MILS: News from the FYROM, 97-03-28

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From: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>

CONTENTS

[01] SIMITIS NOT TO VISIT MACEDONIA PRIOR TO RESOLVING OF NAME- ISSUE

[02] GREEK LEFT WING LEADER REQUESTS OPEN DISCUSSION WITH REGARDS TO ALL ISSUES

[03] THREE GREEK FIGHTERS VIOLATED MACEDONIAN AIR SPACE

[04] US FUNDING FOR REVITALISATION OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

[05] `AUDI A-3' PROJECT: `MACEDONIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDING THE RIGHT TO VETO'

[06] MINISTER PARAKEOV: `FARMERS NEED TO FACE MARKET AND COMPETITION'

[07] CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DEBATE ON CONTESTED `PF-BILL'

[08] ALBANIAN STUDENTS ON COLLISION COURSE WITH `PF' DEAN

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[09] `Interview with Fred A. Reed - Author of Salonica Terminus'

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 28 March, 1997

[01] SIMITIS NOT TO VISIT MACEDONIA PRIOR TO RESOLVING OF NAME- ISSUE

Macedonian media reminded yesterday that during his stay in Romania PM Simitis had revealed his intention to visit Macedonia, without however disclosing details on its actual implementation.

[02] GREEK LEFT WING LEADER REQUESTS OPEN DISCUSSION WITH REGARDS TO ALL ISSUES

Upon completion of their visit to Macedonia, the Greek left wing delegation is to continue their Balkan tour leading them to Tirana, Sofia and Ankara - in order to familiarise these countries with the compiled Greek project on developing good neighbourliness in the Balkans.

[03] THREE GREEK FIGHTERS VIOLATED MACEDONIAN AIR SPACE

[04] US FUNDING FOR REVITALISATION OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Of these 7 million, 1 million dollars is to be spend for the corridor itself - while the remaining 6 million dollars will be equally shared by all three involved countries, and used for the revitalisation and modernisation of their railway networks. Based on numerous estimates these funds will be implemented in their entirety to conduct necessary repairs of the fleet of vehicles and all equipment within this sector, as railway transportation has found itself in dire straits in all three mentioned countries. It has been stressed that the overall objectives of supporting and funding this project by the `TDA' is the strengthening of transport links among these three countries, which is to be conducive to the facilitating of communications between Europe and Asia.

Another conclusion passed during this meeting was that current events in Albania are not to influence the progress of the `East-West Corridor' project.

[05] `AUDI A-3' PROJECT: `MACEDONIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDING THE RIGHT TO VETO'

So far it has been agreed to involve Macedonian suppliers up to 25% in the production process of the `A-3' model, but not prior to the commencing of production itself.

`Dnevnik' stated that the new conditions are still being considered by the `Volkswagen' Board, and that should everything go smoothly the `A-3 National Vehicle' project should be signed by the beginning of next month.

[06] MINISTER PARAKEOV: `FARMERS NEED TO FACE MARKET AND COMPETITION'

Farmers in Macedonia need to keep up with competition of other countries in terms of quality and prices, as this will avert the import of agricultural produce. This - MTV reports - is part of the statement given by Macedonian Agriculture Minister Nikola Parakeov for this TV station, in response to complaints lodged by the Association of Farmers in connection to the placement of early agricultural products -i.e. that of cabbage, as huge amounts of this vegetable are decaying in the fields throughout the country. Minister Parakeov has been asked to improve the protection of agricultural produce by the state, as well as the allocating of development loans in the private sector. Another request focused on the endeavour to place early vegetables in Russia.

[07] CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DEBATE ON CONTESTED `PF-BILL'

In the opinion of the instigators of this initiative: the IMRO-DPMNE, the Students' Association of the `Ss. Cyril and Methodius' University, the PF students of Macedonian ethnic descent, MP Tomislav Stojanovski and the World Congress of Macedonians - this Bill allows the establishing of a parallel educational system, thus violating the autonomy of the university. The contended act of law is further reported to facilitate the ghettoisation and disintegration of the Republic of Macedonia.

Contrary to these views, the Macedonian Ministers of Justice and of Education - Vlado Popovski and Sofija Todorova - consider the Bill concordant to the unified educational system of Macedonia, while it affirms the right of ethnicities on education in their mother tongue.

In order to facilitate the passing of an objective decision by the Constitutional Court, several legal and educational experts have been asked for assistance. In the opinion of Evgenij Dimitrov the Bill is not contrary to Constitutional provisions, which is being justified by the right of minorities to education. Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski, who attended the session as a regular reader at the Faculty of Law, stated that Macedonian is and would remain the official language - while stressing that insisting on its supremacy in the educational sector was plunging the country into a crisis. Vladimir Ortakovski of the Faculty of Criminology emphasised that those favouring the Bill, based their claim upon the Framework Convention on Minority Rights which has not been enacted yet.

The discussion was closed by reaching a consensus on the fact that the Constitutional Court will have to pass a ruling on the Constitutional compatibility of the PF-Bill within three weeks.

