From: irakliot@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Leo J. Irakliotis)
Subject: Re: Ellemann-Jensen on Macedonia
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:19:03 GMT
Reply-To: irakliot@lance.colostate.edu
Organization: Engineering Network Services, Colorado State University

In article <C17qGI.1J2@gabriel.keele.ac.uk>, cla04@keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear) writes:
|> I wonder what people have to say about Greek claims of EEC unity on the
|> Greek stance on Macedonia in light of the following remarks by Uffe
|> Ellemann-Jensen:

ATHENS, Greece (UPI) -- Greece reacted sharply Thursday to remarks by
Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in support of European
Community recognition of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
        Government spokesman Vassilis Magginas said Jensen ``attacked
Greece
without provocation,'' and was expressing his personal views, not those
of the Community.
        He was responding to remarks made by the Danish minister in the
European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in which he criticized Athens
for using its veto to block EC recognition of the former Yugoslav
republic under the name ``Macedonia.''
        Denmark currently holds the rotating presidency of the Community.
Jensen said: ``Greece has acted unreasonably. I am ashamed of the Greek
attitude.'' He said the other 11 members of the Community ``have just
about had enough of Greece's obstruction.''
        The Greek government spokesman said Jensen's remarks were
unacceptable, and Greece would raise the issue at the next meeting of E.
C. foreign minister.
        Earlier, Minister of State Andreas Andrianopoulos read a statement
to
the press, issued after a Greek cabinet meeting, saying Greece condemned
Jensen's remarks ``as being improper and unacceptable, since he makes
groundless accusations.''
        Andrianopoulos said the Danish minister's remarks ``are contrary to
the principles of Community solidarity,'' and contradictory to a
decision on the issue taken at the EC summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, in
November.

        Athens opposes the former Yugoslav republic's use of the name
``Macedonia,'' which is also the name a northern Greek province.
        Greek analysts say the issue dates back to the cold war era when
Tito
and Stalin used the name ``Macedonia'' for the republic as part of a
conspiracy to seize Greek territory. Tito supported Communist guerrillas
in the Greek civil war of 1947-49.
        The analyst said the group now in power in Skopje were simply
continuing the Stalinist-era cold war policies, and the newly
independent republic's use of the name indicated it still harbored
expansionist designs on Greek territory.
        Jensen described Greece as an EC ``member-state which feels
threatned
by a country smaller than itself.''
        Western analysts said Greece has not made its point lucidly enough
to
the world community, and has failed to explain that the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia was set up by a group responsible for terrorism in
the Balkans before World War II.
        Greece's fears are justified, the analysts said, because the group
had won respectability after coming to power, but hard-liners in the
present Skopje government had to be viewed as potential troublemakers.

-- 
Leo J Irakliotis                 irakliot@eva.lance.colostate.edu
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