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MILS NEWS 22/01/96From: "M.I.L.S." <[email protected]>Macedonian Information Liaison Service DirectoryCONTENTS[01] NORMALIZING THE RELATIONS WITH FRY[02] INFORMAL MEETING BETWEEN COMRAS AND THE LEADERSHIP OF PDP[03] EFFORTS FOR ECONOMY EFFECTS[04] RESEARCHES IN WEST MACEDONIA[05] CONNECTIONS WITH THE WORLD[06] ECONOMY FOR BETTER FUTURE[07] FORUM ON FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIA[08] AMDI BAIRAM - A NEW MEMBER OF MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENTMILS SUPPLEMENT:[09] BULGARIAN TURKS WILL ASK FOR AUTONOMY TILL 2 000 LATESTMILS NEWSSkopje, 22 January 1996[01] NORMALIZING THE RELATIONS WITH FRYRepresentatives of Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia and FR Yugoslavia met last Friday in Skopje and discussed the future normalization of the relations between the two countries, as well as the possibilities to continue the cooperation in the areas of a mutual interest. Macedonian Ministry officially informed discussions will continue in Belgrade soon.Meanwhile, Agency 'Makfax' informed that FRY delegation was consisted of Rodoljub Etinski, Legal Advisor in the Foreign Ministry, and Dragan Vuchichevic, Ambassador in the same Ministry. According to 'Makfax', this meeting is a continuation of the discussions on normalization of the relations, initiated on the Gligorov-Miloshevich meeting last October in Belgrade, as well as during the contacts at the Paris Conference on the Peace Accord for Bosnia. [02] INFORMAL MEETING BETWEEN COMRAS AND THE LEADERSHIP OF PDPParty for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), announced that U.S. Liaison Office Chief of Mission in Macedonia, Victor Comras, on his request visited the headquarters of this party in Tetovo last Friday. On his meeting with the President of PDP, Abdurahman Allitti, and the Macedonian Minister of Development, Bekjir Zutta, they discussed the situation in the Balkans after the Bosnian Peace Accord, as well as the situation in Macedonia affter the Accord and missunderstandings in the Macedonian coalition Government. According to the announcement of PDP, Ambassador Comras stressed the efforts of U.S. to stop the war in Bosnia and to start the implementation of the Dayton Peace Plan. He highly emphasized the interest of the U.S. Government to preserve the stability and peace in Macedonia and in Kosovo, emphasizing the contribution of PDP in this respect. According to the U.S. State Department the politics of PDP is based on national interest and respect of the interests of all nations and the country. Comras, according to this announcement, encouraged PDP to continue with the same course and supported their determination for obtaining such a treatment of Albanians in Macedonia that will allow them to use their language and have education, for which they have the support of the U.S. Government. The meeting was concluded with an agreement to further develop mutual cooperation.After the PDP press release, Macedonian media received a news release from the U.S. Information Service in Skopje, saying: 'U.S. Liaison Office Chief of Mission Victor D. Comras met informally with PDP leaders in Tetovo January 19 to discuss the current situation in the region. This meeting was held as part of USLO's ongoing contacts with representative groups in Macedonia. USLO normally does not comment on private meetings of this kind. We would note, however, that we consider it the province of U.S. officials, not others, to characterize official U.S. positions.' [03] EFFORTS FOR ECONOMY EFFECTSThe first official meeting between the deputies of the City Assemblies of Skopje and Tirana took place last Friday in Skopje, as a part of Macedonian Initiative to contact with the leaderships of the capital cities of all neighbouring countries. The Mayor of Skopje, Jove Kekenovski, informed the guests on the history of Skopje, the way the City Assembly functions and on the problems of the City, stressing the need for economy relations to follow these meetings.[04] RESEARCHES IN WEST MACEDONIAAllin Dana from U.S.A. and Stefan Trebvt from Germany, representatives of the International Commission for the Balkans, visited Gostivar yesterday and met with local representatives of VMRO-DPMNE, MAAK, PDP and the Forum for Human Rights. This visit is a continuation of the research in west Macedonia about the possible conflicts between Macedonians and Albanians. The problems stressed referred to economy, health care, education and the 5 years absence of Macedonian deputies in the Town Assembly of Gostivar.