[08] ALBANIAN STUDENTS ON COLLISION COURSE WITH `PF' DEAN

In this context - students report - that during yesterday's press conference the Dean explained that the administrative recognition of the semester would by contrary to the Faculty Statute, basing this on the Readers' Council of the Faculty which is being partially represented by the Deans' office and some of the readers at the Faculty. Thus Albanian students claim to be manipulated by the Dean who is also being accused of abusing the Readers' Council. In addition to this the students revealed that they have discussed the issue with Education Minister Sofija Todorova and University Rector Radmila Kiprijanova, who both promised to entrust inspectors with the investigation of this case.

Meantime, Albanian students are attending only those lectures being conducted in Albanian, i.e. 6 subjects in the first and 3 in the second year. This is the state of affairs in spite of the fact that the PF-Bill is already being implemented. Instruction in Albanian however is not being rendered with regards to all academic subjects, as there is a lack of qualified staff.

In connection to this entire matter A-1 TV reminds that the Dean of the Pedagogical Faculty in Skopje stated at the press conference following the last session of the Readers' Council that all students of Albanian ethnic affiliation would obtain all prerequisite signatures - upon recommendation of the afore said body - to register this winter semester in spite of the fact that they had not attended instruction.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[09] `Interview with Fred A. Reed - Author of Salonica Terminus'

(`Monitor', Fall 1996)

Aired on the Macedonian Radio Program Voice of Macedonia - Nov. 20, 1996 CHIN Multicultural Radio, Toronto (hosted by Dragica Belchevska) The interview was conducted by Mary Dimitriou of the CMHRC

M.D.:`Mr. Reed as you know I am a Macedonian from Lerin (or Florina as it is referred to in Greece). In fact many of tonight's listeners are Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia, which now forms part of Northern Greece. As a consequence, many of us are familiar with Salonica - the places and the streets of Solun - as we call it in Macedonian. Solun has always been the focal point of the geographic territory of Macedonia, not only for the Macedonians, but for many minority communities in the Balkans.

Can you tell us how you, as a non-Macedonian, as someone who is not even from the Balkans, how is it that you became so interested in Salonica that you would eventually come to write your book Salonica Terminus?'

F.Reed: That's a big question of course. I'd have to say that I was less interested in Salonica and more interested in what it stands for. I agree with your assessment that Salonica was the focus for the many communities that lived together in the southern Balkans and in the course of this century it has lost that status.

That struck me. Why was that? And through a very long process of research, of thought, of exploration it finally struck me that there might be something in common with what happened to Sarajevo during the recent, and to a certain extent continuing war in Bosnia and that which happened to Salonica 80 years before, in 1912 when the city ceased being part of the multi-national, multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire and became part of the modern Greek state.

In saying that I have to make it very clear to our listeners that I don't have an axe to grind with the Greek people, but the more one delves into the history of this city and how it became what it is today the more one gets the impression that something is being hidden.

As a curious individual, as a journalist, and as a writer, of course I am drawn to such situations, and because I felt this was an important subject to deal with, not only because of what it means for the Balkans, (but also) because of what it means to us in a country like Canada - which prides itself on being multicultural and multi-ethnic, but does have a minority problem in Quebec - that there might be, if not a parallel, at least something that we could learn from that. So if you like, those are the two main motivations that led me there.

M.D.:'As you are no doubt aware, the Greek position on minorities is that there are none in Greece - Official Greece claims that in Greece, there are only Greeks. Were there any attempts to prevent you from gaining information about minorities while you were in Greece, and how - if at all - has your relationship with the Greek community changed now that you have published your work?'

F.Reed:There are two questions there, I'll answer the first one. I'm aware of the Greek government's position that in fact Greece is the most homogeneous national state in the Balkans and that it does in fact have no national minorities with the exception being what they call the Greek Muslims, who live in Thrace, under the Lausanne Treaty. These people now believe that they are Turks but they are defined by the Greeks as being Greek Muslims. None the less, they are a national minority.

But I quickly came up against, what you might call a stubborn refusal on the part of Greek authorities to admit that there was such a thing as a Macedonian minority. I have to say in the sake of fairness that there is also a large Albanian minority there. I'm not talking about people who migrated from Albania after the collapse of the socialist regime but people who have been living in Greece for centuries and who speak a dialect of Albanians.

In fact who may be 10 or 15% of the population. However, the official position conflicted with what I was able to see and hear that in parts of Greece, languages other than Greek were spoken - currently, not on the air, not on TV, not so much in newspapers, but this language can be heard in the markets and coffee houses and so on, and it's not Greek.

One of the reasons that I set out to write my book was because I had heard other languages than Greek being spoken and said what is this, and (that) led me to the Macedonian question, through a long complicated process.

