. They underlined the importance of the session, at a time when the North Atlantic Treaty is expanding to include countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The session, Popovski said, opens a possibility of permanent parliamentarian presence of Macedonia in the NATO Assembly. He announced that a letter would be sent to the organization by Parliament President Andov, applying for a certain status to be granted to Macedonia.
Among other things, the conference pointed out Macedonia's importance to stability in the region, calling to all neighboring countries to speed up the process of completing their relations with this country. Yet, it was said, the entry of Macedonia into NATO is connected with fulfilling certain criteria, such as restructuring the defense system, new telecommunication and others.
A1 Television reports of a working meeting, held yesterday within government premises, between the Government Privatization Commission, led by Minister Risto Ivanov, and officials of the Privatization Agency. Unofficial sources say the talks focused on criticism by the government of insufficient transparency of the work of the Agency and the practice of leaving decisions in the hands of lower committees. They also discussed criteria upon which the Agency appraises the privatization programs of companies.
At its 20th session yesterday, the Macedonian Parliament passed a proposal on issuing a law on transportation. The law is to regulate both domestic and international transportation of passengers and goods and coordinate it with the new constitution and international conventions. Parliament members also appointed 4 new judges and suggested several replacements in the Supreme Court of the country.
The Constitutional Court of Macedonia held a session yesterday to abolish the decision on an increase of the registration fee for lawyers. They also abolished additional provisions of the law which denied registration to lawyers who consume alcohol, are engaged in homosexual activities, have been legally prosecuted, fired from a governmental or public position, have failed to meet the criteria for being appointed public prosecutors, or to meet retirement requirements. In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, the Bar Association has no right to issue additional conditions for admission beyond those determined by the law. The Court also initiated a procedure for evaluation of constitutionality of the public electricity company's decision to increase the price of electricity which was made on April 12, as well as the government's decision, made on April 10, to determine the highest level of electricity prices. The decisions, in the eyes of the court, divide citizens into consumer categories and introduce inequality among them. The Court also adopted several other decisions in its jurisdiction.
A1 Television reports the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) has one parliament deputy less as of yesterday. Asami Ibraimi notified Parliament President Stojan Andov of his decision to act as an independent deputy in future. The reasons stated was dissatisfaction with the political and economic situation in the country and especially with certain PDP ministers.
Deans of elementary schools with classes in the Albanian language decided that 3 classes a week in the Macedonian language are too much for first-to-eighth grade pupils. Believing children at that age are not able to accept two languages at the same time, they requested that the Macedonian languages in such schools be taught starting from the fifth grade.
Deans also demanded that 60 per cent of the material in the Albanian language focuses on national culture and that schoolbooks be written by native speakers of the Albanian language.
At a press-conference yesterday, VMRO-DP and VMRO-MNDS announced that they had signed an agreement on a joint campaign for the next local elections of members to parliament. The two parties will appear under a common name of VMRO-United. VMRO-MNDS president Tomislav Stefkovski attacked VMRO-DPMNE and PDP for 'irresponsible behavior' and opposing the entry of Macedonia in the Council of Europe which, according to him, creates an anti-Macedonian coalition.
A UNICEF publication entitled 'The Progress of Nations' was promoted in Skopje yesterday. Presenting the bulletin Simon Strahan, Chief of the UNICEF Mission to Skopje, said Macedonia has achieved significant results in the protection of children - especially by vaccinating 96 per cent of children in the country against smallpox which ranks Macedonia as third in the world and by ionizing the salt by 100 per cent.
Ohrid will host the 34th Balkan Folk Song and Dance Festival, July 5-10. Sixteen folk singing and dancing groups, from Latvia, Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Hungary, Turkey and Macedonia, will compete at the festival.
Yesterday experts of the State Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments discovered a luxurious cemetery in Stobi filled with glass and ceramic objects and jewelry. The cemetery will be conserved and transferred to a museum.
The Macedonian Soccer Association was officially notified yesterday, by the Union of European Football Associations, that the Sileks soccer team (having entered the finals in the Macedonian Soccer Cup) will also be included in the European soccer competition, along with the national champion Vardar.
Minutes after 2 p.m., an earthquake was felt in Skopje yesterday, the epicenter of which was 35 km to the north in Yugoslavian territory. The shake in Skopje and its surroundings amounted to 4-5 degrees.
Meantime, Athens News Agency reported a strong earthquake hitting the Peloponeas this morning and killing at least 6 and injuring dozens of citizens. Buildings in the Greek place called Egion were brought down by the earthquake.