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Dear Sir,
We would write to express our
deep disappointment at the lack of support by the
British Government for Macedonian membership in NATO
during the recent summit in Bucharest . As citizens of
Great Britain we relied on British support because we
believe that Britain has a vision for a great, unified
Europe , a continent which will prosper and benefit from
all its members eventually joining NATO and the EU.
Britain supports Macedonia on
many levels with expertise and advice and has been
involved in stabilising the Balkan region where
Macedonia is situated. It is sad that although Britain
is a major force it did not stand up at the summit in
Bucharest to confirm what all of NATO have been saying
for years now: that Macedonia is ready to become an
equal member of the Alliance .
Macedonia has aspired towards
NATO membership since its independence in 1991, well
aware that as a small nation it can only progress under
the common defence shield of NATO. Macedonia has always
cooperated with EU and other international organisations
and assisted the NATO campaign against Serbia in 1999 by
taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosovo.
Now it seems to be punished because other NATO
countries, including Britain did not stand up to Greece
.
Greece’s reasons for vetoing
Macedonian accession to NATO are ambiguous. It claims
Macedonia harbours expansionist aspirations towards its
northern region, also called Macedonia . But not once
since its independence has Macedonia entered Greek
territory unlawfully, nor does it object to Greece
calling its northern region Macedonia . On the contrary,
Macedonia has welcomed Greek investors and tries to be
co-operative with Greece on all levels, offering to
adapt its name for bilateral use with Greece . But no
change that Macedonia has made thus far in its effort to
appease Greece is enough.
If Greece had real reasons to
believe that Macedonia harbours expansionist ideas, one
would assume that the Greek government would in fact
insist on Macedonian membership in NATO as well as EU.
Macedonian membership in NATO would surely be a
guarantee against a putative Macedonian expansionist
agenda towards any of its neighbours. But common sense
is not the basis of Greece ’s objections, which can be
explained only by a nationalist agenda to deny the right
of another nation to call itself by its name.
The Greek propaganda machine
prior to the NATO summit in Bucharest paid for a
worldwide media campaign trying to “explain” its
position by asking: What is in a name? Macedonia doesn’t
have much money for media campaigns but obviously feels
strongly about changing its name because the name
Macedonia is intrinsically linked to the identity of the
Macedonian nation which speaks the Macedonian language.
This is why despite decades of pressure from Greece in
the form of international lobbying and countless
campaigns, Macedonia has stood by its name. The name of
our country defines what we Macedonians are and one’s
identity cannot be a matter for negotiations.
The West still retains a
romantic view of Greece as the cradle of democracy.
Whilst it finds Greece ’s insistence on pursuing a
nationalist agenda irritating, it seems unable to speak
to the fact that Greece ’s decision to block Macedonia
’s accession to NATO and surely the EU in future is not
a viable political option for Greece . The only
consequence of such an aggressive policy will be the
further destabilisation of the Balkans, especially in
light of the recently proclaimed independence by Kosovo,
a northern neighbour to Macedonia .
The failure of Macedonia to
become a NATO member after meeting all the standards
required by the Alliance is not a failure of Macedonia ,
but failure of NATO to uphold its values. It is a sad
day when an Alliance which has contributed to peace and
stabilisation in many parts of the world succumbs to the
pressure of the nationalistic agenda of one of its
member states.
We are calling on Britain to
put a stop to this and use its credibility and influence
within NATO to accept Macedonia as a new member as soon
as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Kiril Waite
Presdient of the Association
of Macedonians in the UK
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