In an interview with the Greek daily Kathimerini, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said it would take time for Macedonia and Greece to sit down at the negotiating table and resolve mutual differences, A1 Television reports. Ghali underlined that it is in the interest of both countries to solve the problem, as both sides are suffering losses due to the Greek embargo on Macedonia. He denied a possibility of returning the entire issue to the UN Security Council, emphasizing that mediator Cyrus Vance is ready to continue with his good services and is optimistic. Such disputes, Ghali said, cannot be resolved within only a few months, as they are like ordinary family rows, which start from nothing and then grow as time goes by. In the end, differences increase so much that it takes a great deal of effort to bring their viewpoints close together, to come up with a common starting point and to sit at the negotiating table.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski is currently visiting Strasbourg, invited by the chairman of the Council of Europe's Ministerial Committee. Crvenkovski met with the head of the Council's Political Issues Department, to discuss admission of Macedonia into the Council. Macedonia's membership application will be considered at the next session in September, along with the applications of Croatia and Ukraine. The Republic of Albania was yesterday received as a full member to the Council of Europe.
Macedonia and Albania signed yesterday in Tirana a protocol on cooperation in the fields of agriculture, forestry and water industry. The document was signed by the two countries' ministers Ivan Angelov and Hasan Halili, in the presence of the Macedonian ambassador to Albania, Nikola Todorcevski.
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that full diplomatic relations have been established between Macedonia and Mongolia at the ambassadorial level, on June 27.
At the summit in Cannes, the raising of the Greek-Turkish relations issue and the EU country members' request that Greece lift its embargo on Macedonia resulted in a strong anti-European campaign in Greece, A1 Television says. Prime Minister Papandreou and circles close to the government blamed Germany, France and Spain for the fiasco of the Greek foreign policy. Newspapers say that Greece was exposed to pressure in Cannes and the absence of solidarity. The opposition, on the other hand, severely attacked Papandreou and his administration for the failure of an international plan, saying Greece may now be considered as having neither a prime minister nor a government. The isolation Greece brought upon itself in Cannes, the opposition warns, may prove dangerous. The New Democracy leader and the Communist Party of Greece demanded an urgent parliament session. Spokesman for the Government Evangelos Venizelos refuted the opposition's demands, explaining nothing so dramatic has happened to require the re-examination of the country's foreign policy at a parliament session.
The Macedonian Government held a session yesterday to discuss and determine texts of agreements for stimulation and mutual protection of investment operations between Macedonia and Poland. Cabinet members also made changes in the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives, accepted a financial plan of the Agency for Reconstruction of Banks in Macedonia for the current year, and adopted the 1994 Annual Report on the work of the Payment Operations Bureau.
A European Documentation Center (EDC) was opened in Skopje yesterday, with a head office at the Faculty of Economy. The EDC is part of a wider network of such centers, formed by the European Commission's Tenth General Section for Informing, Communication and Media. The idea for such a center in Skopje goes as far back as the very beginning of Macedonia's existence as an independent state as part of its European orientation. The EDC will be open to the entire Macedonian public and the wider region and will provide access to documents of the European Commission, Ministerial Council, European Court of Justice, Euro Parliament, Economic and Social Council of Europe and other EU services and institutions. The Center will also offer EU bibliographies, bulletins, leaflets, newspapers and catalogues.
The Trade Union of employees in the administration, judiciary, social organizations and associations yesterday held a session to discuss the Government's decision to rationalize the number of employees in administration agencies and let go nearly 4,800 employees. The Union presidency stated several conclusions: the Union, it was said, is not against rationalization, but will insist on an analytical estimate of each ministry separately; there is a need for a law to regulate administration, employees in the administration and local self-government; acts on systematization must also be passed by all ministries and a collective agreement needs to be signed at the level of administrative agencies. The Union made numerous remarks against the ministries and their top officials on the grounds of creating new jobs and employing people on a daily basis, despite the announced rationalization. Union officials resolutely demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, requesting that the government hold a session to state its position on the Union's standpoints.
Radio Skopje informs that the Macedonian Ministry of Defense has introduced several staff changes at its top. One under- secretary and three minister's assistants have been released of duty. According to the Radio, this is done so that the ministry increases its work efficiency in the future.
The Macedonian and Greek communities in Australia held a meeting recently in the capitol Canberra. Media in Macedonia report that the meeting went in a very tolerant and constructive atmosphere. The dialogue, introduced in March, 1994, is expected to continue in the future in order to lower the tension between the two communities.
Romas in Kumanovo yesterday formed a Democratic Party for Complete Emancipation of Romas, appointing Sevdian Suleimani a party president. The party will struggle for true political, economic, social and cultural emancipation of Romas in Macedonia.
The National Bank of Macedonia will release new Denar coins of 1, 2 and 5 Denars, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. An additional quantity of the same coins will also be released for the use of collectors.
(Puls, 30 June, 1995)
The recent visit of a high Church delegation to Australia, although treated with optimism both in Macedonia and on the fifth continent, seems to have only reopened old differences. The already existing gap between Macedonian believers and church communities in Australia (especially after the registration of a new eparchy by 12 church communities without a blessing by the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a result of their dissatisfaction with the work of the previous Cannon eparchy, as well as after metropolitan Father Timotei was relieved of his duties) continued to grow deeper, despite the quite different predictionsof resolution. Differences apparently culminated over the last few years when delegations of the two opposed sides came to the homeland seeking aid and support. In addition, church rows frequently tended to enter the field of politics. The followers of the Cannon eparchy opposed the act of registration of a new eparchy on an 'address of a refrigerator storehouse', fearing that the already non-economically managed church funds will now be even used to finance political parties!
