March of shame in Athens


Erol Rizaov

With the rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki, everything that was reasonable in the last attempt to find a solution between Greece and Macedonia has been jeopardized. Greek right-wing parties and the Greek Church, the ideological leaders of the protests against the fundamental civilizational and universal human rights of self-determination of peoples in the center of Athens, proved that they were not only the 50,000 of the rally in Thessaloniki, but hundreds and hundreds of thousands of easily provoked hot-heads occupied the capital of the fake cradle of European democracy and showed the world the ugly face of populism in the Olympic metropolis. The message from Athens to the world, to the neighbors, to Brussels, to the UN and to all those who wanted and invested decades of effort to resolve the unfairly imposed dispute over Macedonia for decades, is very sad.

The organizers of this march realized that after the democratic changes in Macedonia it was possible to come quickly to a solution, they decided in this way to tie the hands of the Greek government and the Greek Prime Minister and all reasonable people in both countries willing to compromise, to lift the 27-year-old blockade and allow the Republic of Macedonia and its two million inhabitants to become part of Europe and a member of NATO and the EU. Greek nationalists have also ruined the Olympic flags. They say they are saving Greek Macedonia. And, who took Macedonia from them, whether it was Greek, whether it was northern Greece, or Hellas, or whatever they call it at home and in the world. Nobody. No one asked for a millimeter of their territory, their country, nobody asked for a single article, nor word, nor comma to be changed in their Constitution, nor did anyone ask them to introduce a new writing on how they should write in Greek, English and French and Swahili and in the language of the rest of the inhabitants of the Brazilian Jungle, the name of Greek Macedonia. Nobody asked the Greeks, or the Greek state to change anything of theirs. No one in the world is asking anything from Greece, or God forbid someone thought of demanding something that Greece demands from its first neighbor.

Greece is only asked for understanding and elementary humanity and culture to leave its neighbor in peace, preserve its state, and place its people where it belongs, both geographically, culturally and politically, while expressing readiness to free them from all the phobias of the Greeks who do not recognize the manipulations of their politicians in the battles for power, and greatly regret the Greek church, although equally orthodox and Orthodox with the Macedonian. Republic of Macedonia has the same name for 74 years, it has its own state, its borders, recognized and respected by all its neighbors, including Greece, has its own governments and prime ministers for 74 years, has its Parliament for 74 years, has its own Constitution, has signed thousands interstate deals in a period of 74 years, has its own army, the police for 74 years, has everything that a modern parliamentary state should have for 74 years. The Republic of Macedonia has the same name for 74 years, even when it was an integral part of Yugoslavia as a federal, people’s or socialist Republic of Macedonia. No one has ever challenged that. Macedonia is a UN member state of 27 years and is a 12-year candidate for NATO and EU membership. The Republic of Macedonia is recognized by its constitutional name by 137 countries, among which the world’s largest powers and all former republics, now independent states that were part of Yugoslavia. By now, for at least five years, the Republic of Macedonia would have been a regular member of NATO and the EU, if it was not for the Greek ultimatum against the international right to self-determination, if it was not for the shameful EU protection of Greece, if it was not for America’s indifference, but honestly, also the inability of Macedonian politicians throughout the transition period, and most of all because of the catastrophic mistakes of the previous Macedonian government in search of a more glorious past, by building monuments of antique heroes by spending money from the poorest nation in Europe in defiance of the Greeks, and its huge and irreparable damage.

After these rallies in Thessaloniki and Athens, we returned 25 years back with the same question – is it possible to find a solution to this problem that would be acceptable to both sides? In fact, the major protests in Athens and Thessaloniki have that intention, in addition to the domestic admonition of the government, to warn both Europe and America to guard these great Greek protectors who are doing and not allowing the Republic of Macedonia to become an ally in the west at no cost. Although everyone argues that the solution is very difficult and that the problem is insurmountable, historical experience has shown for decades that, in the course of such interstate disputes, whether it is between EU members and candidates for membership, in other cases of interest to Brussels, of America and the UN, the solution can be very simple and quickly feasible with an acceptable compromise. In the case of the Republic of Macedonia, if membership in NATO and the start of negotiations with the EU are temporarily settled and the expiry date of the judgment of the court of justice in The Hague for admission of Macedonia into them with the name FYR Macedonia, Greek pragmatism will very soon come into play after which, in a short time, an acceptable solution will be found for the delineation of the geographical term Macedonia, and for removing the danger of irredentism and of what means the preservation of national identity, language, the general humanity first and the dignity of the Greek Ghani both countries. The factor of time is the great injustice that is applied only to Macedonia from the outside, unfortunately also from the inside, in this dispute. The equalization of the negotiating positions of Greece and of Macedonia with a time limit solves the problem righteously. It is an issue that should depend on governments in Washington, in Skopje and in Athens, in Brussels and in the UN, and not on populist rallies, however big and aggressive.