[05] CONNECTIONS WITH THE WORLDMacedonian PTT joined the 'Pan-european System for Mobile Telephony by the Standards of GSM' by signing the Memorandum of the Association. This makes possible the development of the mobile telephony network in Macedonia according to the standards of GSM system, which functions internationally. The Macedonian network will have the capacity of 25 000 users, with a possibility to be enlarged to 50 000 or more.[06] ECONOMY FOR BETTER FUTUREMacedonian President Kiro Gligorov organized the traditional reception for Macedonian businessmen on the occasion of New Year, last Friday. The reception was also attended by the President of the Parliament Stojan Andov and the Premiere Branko Crvenkovski. President Gligorov said that Macedonia now, more than ever, needs the transformation of its economy to be completed and conditions for its improvement to be made.He stressed the stability of the national currency and the control of the inflation as two most important gains from the economical policy of the country so far. Of greatest priority in future, he said will be to increase the level of employment, to improve the trade with foreign countries and to discover and win new markets. Gligorov appealed to the Government to continue the completition of the market legislation. This is necessary, he added, to provide greater freedom for the initiatives of the businessmen and the people in general. President of Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, Dushan Petreski, said that 'now is the time to move forward with using the economy potentials, as we have survived the period of the double blockade.' [07] FORUM ON FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIAOn the initiative of the World Bank, a Forum on the future development of Macedonia in the next 15 years will be held in Ohrid this week. The issue will be creation of a Strategy for further development of Macedonia. The Forum is organized by the Macedonian Academy of Science and Art (MASA).In preparations for the event, President of MASA, Ksente Bogoev, stated the export as one of the crucial components of the future development of the country, adding that payment problems must not be solved by limiting the import, i.e. that the liberal regulations should be maintained. [08] AMDI BAIRAM - A NEW MEMBER OF MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENTAmdi Bairam, the candidate of the Party of Complete Emancipation of Romans in Macedonia (PCERM), according to the announced results, is the new member of Macedonian Parliament. On the additional voting at the polling place 24 in the electoral unit 114 held yesterday, Bairam won 96 votes. The total number of votes he won is 1 838. The second position was taken by the candidate of the Alliance for Macedonia, Vasil Drvoshanov, who won 1 825 votes.State Electoral Commission reported that 279 people voted yesterday, which is 62 percent of the voters listed. Meanwhile, Vladimir Golubovski, leader of VMRO-Democratic Party, and a candidate in the same electoral unit, after he was held in the police custody because of a traffic violation, sent a notification to the State Electoral Commission, saying that he revokes these elections. He claimed that, due to his tendentious arrest, he was prevented from active agitation and technical organization of the voting. For this reason, he suggested the voting to be postponed and announced he would submit an official objection. MILS SUPPLEMENT:[09] BULGARIAN TURKS WILL ASK FOR AUTONOMY TILL 2 000 LATESTInterview with Boncho Asenov, previous officer of the Bulgarian State Security (part 1)('Kontinent' - Sofia, 21 January 1996)Q: Mr. Asenov, three days ago, your last book 'Rebirth Process and State Security' was published. What does 'Rebirth Process' mean for you?It is an objective phenomenon that still lasts. It has not ended with the decision of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 29 December 1989. It is an attempt to overcome the consequences of the Turkish slavery, during which the people were divided in Christians and Moslems. This was an idea of the Association 'Rodina', established in Bulgaria in 1937 - which aim was to unit Bulgarians of all religions. Ten years after 9 September 1944, this idea was proclaimed a 'fascistic' one. So, the only aim of the 'Rebirth Process' was for all Christians and Moslems to feel Bulgarians. Q: Was this Process necessary? I would say inevitable - the only way to strengthen Bulgarian nationality. Now I think the renaming was a natural way of development