The followers of the new eparchy, on the other hand, accused the other side of concentration and abuse of power in the eparchy and long-lasting collaboration with the leaders of both the old Socialist and present Macedonian ruling apparatus for the sole purpose of personal interest. This collaboration, they claim, has also been aimed at maintaining the old links between diplomatic representative offices, the Emigrant Cultural Association and certain priests and activists in the church communities, the ultimate goal being the destruction of the Macedonian national identity! Thus, they encouraged the differences between emigrants from the old Socialist republic of Macedonia and Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia, as well as differences between old and new immigrants to Australia, all this taking place after the influence of the Australian branch of VMRO-DPMNE grew and differences appeared between the followers of the parties in power and the opposition.
The Holy Synod of the Macedonian Church (now governing the eparchy, having relieved metropolitan Timotei and his deputy Spase Stefanovski of their duties) fulfilled its promise to introduce measures to calm down the situation in the Australian Macedonian eparchy by sending a delegation to Australia who were welcomed by Macedonians there as a first step towards the appointment of new church leaders. Yet, although the high Church delegation - consisting of metropolitan of Prespa and Pelagonija Father Petar, metropolitan of Bregalnica Father Stefan (who returned home earlier for family reasons) and deacon Ratomir Grozdanovski - spent several weeks in Australia and visited almost all Macedonian church communities there, the schism between the believers remains acute, despite the optimism of the Macedonian Church, which assured there is only one eparchy of Macedonians in Australia.
Letters of readers of the Australian newspapers published in Macedonian frequently speak of confrontational viewpoints on the success of the delegation's visit and of the clash the meeting turned into. Part of the readers describe the visit as extraordinarily successful and the Eparchy Assembly (first after 1991) as finally overcoming the long-lasting splits. This, they say, is not accepted only by those 'struggling in a last attempt to avoid going down to the very bottom' and serving the Devil himself; Father Petar is at the same time accused of having been 'a metropolitan who only created splits' by favoring the illegally registered eparchy and giving it legitimacy at an assembly. Indeed, the Eparchy Assembly did take place at the church of 'St. Prophet Ilija' on June 5, but without the attendance of delegates from the two largest churches in Melbourne, who supported the old Cannon eparchy. Furthermore, they say that the assembly worked upon a chaotic agenda and without a quorum since the representatives of church communities had long neglected to pay membership fees and had no legitimacy, and that new church officials were appointed without a vote and without relieving the old ones. This marked the end of a long struggle (begun by relieving Father Timotei of duty) to turn the Australian Macedonian eparchy (renamed at the said assembly into a Macedonian Orthodox Eparchy for Australia, a name under which the illegal eparchy had been registered) into the hands of the World Macedonian Congress led by Todor Petrov and the Australian branch of VMRO-DPMNE!
These and many other accusations are stated in the letter of Vanco Nedelkovski, vice-president of the Eparchy Assembly and the 8 delegates of the churches 'St. Gjorgi' (Risto Nedelkovski and Koco Kalincev), 'St.Gjorgi and Holy Mary' of Eping (Trajan Dimitrovski and Dragi Andonovski, the latter being a chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Eparchy), "St. Nikola' of Preston (Gjorgi Pisevski and Aco Kostovski, the latter a member of the Administrative Committee) and the monastery 'St. Clement of Ohrid' of King Lake (Risto Altin and Spiro Caparov). This was the same letter that started a series of letters to the Australian- Macedonian Weekly of Melbourne. All delegates agreed that there had been a previously prepared scenario to 'grant legitimacy' to the illegally registered eparchy, so that the influence of the World Macedonian Congress and the local VMRO-DPMNE would be decisive in the eparchy and make place for the appointment of metropolitan Father Petar on the head of the eparchy. The authors of the letter claim that the legitimacy of the new eparchy delegates was not determined upon criteria of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but in accordance with their loyalty towards the newly registered eparchy (They state the example with the delegation of the church of St. Albans which was denied presence on grounds of being loyal to the Cannon eparchy, whereas delegates of the church of Gold Coast were allowed to attend the assembly as they supported the new eparchy; they also point to the parallel between the churches of Melbourne - Fitzroy and Eping, and Sydney - Raspberry and Cabramata). The chairman of the assembly, the letter says, not only threw delegates out of the meeting, but also turned back believers who submitted their problems to be discussed (the case with the Control Commission of Rockdale). Finally, the letter backs up the suspicions that metropolitan Petar participated in deepening the split ('ever since the beginning and throughout the entire process').
The followers of the old Cannon eparchy, turned into a minority after the assembly, sent a letter to official government agencies in the Republic of Macedonia and (unofficial sources say) to the Cultural Association, but only received replies in the form of letters and articles in newspapers close to the opposition. Having kindly agreed to an invitation for an interview with this paper, metropolitan Petar, on the other hand, refuted all claims by the letter written by the said 9 authors, as well as accusations of his address to the followers of the Cannon eparchy. Believing problems would be resolved quickly and easily if a new church head is appointed (this was the only question Father Petar refused to answer - whether he is hoping to be appointed as the new head of the Macedonian church community in Australia), the Holy Synod seems to be trying to take advantage of the positive vibrations at the assembly and lower the tensions in the Macedonian ethnic community in Australia. Metropolitan Petar expressed personal satisfaction with the work of the delegation during its several-weeks visit to Australia.
After all these severe accusations and attacks, it is now the Holy Synod of the Macedonia Church's turn to act. The first possible step towards overcoming the schism and obtaining believers' trust may just be the appointment of a new head of the Australian-Macedonian church community. This would no doubt be a better option for the Church itself than the too optimistic appeals for a reconciliation of two sides so much opposed that they even seek support among political circles in the Republic of Macedonia.