The pro-government Ta Nea writes that Athens would agree to lift the embargo as soon as direct talks between Athens and Skopje begin, provided Skopje makes solid promises to give up the flag symbol and the disputed constitutional article.
According to the paper, Gligorov gave up his intransigent attitude following the meeting with mediators Vance and Nimitz.
- On the occasion of the tragic death of Irfan Ljubljankic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski sent a telegram of consolation to the Bosnian foreign ministry and to the family of the deceased.
- Macedonian President Gligorov sent a telegram of deep consolation to Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, regarding the victims of the latest disastrous earthquake in the Russian town of Neftogorsk.
The draft text mainly determines procedural issues, setting ways of constituting Parliament, the rights and obligations of deputies, election and replacement procedures for the positions of president, vice-president and secretary general, as well as relations with the president of the country and government.
PDP parliament deputy, Mevliam Tahiri, disagreed with that part of the draft text regulating the use of Macedonian as the only official language. This, he warned, is the worst possible solution, as it abolishes the use of minority languages in parliament.
"Such an attitude of the highest and most responsible leading structures in the country is unacceptable because this directly causes distrust among all of us who are working on establishing good ethnic relations in Macedonia," he said. This is just more proof that the basic rights of Albanians in Macedonia are flagrantly violated, Tahiri added. According to him the latest trends to establish Macedonia as the national state of the Macedonian people and thus cement the current unequal relations will only put the country in a state of constant ethnic conflict for a long period. Tahiri demanded a new text which will also allow the use of languages of the minorities in parliament. "All sides assured us it will not come to this and that the use of languages will be allowed by this structure of parliament" he said, pointing to such promises given by Parliament President Andov and Liberal Party deputy Panco Minov.
Andov, however, told Macedonian Television he had never given a promise to adopt a provision contrary to any constitutional regulation.
The Socialist Party has still not confirmed its participation in the conference.
Macedonian Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski spoke of the importance of trade associations in a market economy.
Highest political and economic figures have been invited to the seminar as well as all other interested parties. Debates will include electoral campaigns, development of democratic institutions, democratic governing, organizing of the state and its international position, as well as issues regarding the success of small businesses. The Criedle Institute is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 for the purpose of aiding East and Central European countries to accelerate their transition processes through political and economic support, such as provided by seminars which have proven as quite successful in many post-communist countries.
However, there are no friendly relations in politics, only levels of interest. But let's leave this for later and go over the results of the visit which were not insignificant.
Talks between presidents Gligorov and Scalfaro, as well as between foreign ministers Crvenkovski and Anjeli, provided Macedonia with the status of a developing country which enables it to make use of humanitarian and other aid. Italy promised to become more involved in the future to help Macedonia bridge obstacles in its way to becoming integrated in the European Union. Talks with a group of powerful and widely influential Italian businessmen resulted in the arrangement of a visit of the latter to Macedonia to inquire of possibilities for their inclusion in the East-West corridor. Italy seems highly interested in the project, as it would be an "exit gate" towards Europe for it.
During meetings between Gligorov and the Pope and, later on, between the entire Macedonian delegation and Vatican's Secretary of State Angello Sodano, the Holy See expressed readiness to help establish diplomatic ties between Macedonia and South American countries, which are mostly Catholic. It was also announced that the Vatican intends to send an ambassador to Macedonia as soon as next September, with main offices in Ljubljana and a representative office in Skopje.
Analyses of the results would not be complete without a review of the parallel visit of the Macedonian Church delegation, led by the Head of Church Father Mikhail.
Arriving in Rome to participate in the 27th ceremony honoring the Slav educator St. Cyril, the church officials were also received at a special audience by the Head of the Catholic Church. This presents not only an act of friendship, but is also, in a way, a recognition of the Macedonian Church and all it carries as a national feature in Orthodox countries.
The general atmosphere of closeness and readiness for cooperation was completed by several agreements concluded between Macedonian and Italian representatives during, although separate from, the visit. Palair Macedonia, having been the sole Macedonian air company carrying passengers and goods from Skopje to Rome and vice-versa for an entire year now, signed an agreement with Alitalia to become included in the system of booking flights to all European, Middle East and overseas destinations flown to by the Italian air company.
A delegation of the Macedonian Tourist Association, during the same visit, came to an agreement with Italian colleagues to include Macedonia in the celebration of the 200th jubilee of the Christian religion and have a part of the anticipated hundreds of thousands of tourist "re-directed" toward Macedonia.
To interpret all these results as merely a sign of friendship and readiness to help Macedonia would be, to say the least, unreal. Both Rome and the Vatican are, to be sure, led by their own interests in this move to aid a country which has won independence through a wise and peaceful policy, including non-interference in the ongoing bloody conflict in the former Yugoslavia and no domestic ethnic conflict. Being one of the most developed countries in Europe, a member country of the European Union, the Group 7 and North Atlantic Treaty, Italy naturally fosters ambitions for a larger participation in the global political decision-making and presents an economic potential seeking expansion in the region. The Balkans, currently engaged in a civil war, is a direct neighbor to Italy and the newly emerged states are some of Italy's closest markets. In this context, it surely is of no importance that the visit of the Macedonian delegation - and this rekindling of Italy's role in the Balkans - came at a time when the war in Bosnia is "re-accelerating".
The interest of the Vatican in Macedonia and, particularly, the meeting between the heads of the Catholic and the Macedonian Church have already caused a wave of distrust among Macedonia's neighbors, as well as a split of factors at home into those in favor and those against close relations with the Holy See. This is despite the fact that the Macedonian Church is no more and no less Orthodox in comparison to other churches and the fact that the Vatican, after its 2 May initiative, has never been further from a desire to start a new argument with the Christians of the East, as some may conclude from this sign of intention to win over the relatively small number of Macedonian believers. This may sound pretentious, but if the Vatican does have any plans for the Macedonian Church, it is more likely that it intends to use Macedonia as a bridge to possibly reconcile the Eastern and Western Church rather than to lure the Macedonian Church to its skirts. If this presumption is true - as implied by all that was seen and heard last week in Vatican - then it can only be in the interest of both the Macedonian Church and Macedonia as a state.