Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 00-05-29

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] GREEK PRESIDENT ON OFFICIAL VISIT TO CANADA

[02] VISIT BY KOSOVAR BUSINESSMEN TO THESSALONIKI

[03] THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE ON VARTHOLOMEOS' STATEMENT

[04] THE "DYNAMIC MIX 2000" NATO EXERCISE CONTINUES

[05] TWINNING OF THE SCHOOLS OF SAPES AND SILIBRIA

[06] THE IDENTITY CARDS ISSUE WAS RAISED AGAIN BY ARCHBISHOP CHRISTODOULOS

[07] MARGINAL LOSSES OF 0.06% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

[08] THE MEDIUM-TERM EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION IS A MATTER OF TIME

[09] FORMER US PRESIDENT BUSH WILL BE ON A CRUISE TO THE GREEK ISLANDS

[10] MINISTER ORDERS STRICT HEALTH CONTROLS ON SHIPS

[11] BULGARIA, GREECE FORGE BUSINESS ALLIANCES

[12] EU AGRICULTURE MINISTERS MEET IN PORTUGAL TODAY

[13] AN UPROAR BROKE OUT IN AUSTRALIA REGARDING THE MACEDONIAN-SLAVONIC

[01] GREEK PRESIDENT ON OFFICIAL VISIT TO CANADA

The President of the Hellenic Republic Costis Stephanopoulos is presently on an official visit to Canada, at the invitation of the country's General Governor Adrien Clarkson.

President Stephanopoulos, who is accompanied by a 30-member delegation of Greek businessmen, is scheduled to meet with Mr. Clarkson today. He will also hold talks with the country's Greek expatriate community leaders and will meet with Canadian Premier Jean Chretien tomorrow.

A.F.

[02] VISIT BY KOSOVAR BUSINESSMEN TO THESSALONIKI

A business mission from Kosovo headed by the Commerce and Industry Chamber of Kosovo chairman Mustafe Ibrahimi will visit Thessaloniki on June 4-6 and the 46 businessmen participating in the mission will have contacts with their Greek counterparts.

The goal of the visit that was planned by the Industries Association of Northern Greece and the Hellenic-American Chamber in cooperation with the Commerce and Industry Chamber of Thessaloniki is to promote the Greek investments in Kosovo and the development of a mutually beneficial cooperation between Greek and Kosovar businessmen.

[03] THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE ON VARTHOLOMEOS' STATEMENT

The Ecumenical Patriarchate with a statement it has issued clarified that there was no relation whatsoever between the issue of the identity cards and the statement made by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos at the Theology School of Chalki on Friday, according to which the Orthodox Church does not disobey state laws.

In a statement issued by the supreme secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriachate is mentioned that the Ecumenical Patriarchate formally declares that those stated by the Ecumenical Patriarch last Friday have no relation whatsoever to the issue of the identity cards in Greece on which the Patriarchate will not comment because it regards it as an internal issue of the Church of Greece, adding that the statement made concerned a totally different issue.

In the statement issued by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, that was made public by the supreme secretariat of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, is mentioned among others that the fragmentary report of part of the Ecumenical Patriarch's speech by the Athens News Agency was an attempt to link it with the issue of the identity cards in Greece.

[04] THE "DYNAMIC MIX 2000" NATO EXERCISE CONTINUES

The NATO "Dynamic Mix 2000" exercise continues in Greece with the participation of 10.769 men from Greece, the United States, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Hungary and Turkey, 38 warships and 182 aircraft.

The scenario of the exercise is characterized as fictitious by the NATO chiefs of staff. According to it, the troops are called to face an instability situation in Greece that will be put under control through the contingency operations plan in the region of northern Greece.

The exercise will last until June 10 and during that period of time there will also be scenarios of peace-keeping operations (Peace Support Operations) in regions of northern Italy and south-eastern Turkey.

[05] TWINNING OF THE SCHOOLS OF SAPES AND SILIBRIA

The twinning of the inter-cultural school of Sapes in north-eastern Greece with the Turkish school Ozel Balkan Okullari in Silibria is being promoted by the Greek side. An important step toward this direction was the three-day visit made to the municipality of Silibria by a large delegation made up of municipality of Sapes representatives and teachers of the inter-cultural school at the invitation of the Ozel Balkan Okullari.

The visit was held within the framework of joint activities and cooperation that are underway between the municipalities of eastern and western Thrace at the initiative of the municipality of Sapes. The need of cooperation between students and teachers aimed at improving relations and exchange experience was stressed during the contacts made..

[06] THE IDENTITY CARDS ISSUE WAS RAISED AGAIN BY ARCHBISHOP CHRISTODOULOS

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All of Greece raised the issue of the identity cards again today with strong statements he made from the island of Egina. Archbishop Christodoulos said characteristically that if this coup was made a month before the elections the result would have been different because the people can judge and punish.

The Archbishop spoke about a small minority of reformists and pro-Europeans who want to impose their opinion and warned that soon there will be paid opinion polls that will present the government decision as the right one, while at the same time he concluded that there is a plan to distance the people from the Christian Orthodox ideals and isolate the Church from the people.

[07] MARGINAL LOSSES OF 0.06% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

Losses of 0.60% were recorded in the Athens Stock Exchange today, while the general index was at 4.593,95 points displaying stabilizing tendencies.

