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Greek Macedonia is one of the oldest civilizations known to man and the history of this name should be recognized and respected.

Rep. Maloney on Possible NATO Expansion to Include FYROM

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY)

April 02, 2008

Here is the full text of Representative Maloney’s speech for the Greece-Fyrom issue.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

As a founder and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, this issue is of tremendous importance to me. All historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that the ancient Macedonians were Greek. Macedonia is a Greek name that has designated the northern area of Greece for 2,500 years.

In 1944, the name of the Skopje region was changed to Macedonia as part of Tito s imperialist campaign to gain control of the Greek province of Macedonia. The United States opposed Tito s use of the name Macedonia at that time. However, in November 2004, unilaterally and without warning, the Administration decided to recognize the FYROM as Macedonia.

I was shocked and disappointed that the White House went against prior U.S. policy to recognize the FYROM as Macedonia just two days after the 2004 U.S. presidential election and before talks were completed among the nations most directly affected by the outcome.

Along with former Representative Michael Bilirakis, we and sixty-eight of our colleagues sent a letter to former Secretary of State Colin Powell expressing our concerns with this decision and requesting that the State Department return to the longstanding policy of referring to the FYROM as such. I also organized a meeting with the American ambassador to discuss the situation

I believe that the name Macedonia properly belongs to Greek culture and therefore should not be used by any other country. Greek Macedonia is one of the oldest civilizations known to man and the history of this name should be recognized and respected.

I, along with Representatives Bilirakis, Sarbanes, and Space, have introduced legislation, H. Res. 356, which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the FYROM should stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the UN-brokered Interim Agreement between the FYROM and Greece regarding hostile activities or propaganda and should work with the United Nations and Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually-acceptable official name for the FYROM. This bipartisan resolution has 114 cosponsors.

Just this week a billboard was erected in Skopje that depicts the Greek flag with a swastika in place of the Cross. This is just another example of the propaganda that is being perpetrated against Greek culture in the FYROM. Textbooks used in schools contain maps showing the boundaries of a larger Macedonia that include parts of Greece. Additionally, the government has minted currency showing The White Tower of Thessaloniki. This unacceptable irredentist propaganda must come to an end.

This week the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold a Heads of State and Government summit in Bucharest, Romania. One of the major issues considered will be the expansion of NATO and the possible extension of membership invitations to Albania, Croatia, and the FYROM. In this context, I ask unanimous consent to submit for the record the March 27, 2008, article in the Huffington Post titled NATO Enlargement The View from Athens, written by Greece’s Ambassador to the United States, Alexandros Mallias.

Greece has consistently stated its desire to have the FYROM admitted into NATO, provided that the FYROM ceases to use the name Republic of Macedonia, adopts a name mutually acceptable to both countries, and ends its use of propaganda.

The negotiation process among representatives from Greece and the FYROM should continue, and I hope that a settlement can be reached soon. Greece is a critical trading and investment partner with the FYROM and must be involved not only with the future of the FYROM, but with the future of the entire Balkan region.

http://maloney.house.gov/
Testimonies from The FYROM’s officials

The inhabitants of The FYROM are mostly Slavs, Bulgarians and Albanians. They have nothing in common with the ancient Macedonians.

Here are some testimonies from The FYROM’s officials:

a. The former President of The FYROM, Kiro Gligorov sai😛 “We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century ... we are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians" (Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 1992, p. 35).




b. Also, Mr Gligorov declare😛 "We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia… Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century" (Toronto Star, March 15, 1992).


c. On 22 January 1999, Ambassador of the FYROM to USA, Ljubica Achevska gave a speech on the present situation in the Balkans. In answering questions at the end of her speech Mrs. Acevshka sai😛 "We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great … Greece is Macedonia’s second largest trading partner, and its number one investor. Instead of opting for war, we have chosen the mediation of the United Nations, with talks on the ambassadorial level under Mr. Vance and Mr. Nemitz." In reply to another question about the ethnic origin of the people of FYROM, Ambassador Achevska stated that "we are Slavs and we speak a Slav language.”


d. On 24 February 1999, in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Gyordan Veselinov, FYROM'S Ambassador to Canada, admitted, "We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian." He also commented, “There is some confusion about the identity of the people of my country."


e. Moreover, the Foreign Minister of the FYROM, Slobodan Casule, in an interview to Utrinski Vesnik of Skopje on December 29, 2001, said that he mentioned to the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Solomon Pasi, that they "belong to the same Slav people.”

Even the former prime minister of FYROM

LUBCHO GEORGIEVSKI
now a Bulgarian citizen, knows and speaks the truth. That the people of FYROM are of Bulgarian and Albanian origin. Not a big secret. He even wrote the book "Facing the Truth" about it".




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