SKOPJE, SEPTEMBER 5, 1995 (MIC)
The news that a meeting between the foreign ministers of Macedonia and Greece is scheduled to take place in New York next week was announced simultaneously in Skopje, Athens and Washington yesterday. This meeting is to signify the start of the normalization of relations between the two countries.
This was announced in Skopje yesterday afternoon by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Issues Richard Holbruk, following literally three-hour long unannounced and longer than planned talks. Richard Holbruk came to Macedonia directly from Athens, as part of his intensive several-day tour of the Balkans.
In his short statement, given after the talks with President Gligorov and minister Stevo Crvenkovski, Holbruk said:
"The U.S.A. simultaneously spread the word in Washington, Skopje and Athens that Greece and FYROM have decided to send their foreign ministers to New York next week to conclude an agreement that will present the first step towards the establishment of a basis for friendship between the two neighbors. We welcome this development in this crucial and delicate phase in the search for peace on the Balkans. This is the culmination of several-month extraordinary efforts on the part of UN mediator Cyrus Vance and the envoy of the U.S. President Matthew Nimetz."
Holbruk did not answer the questions regarding the elements that would be contained in the agreement, whether it would include all controversial issues or only most, if the Greek-Macedonian dispute was the only focal point in the talks, etc. Holbruk's next stop is Ankara.
Macedonia's President Kiro Gligorov received the U.S. negotiating team today, led by State Under Secretary Richard Holbruk. Also participating in the talks was Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski. The two sides reviewed the latest U.S. initiative for speeding up the Macedonian-Greek negotiations.
It was jointly assessed that the normalization and the creation of a basis for friendly relations between Macedonia and Greece is an important condition for general stability in the Balkans.
As a result of today's meeting of the U.S. negotiating team in Athens and Skopje, the Macedonian-Greek relations have entered a new phase. Both sides agreed for their foreign ministers to meet in New York as soon as possible, with the mediation of Cyrus Vance. Then, the only thing left, provided both sides show good will, will be to finalize and sign the agreement proposed by the UN mediators.
Dimitras Karijatidis, head of Papandreou's diplomatic office told the press that Greece has accepted the U.S. statement released simultaneously in Athens, Skopje and Washington, about the resumption of the negotiations.
"Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will send their foreign ministers to New York next week to reach an agreement, which presents the first important step towards the creation of a basis for friendly relations between these two countries," is said in the statement.
Yesterday, President Gligorov's cabinet strongly denied the Makpress report according to which Holbruk's negotiating team, which met with the Macedonian President these days, came with a proposal for some kind of connection between Macedonia and the other ex-YU regions.
The same agency learned from sources close to the President that the talks did not even mention any ways of connecting Macedonia with the ex-YU republics, but focused strictly on ways of strengthening Macedonia's position as an independent and sovereign state on the Balkans.
"Holbruk's team came to Skopje only to get some information about the general situation in the region, but there are no elements of any such initiative," the same sources say, stressing that "to the contrary, efforts are made to strengthen Macedonia's position on the Balkans and that was the only issue discussed with the representatives of the negotiating team, led by Holbruk. Any other assertions, like the idea about including Macedonia in the global resolution of the problems of former Yugoslavia, are pure speculation," the Makpress sources close to President Gligorov assess.
Makfaks reports that the Commission for political affairs of the Council of Europe recommended the Committee of ministers, at yesterday's meeting in Paris, to accept the Republic of Macedonia to this organization.
Today, the office of the Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe will decide whether Macedonia's accession will be reviewed at the session of the Parliamentary assembly, scheduled for the end of this month. Radio Skopje informs that two more commissions have to give their views on the accession as well: the one for legal issues and the one of the countries which are not members.
"Vecer" reports that independent MP Hisen Ramadani will probably start representing the interests of ADS-LP ( tran. note Albanian Democratic Union - Liberal Party) in Parliament soon. Ramadani and Idrizi say the party is interested in entering the government coalition, and expect the Prime Minister to grant it one deputy position (probably in the Ministry of Urbanization, Construction and Ecology) and one to two assistant position, whereby they are not insisting on any specific departments.
The letter from Abdurahman Aliti, Arben Dzaferi and Ilijaz Halimi sent to U.S. President Bill Clinton is directed against the interests of the Albanians, the independent MP Hisen Ramadani and the president of the Albanian Democratic Union - Liberal Party (ADS-LP) Dzemail Idrizi claim in today's issue of "Vecer."
"As an Albanian, I don't want to create the impression that I don't recognize the Macedonian nation and that I don't accept the Macedonian state as my own. The anti-Albanian forces will use the letter to present the Albanians as a destabilizing factor in the region. Regretfully, the letter makes space for such possibilities, and that's why we are strongly rejecting it," Ramadani says.
Idrizi emphasizes that the majority Albanians are responsible for the peace and stability in Macedonia. "We will never accept to be the source of a crisis in the region," the leader of ADS-LP adds.
Idrizi and Ramadani claim that the Albanians have never called the Macedonians "Slav Macedonians" (as they are referred to in the letter) and have never disputed the identity of the Macedonian nation, just as most of them have also always been in the clear as to the independence of the Macedonian state.
The Albanians, both believe, can not accept the concept of integral resolution of the Albanian question according to the principle "all Albanians in one state." "We feel that the integrative processes which will have a completely different approach in resolving these problems in united Europe, and every other 'resolution' is possible only with blood up to the knees, which no one benefits from," Ramadani is categoric.
Hisen Ramadani reminds of the fact that from the beginning of Macedonia's coming of independence, there have been intellectual and political forces among the Albanians, which promoted a realistic approach, without any oscillations, especially in view of the cardinal questions related to the independence of the state. ADS-LP and the Union of Albanian Intelligentsia were against the boycott of the Referendum for Independence, against the Referendum for "Ilirida," defined as territorial autonomy, against the boycott of the recruitment of Albanians in the Macedonian Army. At the same time, Idrizi and Ramadani say, some Albanian politicians, who are now holding top positions in the government, were against the Referendum for Macedonia, in favour of "Ilirida," and against recruitment in the Macedonian Army, and are nevertheless partners in the government coalition.
"We don't understand that. All right, I know that it suits some extremist nationalistic powers among the Macedonians to propel the extremists from the other side in order to represent the Albanians as a destructive factor. But, then, where are the democratic powers in Macedonia?" Hisen Ramadani wonders.
ADS-LP is also unsatisfied with the realization of the minority rights in many spheres, the president Idrizi claims, insisting that his party is a civil party which believes that the national identity of the citizens can come to full expression only through the realization of the civil rights.
"However, instead of those justified demands of the Albanians being the contents of the address to Clinton, the letter advocates something that is directed against the interests of the Albanians. One nation and one state is disputed, which no one gave the mandate to any of the authors of the letter to do," Idrizi and Ramadani conclude.