Greek Foreign Minister says that Athens takes the same position as Albanians in FYROM on the name dispute. -FYROM news

A document released by the French Senate offers details on the positioning of Athens as far as issues of the region are concerned and in particular about the name dispute issue with Skopje.

Media in Skopje have published today a document where the head of the Greek diplomacy, Evangelos Venizelos has stressed that Skopje’s problem with Bulgaria is bigger than the name dispute with Greece.

Venizelos has explained that there’s harmony between the Greek positioning and that of the Albanian ethnic community in FYROM.

“Albanian community is open and it agrees with us on the issue of the name, considering it as an unimportant issue for them which doesn’t pose any ideological and historical problem”, declared Venizelos in the French Senate.

Greek Foreign Minister declared this during a speech delivered in the French Senate, where he has discussed about the problems with FYROM in the aspect of relations with neighboring countries.

“The name dispute that Greece has imposed is smaller than the ideological problem that this country has with Bulgaria. There’s an ideological problem for the national artificial identity between Skopje and Sofia”, said Venizelos, who in the quality of the head of the EU presidency for the next 6 months, announced visits in the Balkan region.

He talked about the problems that Skopje has with neighboring countries and added that the problem with the name dispute is very small in comparison to the big historical and language issues that it disputes with Sofia. In the quality of a linguist, Venizelos said in front of French senators that FYROM language is “pseudo-Macedonian”. “According to the government and Bulgarian scientific community, this language is Bulgarian”, declared the Greek foreign minister.

These declarations have been issued during a speech delivered by Venizelos in the committee for foreign policy and defense in the French Senate. In this meeting, he also outlined the Greek priorities during its EU presidency for the first 6 months of this year.

Venizelos has also talked about other countries of the region, including Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. “The start of dialogue is very positive for Serbia and Kosovo. We have close ties with Albania and with the new prime minister who shares similar political approaches with us”, said Venizelos. Nevertheless, he added that Greece is ready to accept compromise as far as the name dispute issue is concerned.

Asked by senator Aymery de Montesquiou about the relations between Athens and Skopje and if Greek is spoken in FYROM, Venizelos said that: “Compromise should be reached with FYROM about the renaming of this country. This must happen because there are many territories that bear this name, such as Central Macedonia with Thessalonica as its center, the constituency that I have represented in parliament for 25 years, or West Macedonia, Bulgarian Macedonia or Albanian Macedonia. We propose a final compromise with a general use ‘erga omnes’”, said the head of the Greek diplomacy.

He also stopped on the cross ethnic relations in FYROM, adding that the biggest problem of this country relates to the relations between ethnic communities. /ibna/
 http://www.balkaneu.com/greek-foreign-minister-athens-takes-position-albanians-fyrom-dispute/#sthash.3Dz5WMQI.dpuf
24/1/14
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  Η ΓΛΩΣΣΑ ΤΩΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΩΝ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ (του Δημήτρη Ε. Ευαγγελίδη)