With whom will Mickoski take a picture?

Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, will decide today with whom he will pose for a picture – whether with Panos Kammenos, the Greek Defense Minister and the leader of the Independent Greeks, coalition partner in the government of Alexis Tsipras on one side, and with Gjorge Ivanov, the president of the state, on the other. It can be a nice portrait of the biggest patriots in the two countries who think differently, but with the same ultimate goal: Macedonia not to become an ally of the North Atlantic alliance without meeting their commitments. Kammenos with his like-minded people does not want to give up the name Macedonia, and Mickoski with his supporters does not like Macedonia with the addition of North. Or, perhaps you think that Mickoski will very soon change his mind and choose to be in the collective historic portrait, together with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and all party leaders who share the same positions, as well as he and the majority of citizens of Macedonia, for NATO membership and in the EU with a preserved name and surname, but with the geographical addition North.
The message for a collective photo came from Kammenos, who was attending the Brussels summit at the NATO headquarters when the unanimous decision was made to send an invitation to Macedonia for NATO membership. Kammenos said: They can collect invitations and take photos, but there is no chance for them to enter NATO as long as they use the term Macedonia. The Prespa agreement will never be implemented because it will not pass either in the Parliament or in a neighbor’s referendum, Kammenos told Greek media. They say that some Greek journalists joked with Kammenos that he has not yet realized that the Prespa Agreement has been ratified twice in the Parliament of Macedonia and that the majority of the citizens of Macedonia will confirm this in a referendum.
I do not believe that Mickoski and Ivanov, with their firm standpoints, give such assurance to Kammenos that NATO membership with the name Macedonia will never be passed here because of the addition North, and moreover, constitutional changes are needed erga omnes. So why is Minister Kammenos so convinced that the Agreement will not be passed in Macedonia, in the Parliament, or in a referendum? We should pay more attention to Kammenos’s words, the man is Greece’s defense minister and has access to information to several intelligence services. It is hard to believe that he says unconfirmed things and that he does not have enough knowledge about things that the public doesn’t know in Greece, nor in Macedonia. The expulsion of Russian diplomats from Greece, who in a vague statement were connected to the agreement between Greece and Macedonia, and allegedly wanted to prevent it, is considered a great sensation among the connoisseurs of relations between the two countries.  Greece is a “Russian man” in the EU, the traditionally good relations between Greece and Russia, stretching through centuries and throughout history, basically do not allow the thought that something so scare was going on here that Greece decided to expel Russian diplomats and face a reciprocal measure from Russia. Athens sent an urgent message to Moscow in order to preserve these good relations.
Let’s not get distracted by the attractiveness and excitement of speculation and assumptions, but the severity of the situation, especially when the two largest world powers represented by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump sit down to discuss could probably lead to very unpleasant news. Not because Macedonia would be a big and significant topic, on the contrary, just because small countries suffer the most from concessions in the pursuit of major strategic interests and in the division of spheres of influence.
And now – what further in an extremely significant historical situation for the future of Macedonia. There is nothing else but grabbing the chance of the 21st century with a clear demonstration of complete unity in the country, of all political parties, of business and intellectual elites, to invite citizens with a joint proclamation immediately, without wasting much money on filthy campaigns for the referendum and vote for the Agreement with Greece, vote for Macedonia’s entry into NATO and start negotiations with the EU, vote for the country’s future. The faster and with a greater turnout – the better.
If we start measuring who will benefit more, and who will lose more, Greece will become the leader in the Balkans if the agreement is finalized successfully. Simply put, Greece won the leadership and got the past that it thinks is just their own, Macedonia wone the future and everything that goes along with the belonging to the European Union and NATO. Science determines about where the past belongs to, political agreements do not apply there. As for Euro-Atlantic integrations and alliances, politics is the one deciding, and law and justice do not play any role there.
These are only the main motives, but I think that they are strong enough and clear enough for us to understand finally, if not all at least the vast majority, why we need a well-timed and understandable one-sided joint proclamation of political parties and leaders to the citizens of Macedonia, which will be adopted unanimously in the Assembly. It must be a historic document that determines the fate of the country and of the present and future generations. Thus, Macedonia becomes a European country in which the danger of divisions and conflicts is being eliminated, which are still real threats if Macedonia remains an empty island in the ocean of the EU and NATO around it.
Perhaps the Greek Minister of Defense Panos Kammenos, when he said that our politicians can take pictures with the invitation from Brussels for NATO membership, had an insight into a scenario that included the assessment of future events in Macedonia if it abandoned its membership in NATO and EU. Such an assessment of the CIA was once achieved with Yugoslavia after the failure to enter the North Atlantic Alliance and the EU as a confederation. The government and the Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, will bear the greatest responsibility and will face historic condemnation if the chance of the century disappears. The government has all the mechanisms available to remove any obstruction of the future of the state and its citizens. If it does not make it the biggest culprit, as an incapable government to realize the chance it has created itself. That is, to express myself in the spirit of the world football championship, it’s worse than missing a decisive penalty. It is as if you leave the field before the referee blows the whistle and you lose the competition, although you are leading 2-0, followed by a disqualification that will make you play in a local sub-alliance for another 27 years.

Erol Rizaov