Equally happy, or unhappy

Erol Rizaov

Is it possible for Macedonia and Greece to become good neighbors? If it is not possible, it will be easy to find a million reasons for not letting this happen. As they did regularly in the past 27 years. In that case, the negotiations will be merely a parade and an attempt to blame the other side for the failure, the great joy of the concerned patriots on both sides. For a mutually acceptable solution, the two sides should remove obstacles and meet halfway, to choose whether they will be equally unhappy or equally happy in front of their opponents. Our misfortune is that if there is no solution, the only loser is Macedonia. We are the ones who seek to join the EU and NATO, and not Greece, it has been a member for a long time.

Both Greece and Macedonia have limits to where they can go, regardless of whether the red lines are publicly announced and are repeated every day as the Greek ones who bring panic in Macedonia, or are silent as the Macedonian, who upset the duty guards of national interests in Greece. The negotiators know the red lines well, before open and behind closed doors. Two new words are in use in the latest news. A sustainable solution is required, and a solution for a stable country and region. The words “sustainable” and “stable” say that there is still a lot of work to be done and that it is in the direction of making an interstate agreement with a UN guarantee that leads to good neighborhood and stability of the Republic of Macedonia and the entire region. But it continues to insist on constitutional changes, although less valid than the interstate agreement, which marks a tendency to failure, because negotiators are well aware that such a thing is unfeasible in the Macedonian Parliament in these relations of forces. Whether it will be a dramatic break in the negotiations, or civilization, it is all the same. It’s very bad in both cases.

In this phase of negotiations, the knowledge that neither Greece nor Europe, nor the Balkans, but least of Macedonia, is in the interest of a bad deal, will soon prevail, which will soon prove to be unsustainable. Trade with bamboozling, even with diplomatic skills and pressure on the pressures, does not make a permanently sustainable agreement. The cheated side will soon discover the proposition, so the agreement will not remain anything, it will be unsustainable, and the region is unstable as the negotiators know as soon as they mention these key words.

Removing the causes of poor relations between the first neighbors is a painful thing that always causes compromises. On this foundation of tolerance, the European Union was created, after centuries of wars and millions of sacrifices and devastation, with centuries of thick hateful layers that are still smoldering under the ashes of interests. Opportunities for a better life and a safer future, however, have proven to be stronger than hatred and the past. However, in the West, all of the “affected” sides, especially the East of the newly-admitted members, today will meet people who are convinced that their homeland is deceived and that they have pulled out the bloody end of the stick that entered the EU and NATO. For that there are volumes and volumes of books in the West and thousands of texts, and in politics, especially before elections even in the heart of the EU, some political parties are still the main topic of the calculations and calculations how economically damaged citizens and states that finance the disgusting Brussels bureaucracy and the bulky official apparatus. When this is not enough to establish goals, calls are followed for anxiety that the independence is violated, that vital national interests and even the language of more than one million people are under attack by the English language.

These are the regular topics not only of the various Eurosceptics, but also more widely among ordinary people, especially after the terrorist attacks and the rise of street crime, which carries the various east European mafia gangs, as well as honest and hardworking arrivals, engineers, doctors, programmers, drivers, repairmen … who are destroying the wages of indigenous people, cause great resistance. In the East, in the case of the newly-admitted states in the EU and NATO, debates and arguments are being held that expectations have been betrayed and that the citizens have not received anything special with the entrance to the false paradise. You will hear such a thing from Slovenians and Croats, from Bulgarians and from Romanians, even if they were better off when they were independent and some claim that they were better at the time of Nicolae Ceausescu and Todor Zivkov, as well as Josip Broz, although the differences between them are immeasurable. However, a notorious fact is that none of the new members asked for departure from the EU and NATO. It is normal for people in the East, even in Central Europe, to repress their memories from their consciousness in front of empty shops and great misery. I can hardly wait to read them, so if it serves me to write the first criticism of the EU and NATO, but as their member. It sounds like when in Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria is criticized the slow rise of the standard, while in the first three countries, the average salary is about a thousand euros, in Slovenia, and 1,160 in Bulgaria, the lowest in the EU. Yes, may be the lowest in the EU, but higher than here. It’s the same as when we are wondering why Croatia’s programs are fiercely criticized and they seem great to us. This is the result that our former “compatriots” have sharpened their criteria and performance measures. They already compare themselves with Europe, and not with us, the last fools in the Balkans that have lost both the criteria and the horizons that only reduced to how to survive, or escape from the very beloved motherland. If there is a solution between Greece and Macedonia and our work will be, the Danes did not deceive us, they gave us a Trojan horse. The hypothetical Ellens and Byzantines will trump constantly that the Slavic barbarians again threaten the entire Hellas. If that nationalism in Europe lasts 73 years after the Second World War and a hundred years after the First World War and another 200 years of mutual wars before, the Balkans will last at least twice as much. But here at this moment, after several regional and global events, the cubes have been arranged to allow for a mutually acceptable solution. The governments and prime ministers of the two countries, who this time are not an incident of history as before, taking into account, above all, the global strategic interests of the EU and America have recognized the opportunity to make their citizens’ lives better and to build friendly and allied relations. The solution to the problem between Greece and Macedonia, which lasts much longer than the imposed name dispute over the constitutional name, could be a historical example for the entire region, a new name as the Western Balkans, although such a toponymical definition does not exist and has a bad political, rather than a geographical connotation. I remain on the allegation that if Greece and Macedonia can find a solution, then Serbia and Kosovo and all sides in Bosnia can be agreed, of course Greece and Albania are easier. Which would mean a permanently stable Southern Europe that is of undeniable interest to the world.