The volume of transactions was small at 132 billion drachmas.

[08] THE MEDIUM-TERM EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION IS A MATTER OF TIME

Another important step toward the medium-term earthquake prediction was made by seismologists in Thessaloniki, while seismology professor emeritus in Aristotle University Vasilis Papazachos expressed optimism that in a few months it will be possible to predict earthquakes that will take place in 3-5 years.

The method of pre-seismic deformation of the earth's surface, stated Mr. Papazachos to MPA, creates hopes that it will be possible to determine the area, the magnitude and the time of an earthquake in a period of 3-5 years. He said that the theoretical part of the method has been completed and now it is the turn of computers to process the facts giving the opportunity to seismologists to be more precise.

[09] FORMER US PRESIDENT BUSH WILL BE ON A CRUISE TO THE GREEK ISLANDS

Former US president George Bush will be on a cruise to the Greek islands starting today.

Mr. Bush is on a yacht at Hersonisos in Iraklion, Crete and today he was scheduled to visit the archeological site of Knosos.

[10] MINISTER ORDERS STRICT HEALTH CONTROLS ON SHIPS

Merchant Marine Minister Christos Papoutsis has ordered that stringent health checks be conducted on all coastal ships, while a relevant circular is expected to be signed by the state within the week.

The checks are to be conducted by port authorities, both at the harbor and at sea, while the public use sections of the ships, as well as the foodstuffs sold at the canteens will be examined thoroughly.

According to the Ministry, violations of the health regulations are to be met with steep fines.

A.F.

[11] BULGARIA, GREECE FORGE BUSINESS ALLIANCES

Bulgaria's newly-appointed Economy Minister Muravej Radev is reportedly granting heightened emphasis to strengthening business cooperation with Greece, as reliable sources told the Macedonian Press Agency.

Specifically, these reports, which emanate from within the Bulgarian government, Sofia is keenly interested in forging bilateral alliances with Greece, as attested by the recent multiple meetings with Greek officials and entrepreneurs.

Eleven Bulgarian firms active in the sectors of building materials and food and beverages took part in the recently-held "Thrace 2000" international exposition of Komotene, where officials from Bulgaria's consulate in Thessaloniki had contacts with local firms and officials in an effort to establish bilateral business cooperation.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Undersecretary of Economy Christo Michailovski is to arrive at Pieria, central Greece, during the following days in order to attend a conference on the Bulgarian economy, which will be held between June 1-3 at Katerini.

The event, organized by the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace and Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy, will feature the participation of 33 Bulgarian firms, among them eight active in the tourism sector.

A.F.

[12] EU AGRICULTURE MINISTERS MEET IN PORTUGAL TODAY

The European Union's Agriculture Ministers Council is meeting in Evora, Portugal today to discuss "Quality in diversity: a challenge for European Agriculture".

The session is awaited with interest as the EU's Portuguese presidency has recently drawn a document that overturns the Community's agricultural model.

However, the said document, as Greece's Agriculture Minister George Anomeritis pointed out, does contain certain "edgy"sections.

Specifically, the document states that there is a high degree of support given to agricultural products, resulting in limited market regulations.

Moreover, the Portuguese presidency stresses that the quality of agricultural products has to be handled differently, as there are three levels of quality, resulting in the problem of who exactly will determine the quality levels and set their criteria, and who will cover the costs.

A.F.

[13] AN UPROAR BROKE OUT IN AUSTRALIA REGARDING THE MACEDONIAN-SLAVONIC LANGUAGE

An uproar broke out in Australia after the news reported by local mass media which allegedly mentioned that the country's Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the FYROM community that demanded their language to be named "macedonian" and not macedonian-slavonic as it had been decided in the past by the previous liberal government of Jeff Kennet and by courts of justice.

The lawyers of the FYROM community in Australia appealed against certain of the sections that had been used as a basis for the issuing of the previous decision and the case was examined by the Commonwealth Court and not the Supreme Court.

However, even though no ruling was issued stating that the language should not be named macedonian-slavonic certain Australian mass media believed that the FYROM side had won in court and therefore, their language from now on will be named "macedonian". The misinformation caused the strong reaction of the Greek community in Australia.

La Trombe University professor Tasos Tamis, who was one of the state of Victoria lawyers on the case, stated to MPA that there is no conclusion based on which that language will be named "macedonian" from now on.

Alarmed by the reactions of the Greek-Australian community the government of the state of Victoria stated that as far as it is concerned the language case has closed meaning that it will back the decision of the previous government. At the same time, it has appointed to deal with the case multi-cultural affairs minister Yiannis Pantazopoulos, who is of Greek origin.

The Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies issued a statement underlining that the situation created calls for vigilance and caution. It is stressed that the news reports that appeared on Greek-Australian and certain English-speaking mass media according to which, the issue of the macedonian-slavonic language is a lost case must be characterized as untrue and inaccurate, as the Supreme Court has issued no decision in favor of the FYROM community demand to call its language "macedonian" and did not condemn a previous decision by the government of Victoria to use the name macedonian-slavonic for the FYROM language.

The reaction of the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria, which is the biggest Greek-Australian organization with 50 associations-members, was direct. In a statement it has issued it mentions that all legal means will be used for the re-examination of the whole issue, while efforts will be made to win the characterization macedonian-slavonic for the FYROM community language by the state and federal institutions of Australia.

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