Macedonia FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Macedonia.

From: Angelos Karageorgiou angelos@iqs.gr

This is a FAQ about the Greek main positions, but also covers issues that have arisen during our discussion in the group, so that visitors and newcomers to the group can follow the discussions easier. I hope it will be a useful primer.

In 1994, Greece imposed an embargo on products from FYROM (except for food, medicine and humanitarian assistance), on claims that the adoption of a Greek name ("Macedonia") for the country, a Greek symbol (the Vergina Sun/Star) for its flag and certain articles in its constitution, hide irredentist designs against Greece. For the embargo to end, the flag, certain articles in its constitution, and the hostile propaganda have to be changed ("small package"), while the name can be decided in later negotiations.

The Embargo has recently been lifted but the reasoning behind it is still relevant, and even more pressing since the assasination attempt against FYROM's president.

But the foremost reason for this FAQ's existences is to reply to irredentist aspirations, against Greece and its people, like the following:

"Actually, WE FORESEE a unification of all the parts of Macedonia the Pirin, the Aegean, the Vardar (presently the INDEPENDENT Republic), and Mala Prespa/Golo Brdo. That will be achieved in a peaceful manner, for NOONE CAN DENY THE RESOLVE OF THE MACEDONIANS TO LIVE IN A MACEDONIAN STATE FREE OF FOREIGN RULE. Macedonia was divided among its neighbors in 1913; it's time it got reunified."

(Boris Docevski, Brainwashed Internet Propagandist, posted in soc.culture.greek on April 21, 1995)