of the inconsistent ethnic policy of Bulgaria from the liberation till today. Considering the Turkish constantly increasing interfering in our internal matters, and the egoistic pressure of the Great Powers on the Balkans, there was no other solution. Q: What are the biggest mistakes in the ethnic policy? There are three most significant examples of a national treason, referring to the ethnic issue. The first took place in 1913-1914, when the Government of Vasil Radoslavov stopped the process of converting to Christianity and changing the names. The second took place in the first 10 years after 9 September 1944, when the Bulgarian Communist Party took over the violent ethnic independence of Macedonians. The third took place after 10 November 1989. In case BCP did not proclaim the idea of 'Rodina' a fascistic one, there would have been no problems with Bulgarian Moslems. They would have become religiously, culturally and psychologically independent, but would not have considered themselves Turks. BCP made them feel not only Turks, but a part of the Turkish nation. The main reason for the 'Rebirth Process' to appear were the imperialistic intentions of Turkey. Turkey even today supports the Moslems in Bulgaria. The fundamentalist Erbakan on 6 January 1996 said: 'Moslems in the Balkans, who are suffering, will be fully supported and should not worry. Turkey will make an international Islamic union and 1.5 million Moslems will become a united power. Our brothers in the Balkans and anywhere else will then be safe. Turkey and USA, the latter supporting the first, will not allow either the ideas of the 'Rebirth Process' to be realized, or the prohibition of DPS. Q: Do you approve the prohibition of DPS? Not I, the Constitution does not allow its existence. I do not find the local elections in Krjalli significant, I think it is crucial not to have ethnic parties in Bulgaria. DPS is an illegal party, working on ethnic territorial - administrative independence and on making the Bulgarian Turks independent culturally and economically. Look what happens with the privatization. The struggle in Krjalli is to become ethically independent. There are 800 Turkish and Bulgarian-Turkish firms in Bulgaria, which means the economical independence was started before the privatization process. Turkey will enter in Bulgaria both with illegal and legal capital. Turkey now fights for recognizing the collective rights and the national minority, and in future it will fight for autonomy. Q: When do you think they will ask for autonomy? Five years from today. I would advise Dogan not to hurry, and he does not. When Mehmed Hoja stated there is national minority in Bulgaria, Dogan criticized him. Any asking for autonomy in the Balkans is dangerous, smells on powder. The policy of BCP, and later of BSP and the opposition, was a betraying one for the ethnic issue. Alexandar Lilov ended the 'Rebirth Process' and began to flirt with DPS, in order to save the Party. So he did, but on the account of the national interests. The opposition became powerful, again on the account of the national interests, as it supported the ethnic DPS. Turkey and those in Bulgaria supporting Turkey gained from this. Q: Would you allow the prohibition of DPS? A radical step must not be taken, because of the eventual international pressure. Why don't we do what Turkey does at the moment? Are there in Istanbul only about 100 Bulgarians? Q: Did Todor Zivkov decide alone on changing the names? I was myself surprised on my estimation of Zivkov. I was never too fond of him, but I had a normal attitude towards him. At that time, I did not think that system should be abandoned. Now I think the system should have have been abandoned, but Zivkov should have remained. He would have made the reforms in a better and wiser way. Q: You do not, than, think unfavourably of him, as others do? He proved himself a protector of the Bulgarian nationality. It does not matter whether the idea of changing the names was his, it is important that only his signature could put it into effect. And he took over the complete responsibility. He would never have started with the realization if he had found it dangerous. He tested the situation in Krjalli, than in Haskovo ... and the names of 820 000 persons were changed in a month. Without any rebellions or other problems. I am positive that Zivkov carefully thought about the decision for more than 10 years. The decision, however, came too late. (to be continued)mils news 22 January 1996 |
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