Macedonia's foreign minister noted that his country is a "reliable partner" of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq and is working hard to join NATO and the European Union.
His Balkan nation is reforming tax laws to attract more foreign investment and helping neighboring countries with difficult diplomatic issues, such as the future of Kosovo.
"We have gone from a security consumer to a security provider," Antonio Milososki said on a visit this week to The Washington Times, referring to his country's transition since independence in 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Still, Macedonia labors under what he called a "very stupid designation" as "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) because of Greek objections over its name.
Greece insists that the name "Macedonia" should apply only to a northern Greek province. Athens also is concerned that the use of the name by its Balkan neighbor represents a threat to Greek heritage.
Nearly 120 countries - including the United States, China and Russia - recognize the nation by the name it calls itself, the Republic of Macedonia, but the United Nations, the European Union and NATO still refer to it as FYROM.
"At the U.N., we sit next to Turkey because our name begins with 'the,' " Mr. Milososki said.
He added that some Greek politicians now realize they face a conundrum over the name issue, adopted under the former ruling party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement.
"Modern Greek politicians are sort of hostage to the earlier party," Mr. Milososki said, referring to members of the current government of the conservative New Democracy party.
Mr. Milososki said Greek business executives who do business in Macedonia never use the term FYROM.
"Our name is the cornerstone of our identity," he said. "It is a basic right of all nations to use the name it has chosen."
Mr. Milososki, who met yesterday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and congressional leaders, said his Washington visit is designed to highlight Macedonia's contribution to security concerns in the Balkans and other regions and to promote stronger trade relations with the United States.
Macedonia has 130 troops in Afghanistan, providing medical services and guarding NATO headquarters in Kabul, and about 40 combat troops in Iraq. Also, more than 350 Macedonian officers have received military training in the United States.
"For us, it is important that we should be seen as a reliable partner," he said.
Mr. Milososki said his government is advising both Kosovo and Serbia about the future of the ethnic-Albanian province that erupted into violence between Serbian forces and Kosovo separatists in the 1990s.
Although Macedonia's population of about 2 million is 25 percent ethnic Albanian, Mr. Milososki said, he has no fears of Albanian extremists agitating for a "Greater Albania," as Slobodan Milosevic did in his quest for a "Greater Serbia."
"A 'Greater Serbia' and a 'Greater Albania' are twins," Mr. Milososki said. "A 'Greater Serbia' was lesson enough."
Justice delayed
The U.S. ambassador to Russia yesterday urged Moscow to find the killers of American journalist Paul Klebnikov, who was killed three years ago.
"It's obviously important in the view of the U.S. government that this investigation be pursued vigorously and concluded successfully and that those responsible be brought to justice," Ambassador William Burns told reporters after attending a memorial service on the anniversary of the death of the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
Two Chechen separatists were charged but acquitted last year. The Supreme Court ordered them retried, but the legal proceedings were suspended in March when one defendant fled.
* Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.
The Washington Times
18 July 2007
Letters to the Editor
The truth about Macedonia
Experience has taught us that it is very difficult to communicate with people who have lived under, and have been trained by, the Communist mentality. Case in point: the misleading and well-camouflaged claims made by the honorable foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Antonio Milososki, to The Washington Times in the article "Name game blame" (Embassy Row, July 11) that his country will promote stronger trade relations with the United States, and, with its transition to an independent nation, should be designated Macedonia, not FYROM.
Mr. Milososki claimed that his country has "gone from a security consumer to a security provider," which is hardly accurate and honest. What the minister forgot to mention is the teachings in FYROM's schools and military academy that continue to poison the new generations with falsehoods, planting the seeds of hatred to come in the years ahead and in clear violation of the U.N.-brokered "Intermediate Agreement" signed by his country and Greece. FYROM today is more a picture of a terrorist training camp rather than a "security provider."
"Our name is the cornerstone of our identity," said Mr. Milososki. What he left out was when and how it received that name. Did the name belong to somebody else for millennia before Josip Broz, or "Tito," and Josef Stalin in 1944 re-baptized "Vardarska Banovina" into "Macedonia," usurping the name Macedonia from the northern province of Greece with the ultimate goal of annexing Macedonia away from Greece and gaining access to the Aegean?
Unfortunately for the minister, history recorded that President Truman provided the arms, and the Greeks provided the rivers of blood to stop Tito's and Stalin's plans, rescued the Macedonia province and the rest of Greece from the Communists' deadly embrace, and kept Greece and her Macedonia province on the western side of the Iron Curtain. What the province lost in battle then, it now expects to be given on a silver platter.
Mr. Milososki, your people once claimed that there were about 750,000 of them in the United States. The 2000 census revealed the truth as being not even 40,000. You now claim that 120 countries have recognized you by your self-declared identity. Would you kindly produce such a list for the public and identify exactly which countries have recognized you so officially by government-to-government official letter and which others are only by coerced bilateral agreements between companies in your country and other countries?
We hope you enjoyed your visit to the United States of America, Mr. Milososki. The truth can neither be killed nor ignored. The name "Macedonia" is an indisputable part of Greece's historic and cultural legacy, and the Hellenic world will never give up its ownership.
NINA GATZOULIS
Supreme President
Pan-Macedonian Association
Dover, NH