FYROM news: FYROM' s PM Criticised Over NATO Remarks ...

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Opposition politicians have called on Prime Minister Gruevski to explain his failure to make progress on FYROM's Euro-Atlantic objective in the face of Greece's continuing blockade.

In an interview for the FYROM's News Agency, MIA, on Sunday, Gruevski strongly criticized NATO for practising what he described as "double standards" and "selective respect of international law" when it comes to the country's accession.

The interview was published at the weekend just hours before the start of the two-day NATO summit in Chicago where FYROM, as expected, again failed to secure an invitation to join the alliance, because of the "Greek blockade" over the name dispute.

"Gruevski went against the interests of FYROM's citizens and personally placed the country in confrontation with NATO," said Igor Ivanovski, parliamentary coordinator of the biggest opposition party, the Social Democrats.

The party has called for an emergency parliament session after what they see as the "failure of FYROM" at the Chicago summit, and are demanding that the Prime Minister and President Gjorge Ivanov, whom they hold responsible, appear before parliament and explain how they propose to move the country forward from here.

The NATO summit, which ended on Monday, delivered the same conclusions regarding FYROM's accession as the summit in Bucharest in 2008 where Greece "vetoed" FYROM's accession to the alliance in a move related to the unresolved name dispute.

In its Chicago Declaration, NATO reiterated that FYROM will be invited to join as soon as it solves the long-standing dispute with Greece.

This conclusion comes despite strong lobbying by FYROM, which has called for a ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be respected. The Court found that Greece's "veto" of FYROM's NATO accession was in breach of an earlier agreement. For the first time, however, the declaration stresses that a swift solution of the dispute would contribute to security and stability in the region.

Greece has " blocked" FYROM's Euro-Atlantic aspirations insisting that the name FYROM implies territorial claims over its own northern province of the same name. UN-led talks between the two sides have so far been unsuccessful.

The smaller opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, has gone one step further calling for early general elections following FYROM's setback at the NATO summit.

"The DPA restrains itself from the Prime Minister's vocabulary which is against NATO," said Imer Aliu of the DPA.

The party is calling on Gruevski's junior Albanian partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, to leave the government, which would create conditions for snap polls.

This scenario is unlikely as DUI officials have hinted that they do not intend to leave the government.

Balkan Insight 

*(After the necessary corrections with the name "FYROM".  

GREECE recognised this country with the name "FYROM")

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Skopje | Photo by: Sinisa Jakov Marusic