Macedonia Party Calls for VMRO Resignation

Skopje | 10 December 2009 | Sinisa-Jakov Marusic

DPA leader Menduh Thaci

Macedonia's opposition ethnic Albanian party has called for the government to step down due to its inability to deliver a Euro-Atlantic future to its people.

Macedonia has exhaused all its chances, Menduh Thaci said after the country did not get a green light for the start of its EU accession talks due to the unresolved name spat with neighboring Greece.

The leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, said he was not taken by surprise with the political strategy of the Prime Minister and ruling VMRO-DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski to avoid solving the long running spat.

"Both Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE want to resume their historical mission dating back 100 years ago i.e. to annex Macedonia to Bulgaria," he said.

He urged the junior ruling coalition party, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration DUI, to quit the governing coalition and to stand in defense of Albanians' interests.

Opinion polls show that Macedonia's Albanians, who make up roughly one quarter of the population, would much rather trade the name of the country in return for a speedy EU and NATO accession than the Macedonian majority.

On Tuesday EU ministers agreed to return to the issue during the first half of 2010, thus effectively giving the country an additional six month period to solve the name spat with Greece through bilateral negotiations.

“The negotiations are not closed and all political factors will use the next six months as a chance to solve name issue,” the DUI’s Xhevat Ademi said yesterday on behalf of the party.

He added that “DUI is doing everything in its power to help Macedonia join EU and NATO”.

Macedonia has been an EU candidate country since December 2005. For a number of years the country did not fulfill necessary criteria, but in this autumn’s progress report the European Commission said Skopje is ready to start talks, and recommended member states extend a start date.

However, Greece has all along said it will block any decision to give Skopje a start date pending a solution to the 18-year-old name dispute with the country.

Last year Greece also blocked NATO's invitation for Macedonia’s membership in the Alliance for the same reason.

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Comments:

Bulgaria
2009-12-10 14:57:28

"Both Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE want to resume their historical mission dating back 100 years ago i.e. to annex Macedonia to Bulgaria." Its strange that the slavomacedonians haven´t realize this yet.

VMRO POLICY
2009-12-10 18:16:04

Mr. Thaci has said half the truth. Actually Mr. Gruevski has full support from Bulgaria only when he is declaring his true intentions for Greek Macedonia and not for Pirin Macedonia. Bulgaria rightfully considers the Makedonski of North Macedonia as their lost brothers and they are very happy that they are again falling in the same trap as they did in the past, from 1896 to 1949... Unfortunately FYROM and Bulgaria have again the support of Central European plus Eastern Powers now, that all thrive in Balkan disagreement, in order to push again their interests down to the warm waters of the north Aegean... On the contrary, Albania,Serbia,North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania should understand that together with Greece within the European Union they could all form a very prosperous and formidable alliance as, besides some linguistic differences, they are all part of the same big cultural family and proud inheritors of the Greco-Roman-Orthodox legacy. South Eastern Europe does not need any outside interference and can make it alone very well-remember what Rigas Ferreos died for?

A name is a name
2009-12-11 00:26:18

Historical documentation proves that 90% of the area occupied by FYROM never belonged to any Macedonia at any period in time. In fact, in antiquity this area was part of ancient Greek Paionia, as it was situated north of Philip's and Alexander's Macedonia. Heraclea Lyncestis was at the northern tip of Philip's Macedonia which is what we know today as Monastiri, or Bitola. That's as far north as Macedonia went. The fact that Tito baptized this area (FYROM) as Macedonia doesn't make it so. Neither does it make it's inhabitants Macedonians. If they got brain-washed over the last sixty or so years into thinking that they are ethnic Macedonians, well, that's their problem, and not Philip's, Alexander's nor any other Greek's. We will not give into Skopje's irrational demands. Time is on Greece's side. Skopje's pseudo-nationalist policies contradict the state's diverse, multi-ethnic cultural structure. It is also this same state-fostered pseudo-nationalism conflicting with the European Union’s own political culture adversely affecting FYROM’s EU aspirations. The EU will not admit FYROM only to avoid inter-ethnic conflict within that state. The Albanians in FYROM do not identify as ethnic Macedonians. Neither do the Bulgarians, the Turks nor the Greeks (Vlachs, Sarakatsans) in FYROM. Both Thaci and Ahmeti have had enough of Gruevski's political circus. The clock is ticking. There will not be a second Ohrid.

Bulgarian Kin
2009-12-12 11:18:35

Vrmo has always been a Bulgarian group since last century so it is normal that they want to join their motherland. All our Bulgarian people in Macedonia love our party and for this they will one day get into EU as part of Bulgaria.

Slow moving train
2009-12-12 15:31:33

wow! does the FYRoM government really expect the Albanians in their country to believe that they will try to resolve the name issue with Greece, and gain entry into NATO and the EU? They have had 18 years and have not budged - except to say that 90% of "Macedonians" will not trade the name for Euro Atlantic membership. How is it possible that 90% of the population said this, when 85% of ethnic Albanians have said otherwise... considering that we albanians make up 30% of the population, it is imposible for 90% not to want to change the name.

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Dancing Alexander-style, Down Under

Macedonia Party Calls for VMRO Resignation