From: than...@athena.mit.edu (Thanos Tsekouras) Subject: Greek news (mostly) from the Athens News Agency, June 2, 1993 Date: 2 Jun 1993 19:53:08 GMT To: Boston, USA From: Genikh Grammateia Typou 6-2-93 11:21 am Bulletin 02/06/1993 Washington, 2/6/1993 (Reuter) US Secretary of State Warren Christopher will visit Greece and Turkey this month as part of a tour of European countries, the State Department said yesterday. Spokesman Richard Boucher said Christopher would visit Luxembourg on June 9 for talks with the European Community. He would then take part in NATO meetings in Athens June 10 11 and visit Ankara June 12-13. Christopher will deliver a speech to a human rights meeting in Vienna June 14 before returning to Washington. Athens, 2/6/1993 (ANA) Foreign Undersecretary Virginia Tsouderou leaves today for Russia to attend an international conference on the Russian South. During her stay in the region, Ms. Tsouderou will visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as part of efforts now underway to establish a Greek presence in the area. Greek embassies will officially open in Armenia and Azerbaijan during the first ten days of June, while an embassy is expected to open soon in Georgia. Athens, 2/6/93 (ANA) The report on the Skopje issue submitted to the Security Council by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali is to be made public today, foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Papaconstantinou said yesterday. The government's position on the report as a whole will be announced after the report is made public, he said, adding that Athens was still bound by the "information embargo" imposed by the UN mediators and that no comment would be made on extracts of the report that have appeared in the press. He said that the meeting Sunday between the Greek consul in Skopje and the Skopjan Foreign Undersecretary Risto Nikofski did not constitute direct dialogue between the two sides. The meeting concerned minor matters raised by Skopje, such as the transit of long-distance trucks. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources estimate that the matter will be discussed by the Security Council as soon as the report is made public and that all options are open since the Council may either adopt the report as it stands or decide to extend the rapprochement process between Greece and Skopje on the question of the name. According to the same sources, the confidence-building measures may not need to be re-examined since there is a high level of agreement between the two sides. They added that the Greek delegation at the United nations has met with Security Council members. Other sources let it be understood that the contacts between US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and the Greek government on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Athens next week could play a decisive role in the final resolution of the issue. Mr. Christopher will discuss all the area's problems with the government with a view to helping in their solution. Theses sources also referred to the imminent visit by British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to Skopje (and then Athens), which they said was probably being made in the context of the discussions for the Bosnia "action plan" put forward by Britain, Russia, the US, France and Spain and to discuss increasing the number of UN observers in the republic. Paris, 2/6/93 (ANA - A. Podimata) France's response to the rejection of the Vance - Owen plan for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by both Athens and Skopje was exceptionally subdued yesterday. According to a French foreign ministry spokesman, "France's position on the issue has not changed; we note that there are some matters that need to be resolved so that a final regime is established for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This is the aim of the talks being conducted in New York between the two sides under the auspices of the two co-chairmen of the peace conference. It is a matter for the two sides therefore to agree on a mutually acceptable solution". In response to further questions, the spokesman said that the proposal was not binding on the two sides and that the role of Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen "is not arbitration but mediation". As long as Athens and Skopje failed to agree, the negotiations would continue, she added, and expressed the hope that a solution acceptable to both would be found soon. Brussels, 2/6/1993 (ANA - P. Pantelis) Prime Minister Constanintine Mitsotakis arrives in Brussels today to attend the European Peoples party (EPP) summit, called to prepare for the Copenhagen European Council June 21-22. The meeting will take place in the afternoon at the invitation of FPP president Wilfred Martens. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Deheane, Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santers and leaders of Community Christian Democrat parties will participate. Also participating are Christian Democrat European Parliament President Egon Klepsch, European Parliament EPP group President Leo Tindemans and European Commissioner Peter Schmidhuber. According to established practice, EPP prime ministers and party leaders, incuding New Democracy, will discuss positions they will support as a bloc at the European Parliament. They will have a private discussion on the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The prospects of the Belgian EC presidency, due to start in July, will also be examined and Belgian Finance Minister Phil Maistad has been invited to attend. It was announced that German Chancellor Kohl will have a private meeting on the sidelines of the summit with Spanish Popular party leader Jose Maria Aznar, who is contesting the premiership in Sunday's Spanish elections. Athens, 2/6/1993 (ANA) The European Parliament's foreign economic relations committee convened in Metsovo, Epirus yesterday for a meeting that will run through to Thursday. The 25-member committee is responsible for matters concerning external commercial transactions and the agreements concluded in this sector between the Community and third countries. According to the agenda, members of the committee will exchange views with Finance Undersecretary Constantine Yatrakos and Epirus authorities on Greece's positions and its particular problems. Athens, 2/6/1993 (ANA) Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis met yesterday at the Maximos Mansion with former president of Cyprus George Vassiliou. According to an official announcement, the two men had a friendly discussion on various issues and on recent developments in the Cyprus issue. Athens, 2/6/1993 (AFP/ANA) Greece, which depends heavily on earnings from tourism, has asked the European Community to pay compensation for lost travel revenue of 500 million dollars attributed to the Yugoslav crisis in 1992, an authoritative source at the Greek economy ministry told AFP yesterday. Greece sent a report on the effect on the Greek economy of the United Nations embargo against Serbia and Montenegro to officials in Brussels last month, the sources said. In April the Greek government estimated that it had suffered losses caused by the year-old embargo totalling 2.6 billion dollars. The number of people visiting Greece totalled 9.7 million which is 18 per cent more than in 1991. The amount of foreign currency earned totalled 3.2 billion dollars which was an increase of 27 per cent, official figures showed. But in the report officials hold that the troubles cost the country 700,000 visitors and 460 million dollars, and the compensation should be paid. Between 1990 and 1992 the country was deprived of half a million tourists who entered by land routes through fromer Yugoslavia. The loss attributed to each missing tourist, including many from neighbouring Skopje who travelled back and forth frequently before differences sharpened between Greece and FYROM, was calculated on the basis of average expenditure per tourist in 1992 of 615 dollars. The president of travel agents in the north Argyros Doukas said that the travel business had sought only 15 million dollars from the state. [Copied by Thanos Tsekouras]