Mazedoniens Beitritt wegen Streit mit Griechenland in Gefahr [en]
Nikola Gruevski, Mazedoniens Premierminister, hat Griechenland verärgert, indem er das EU-Mitglied aufforderte, seine mazedonische Minderheit anzuerkennen. Diese Konfrontationsstrategie könnte dem kleinen Balkanstaat jedoch Ärger bereiten, da Frankreich, das derzeit die EU-Ratspräsidentschaft innehat, deutlich gemacht hat, dass es in dem Streit an der Seite Griechenlands stehe.
Background
In April, Athens vetoed Skopje's invitation to join NATO, arguing that name 'Macedonia' could lead Skopje to make territorial claims over Greece's own northern province of the same name (EurActiv 4/04/08).
A nationalist backlash followed in the small country of 2.5 million, which US former assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrook famously called "a hole in the middle of nothing".
Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski decided to ride on this wave and called for early elections. Macedonian legislators have ignored warnings from leading MEPs that early elections would threaten the country's EU accession (EurActiv 14/04/08). Gruevski won the elections, but these were marked by violence and damaged the country's image.
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn warned that the unsolved 'name dispute' with Greece could negatively affect Macedonia's EU agenda. Meanwhile, UN-sponsored talks to solve the dispute are making no progress, news agencies reported.
Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski sent a letter to his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis on 14 July, asking for recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece and the return of property to Macedonian refugees who were forced to flee during the 1946-1949 Greek civil war.
Some historians estimate that more than 100,000 ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece fled the country as the war between the right-wing monarchist government and the Democratic Army of Greece, a branch of the Communist Party, took hold.
"Large parts of these people, most of them ethnic Macedonians born in Greece, came to live in the then Socialist Yugoslavia, or in parts of today's Republic of Macedonia to be exact," Gruevski writes. "They have stayed here ever since, probably influenced by the fact that they spoke the same language and felt as part of the same people, the Macedonians."
Athens does not recognise those who fled as Macedonians and refuses to issue citizenship to them or their descendants.
In addition, Gruevski urged Athens to recognise the existence of the Macedonian minority on its territory and grant them the right to education in their own language as well as to foster their culture and traditions.
Greece immediately reacted. In response to Gruevski's letter, Greek Foreigh Minister Dora Bakoyiannis said on Tuesday that the extreme nationalism from Skopje "sows the wind, but reaps whirlwind".
A Greek government spokesperson claimed that with this move, Skopje is deliberately disrupting the ongoing UN-sponsored talks on the name dispute between the two countries.
Speaking in the European Parliament on 15 July, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made it plain that France, which holds the EU Presidency, supports fellow member state Greece in its disputes with Macedonia. "We show solidarity with Greece," Kouchner stated.
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