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Balkan spat o' the week

Friday, October 09, 2009
As everybody knows, PA school textbooks annoy the Israelis and Japanese school textbooks annoy the Chinese and the Koreans.  And so, fresh from irritating the Greeks on a daily basis, the Macedonians have decided to irk the Albanians, via the medium of, what else, an encyclopaedia:

"After a wave of criticism, the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences (MANU) will cease distribution of its "Macedonian Encyclopedia", and will correct several sections in the two-volume publication. The decision was issued earlier this month after bitter reactions were voiced over "incorrect" statements in the books.... The encyclopedia describes Albanians as "mountain people" and says the nation descended in Macedonia together with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.  The ASC says these views are nationalist, and called on their Macedonian colleagues to reconsider the publication for the sake of "truth in history and good neighbourhood relations". 

And since no Balkan spat is ever complete without a bit of  gratuitous offence giving:

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha fiercely criticised the publication at a press conference late last month, saying the encyclopedia was "absurd and unacceptable".  "They [Macedonians] are in search of an identity, while Albanians are not. Albanians have been living here for ages; they have suffered a lot, but never for not having their identity," Berisha said. 

Anyway, "The sections on Albanian-Macedonian relations, Albanians in Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti, aggression over Macedonia, the National Liberation Army and Gonxhe Agnesë Bojaxhiu (That's Mother Theresa , folks) will be revised".

As one of my mates has been known to put it, some people elevate taking an offence to an art form. 

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posted by Croydonian

"I can't believe it's not Macedonia" pt III

Monday, March 03, 2008
Time for an update:

"It is thought that the negotiations could drag on through the weekend with the two sides appearing to be poles apart. Nimetz has proposed five composite names to replace the acronym FYROM. The name favored by Athens – as it gives a geographical determination and clearly distinguishes FYROM from the Greek region of Macedonia – is the Republic of Upper Macedonia. Another of Nimetz’s proposals – New Republic of Macedonia – would be subject to debate if it were modified to Republic of New Macedonia, sources in Athens have said".

Funny how the two varieties of Congolese can put up with the Democratic Republic and the Republic abutting that mighty river and that there are £4.20's worth of varieties of Guinea.

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posted by Croydonian

I can't believe its not Macedonia, pt II

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Here we go again: "Athens yesterday accepted as “a good basis for negotiations” five different composite names for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) proposed by the United Nations special mediator on the Macedonia name dispute during talks in Athens.

Sources late yesterday revealed to Kathimerini four of the five proposed names: Democratic Republic of Macedonia, Constitutional Republic of Macedonia, Independent Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Upper Macedonia".

I think I can do better:


The Not Even Remotely, Honestly not even a little bit, Hellenic Republic of Macedonia


Anyway, the Macedonians are rather limiting themselves by being a Republic. Part of its territory was ruled as the Despotate of Epirus, which gives pointers. Surely there must be a stray prince bishop or grand duke available at the right price? Or for the truly retro, the Margravate of Macedonia? (Mind you, they could that little bit further and use 'Greece', as their skittish neighbours to the South are more properly the Hellenic Republic)

If the Macedonians are entirely happy with their constitutional arrangements, they could always go for the Latin American look name-wise: The Bolivarian Republic of Macedonia, or the Co-Operative Republic of etc etc. Re the latter, is there a divi for the population, or is it a foreign policy mission statement? If so, I fear the Venezuelans and Brazilians will take advantage, especially as the former has claims on bits of Guyana.

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posted by Croydonian

I Can't Believe It's Not Macedonia!

Friday, February 15, 2008
Which is not much sillier than the US State Department's suggestion for a Skopje / Athens friendly name - New Republic of Macedonia. I am not making this up.

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posted by Croydonian

NATO - "an aggressive imperialist bloc"?

Friday, January 25, 2008
That, apparently is what 51.9% of Ukrainians think. Not that they were asked a question pre-supposing the answer 'yes', I am sure.

I discovered this from a report at Novosti on a demo by all of 1,000 people in the streets of Kiev, opposing NATO membership. They chanted the snappy 'NATO is slavery for Slavs', inter alia.

The organisers look to be Communists and members of the imaginatively named 'Party of Regions'. The latter is more a party of region, singular, given that its support looks to be entirely in the eastern, Russified, part of Ukraine. Said party has a website available in Russian and English, if not in the nation's official language.

I am not entirely sure that the English language site has been written by folk with any great fluency in my language, but it does have a certain surreal poetry:

"We will not allow the thousand year common history with Russia was destroyed by some beekeeper. That’s why NATO membership consequences will be worsening the relations with Russia".

Perhaps one of those leading the demo will do a Solana, and end up leading it.

Meanwhile, some 731 miles from Kiev as the Mig-29 flies, the Macedonians seem oblivious to the prospect of helotry under NATO, as Nikola Gruevski, Macedonian PM (and a chap, by the way) is all for taking his country into the organisation, joining fellow Slavs both next door and those nestled in the Carpathians and further north.

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posted by Croydonian

Quite the macedoine

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Greece is still affronted by the name used by its northern neighbour, Macedonia, and Greece's foreign minister has accused Macedonia of 'intransigence' in not coming up with a name for itself that Greece approves of: "We have taken all the necessary steps but all we are getting from the other side is an apparently intransigent stance and we are waiting for this to change". Source

That Skopje was a little unsubtle in laying claim to the symbolism of ancient Greek Macedonia I accept, and Skopje has stopped doing so, but Macedonia is the most relevant name for that part of the world in the same way that Prussia, Burgundy, Lombardy or Wessex might be for successor any states in other parts of the world. For Athens to demand veto powers over national nomenclature does it no credit, and makes it look utterly childish.

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posted by Croydonian