For 10 years, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was struggling to get the name “North Macedonia” but also to reach an agreement with Greece that would grant them Macedonian language and identity. This is understood from a confidential document published by Wikileaks. The document has apparently compiled by then US ambassador to Skopje Gillian Milovanovic..
The document raises several questions and has now many Greeks wonder
- what did the Greek side achieve with the Prespes/Macedonia agreement in June
- why FYROM’s prime Minister Zoran Zaev claim he made concessions
- why the FYROM opposition was against the agreement
The document is reportedly a cable by the then US Ambassador to FYROM Gillian Milovanovic and it is dated 29. July 2008.
In the cable to US State Department, Milovanovic reports about the aspirations of FYROM leadership, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and President Brank Crvenkovski.
The report has the title
Macedonia/Greece: What the Macedonians need to resolve the name dispute
Elements of Deal
What is odd is that Gillian Milovanic was US Ambassador in Skopje from 2005 to 2007 and she was appointed ambassador to Mali 2007-2011.
Although Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has claimed that the Prespes/Macedonia agreement with Greece has cost him a lot of concession, the cable hows that he received exactly what were the goals of FYROM under Gruevski ten years go. There has been no immediate reaction by Zaev.
On its part, the Greek side said, that the document refers to Gruevski’s positions for a model of a double name. “We achieved a solution for a compound name erga omnes [for all puposes] both on bilateral and multilateral level,” a Greek government official told media.
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias gave his own interpretation saying that “Gruevski was pretending to accept a compromise.”
Prompt was the reaction by main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis from conservative New Democracy. He reiterated his pledge never to ratify the Athens-Skopje name deal, after a Wikileaks cable showing FYROM wanted the name ‘North Macedonia’ since 2008. “Wikileaks tragically confirm me, the Macedonia Agremeent is harmful,” he said.
Meanhwile the Wikileaks document has been uploaded by all Greek mainstream and online media and is stirring the political scene.
“… but this could be handled tacitly … in some other internal UN document not subject to Greek review/approval”.
If ever there was a sentence demonstrating how underhanded the United States has been in all this mess, here it is. It’s also an interesting example of how international institutions that are supposedly multilateral and supposedly have no sovereign power over a country can actually be used to force that country into political submission. Globalism as a weapon.