Was there any attempt to prohibit me from getting information - no, not while I was in Greece. I didn't ask for anyone to assist me in getting information, I simply proceeded to do it. I have no doubt that I was monitored by the authorities - I assume that's what they do, in fact in certain cases I knew they were doing that. My position is that I have nothing to hide. I am a journalist, that's my job, to go and talk to people and to listen to what they have to say, and this I did. After I published my book, which you could say is critical of the Greek government or the Greek state's position with regard to its Macedonian minority, I have had some difficulty with some people in the Greek community. There was an attempt to supress this book and there is an ongoing attempt to denigrate its author. I can only speculate as to why that would be.

M.D.:'...How did you actually find out that there is this population of Macedonians who this Greek government is saying does not exist?'

Reed: Let me give you an example of how this works. It's a slow process, drop by drop the water falls and begins to accumulate. I am on a holiday 5 or 6 years ago in Northern Greece the city Kastoria - Kostur...and we go to a taverna not in the city but in a small town on the other side of the lake where we have an excellent meal, we drink some wine, this place is full of people, and they are not speaking Greek. So I raise the question with the man who runs the place and he says, yes, we speak the other language.

I didn't carry it any further because I wasn't in the mood for a political discussion but aha, I said, what's going on here. Later on, at the same time, we went to a public market and behold we heard this other language being spoken and it was clearly not Russian, it wasn't Albanian, it wasn't Vlach, it was something else. So you could say that then the question entered my mind, the idea that there was something there.

After that , the Republic of Macedonia became independent and the name question arose - the question should Greece recognise it or not, clearly they didn't, they instituted a blockade and that's when I became truly curious because then it became almost dangerous to identify something as being Macedonian.

So you ran into this, I would say, refusal on the part of especially Greek officialdom to acknowledge the possible existence of such a thing in Greece, and speaking as a journalist and as a curious individual as soon as someone tells me that such and such doesn't exist well I am interested to test that thesis for myself. So really that's what happened. You could say that they laid before me a challenge and so I took it up. And I ended up finding out that, well... what were the things that surprised me that I learned. Well, first of all that there were Macedonians in Greece who said that they were that, who didn't say well we're Greeks who speak the Slavic dialect.

They said, no, we are Macedonians and we speak Macedonian, which I think took courage from them as I understood, as I later studied the question and as I later appreciated what had gone before.

...As a curious person, as I said before, I'm interested in finding out how we can deal with situations like this and find a way of avoiding them. If we understand the past and understand the present then we can, hopefully, find a way of avoiding mistakes.

M.D.:' Solun has, throughout the ages, been one of the most multi-cultural cities of Europe, and herein lies an irony that I think needs to be addressed. Since 1913, with the Treaty of Bucharest, and the annexation of that part of Macedonia containing Salonica, Greek authorities have undertaken campaigns of: ethnic uprooting; the transplantation of Greek speaking populations from Asia into Salonica; and, state sponsored suppression of the non-Greek communities in Salonica thereby attempting to give Salonica a `Greek-only' veneer.

Under these circumstances, how do you view the European Union's recent decision to declare Salonica as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 1997?'

Reed: This is a multi-faceted question, so I'll try and start at the beginning. I agree with you that there was applied, when the Greek army militarily conquered what was then Ottoman Macedonia, a policy of uprooting populations.

It didn't happen immediately, it happened gradually, but it can be documented, it's there. That's why I was interested in somehow a parallel, if not a direct one at least a parallel of intent or of mentality with what happened then in Salonica.

What is there about European nationalism which the Greeks were wielding at the time, because Greece had a program to become an expansionist state, there is no question about that. And they were carrying out a program they called it the `Meghali Ithea', the great idea, and they wanted to reconstitute the Byzantine Empire. This they were prepared to do virtually at any cost and they proceeded to attempt to do it.

You mentioned that they transplanted Greek speaking population from Asia Minor. That's not entirely accurate.

Many of the refugees that came as a result of the collapse of Greece's dream of occupying half of what is now Turkey, were in fact Turkish speaking people, and they came because they were Orthodox Christians. The people who left in many cases were either Greek or Macedonian speaking Muslims. Because the exchange was not on a national basis it was on a religious basis. In any case, that's what happened to the Islamic community. As for Slavonica's dominant Jewish community it was as you know disastrously destroyed during the Second World War by the Nazis and by their local collaborators. This multi-national, poly- religious city (Solun) and the country side that surrounded it became uniformly Greek. Now its' going to become the cultural capital of Europe. That raises interesting questions I think about Europe as it does about Salonica. If this society in northern Greece is going to come to terms with its past, then it has to address these questions...

M.D.:'Can you share with us a little bit of your future plans? What do you plan to do next?'

Reed: ...The deeper I dig and the moor information becomes available to me the more I explore this, the more tempted I am. Sometimes the things that look like the smallest subjects , are in fact the largest. Macedonia is very small but you might say that it has universal value in the sense of how do we define who we are? Can we allow others to do it for us? What are our responsibilities, what are our rights in doing this? So when I write about Macedonians or the Balkans or anything else... what I want is to raise those questions as they reflect on us as well...I am interested in the living entity here, that tells us very much about the way we live, and that we should open our eyes to that.

(end)

mils news 28 March 1997

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