Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia Democracy - the sacking of Grigoris Vallianatos
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
November 14, 2008
1. The PASOK´s foreign policy advisor, Mr Andreas Loverdos, underlined that Mr Grigoris Vallianatos expressed his 'personal opinions' on the name issue of the State of Skopje; opinions that do not reflect the party's or its leader's stance on the issue. Obviously he did not deny that Mr. Vallianatos expressed such opinions, as Mr Stefov falsely states.
2. As far as the case of Mrs. Grosomanidou is concerned, Mr. Stefov this time expresses a rather unorthodox view, sustaining that the ambassador of a state should present his/her own personal opinion on issues, and not the thesis of the country he/she represents.
A similar case, familiar to Mr. Stefov himself that contradicts his own claim, would be the case of Mr. Nikola Dimitrov (Skopje´s negotiator in the name dispute with Greece), who was recently dismissed by the President of FYROM Mr. Branko Crvenkovski "in order to put a stop to this situation, which is already used by Greece as an argument against us, i.e. two negotiators, separate meetings, separate consultations" and obviously separate opinions expressed on the same issues, as Mr. Crvenkovski stated in the parliament of Skopje.
3. The use of the term 'FYROM' for the former Yugoslavian state used by Greece, is not a question of preference or lack of respect, as Mr. Stefov claims in his accusations against Greece. It is the result of the Interim Accord between the Hellenic Republic and FYROM, signed by both states!
In the years that followed the signing of the fore mentioned agreement, it became obvious that Skopje was the party that preferred not to use the terms it agreed on; disrespectful of its own representative's signature, of the Greek position and of the United Nations that supervised the negotiations and the Interim Accord in the first place!
4. Mr. Stefov repeats his false claim on censorship of views regarding the issue of the former Yugoslavian state, when the same "Vallianatos incident" that inspired him, is yet another demonstration that everyone is free to express the views they desire within Greece. After his dismissal, Mr. Vallianatos attended several television programs as a guest to present his thoughts once again. Any reader can confirm via the internet that representatives of various parties in Greece, among them RAINBOW party, continually are allowed to express their opinions similar to those of Mr. Stefov freely. After all, Greece IS the cradle of democracy and Western civilization, as we all as aware of!
Mr. Stefov's interest in the internal mechanisms of the political parties in Greece (as in the case of the PASOK party), and his objections on their function, is certainly an issue that has nothing to do with the undoubted freedom of speech in Greek democracy. Maybe Mr. Stefov should have a good look at FYROM's democracy before critising Greece's. There must be a good reason as to why Greece has been an EU/EC member since 1981; and FYROM is still struggling to maintain a wavering democracy and has a long way to go before to even be considered to be accepted as an EU member. The EU recently weighed the progress of aspiring nations such as FYROM; and it concluded that: "The European Commission will not recommend a start to accession talks with FYROM, an EU candidate country since December 2005. According to the report, the country has not meet the political criteria, and has only partially addressed the key priorities of the then accession partnership." (EU weighs progress of Western Balkans).
by Amarantos
for MacedoniaOnTheWeb
info@macedonian.com.au
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council