The following is an article from the Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC):

 MORE BALKAN ETHNIC CONFLICTS?

      With the beginning of the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, 
south-eastern Europe has re-emerged as the "powder-keg" of Europe. 
Despite large-scale dislocation and death, the region continues to be 
threatened by extremist politics, ethnocentric movements that demand 
the re-drawing of borders of "lost" territories. The coalition 
government in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) led by
the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, financed and actively supported by a small 
vocal number of individuals and organisations in Australia, the US and 
Canada is one of these groups.

      In essence, the issue revolves around control of the strategic 
region of Macedonia. For Greeks, Macedonia has formed their northern 
frontier province for the last 4,000 years. Today it is the largest 
and most populous region of Greece, and incorporates the ancient Greek 
kingdom of Macedon, including Pella (the birthplace of Alexander the 
Great) and Vergina (a world heritage site as the burial place of the 
Macedonian kings). Academics agree that the Ancient Macedonians were 
(as they are today), a Greek people. This view is supported by the 
archaeological and literary evidence found in the region.

       The government in FYROM is worked-up for its state to be 
recognised by the international community as the "Republic of 
Macedonia". While on the surface appearing to be a dispute over a 
historic name, FYROM?s claims mask aspirations to territory and 
resources in Greece and other neighbouring states. When the Communist 
Government of Yugoslavia decided to change the name of its southern 
province in 1944 from "Vardar Banovina: to the "Socialist Republic of 
Macedonia", it did so for two reasons: to justify its claims to 
northern Greece, and to dispel the long held claims by Bulgaria over 
"the region" and its people as ethnic Bulgarians. This communist 
policy continues to set the framework for the ambitions of the FYROM 
government today, a policy that continues to destabilise the Balkans 
more than sixty years later.

      Setting history aside, it is very important that the 
international community, understand what they are supporting when they 
recognise a new state. Supporting self-determination must never be at 
the expense of the rights of another state. As with the recent 
"declaration of independence" by Kosovo, subverting the rights of one 
group to support another only causes greater instability. Providing 
diplomatic recognition to the southernmost former Yugoslav Republic 
under the name demanded by FYROM would, constitute just such a case; 
undermining the rights of the Greek Macedonians to their language, 
history, culture and heritage.


Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC)
www.macedonian.com.au
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