By: Marcus Templar
The President of the FYROM, Mr. Ivanov keeps demanding the right to self determination. As President of a country, Mr. Ivanov should not play dumb. He should know (and if he does not, he should ask his advisers IF they are any good) that the right to self-determination does NOT apply to the name of a country. It does apply to the political status of an area or people, however with the consent of the controlling power. His country exercised that right in September of 1991, the same right that his country refused to the Albanian minority a year later.
As an example I am offering the case of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ilirida. The proclamation of independence of that republic, which was a territorial entity was the result of a referendum on the status of the Albanians held in January 1992. The government of the controlling power, i.e. the FYROM declared it illegal although 74% out of 92% of those eligible to vote, voted for the autonomy of the Albanians, which by the way would pave the way to the federalization of the FYROM.
So since the government of his own country refused to satisfy the will of a sizeable segment of its citizens, which by the way was legitimate demand under the interpretation of the right of self-determination of the UN Charter, the same government has no legal justification under the interpretation of the above charter to demand self-determination espousing a regional name that overlaps international boundaries and under conditions that infringes the right to others to call their land or themselves with the same name.
By the way the right of self-determination was proclaimed for the first time by Ivanov's former compatriots, the Slovenians. In May of 1848, the party "United Slovenia" issued a proclamation petitioning the Austrian Emperor to establish a Kingdom of Slovenia within the Austrian Empire with its own parliament, consisting of the historical regions of Carniola, Carinthia, Styria, and the Littoral region, with Slovenian as its official language.
The difference in the Slovenian case is that while other nations based their demands on historical precedence, the Slovenians demanded their state on the principle of national self-determination long before the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson adopted this principle in his "Fourteen Points." In essence, it was a de jure recognition that they were after. In 1918 they exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the internationally unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, which merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS). BTW, where exactly were the "Macedonians" who Mr. Ivanov refers to?
Moreover, the result of such a nomenclature along with education on all levels, maps and rhetoric to include, but not limited to songs sponsored by the FYROM consequent Slavic led governments and espoused by Slav citizens, and Slav diaspora point out to the reason behind such insistence of the name Macedonia and its derivatives.
Macedonia and specifically Thessaloniki are an issue of national security for Greece and hold the key to unity and territorial integrity of the country. The city of Thessaloniki holds the number one strategic importance not just in Greece, but in the Balkans. It converges and affords military and economic potentiality to Central and Eastern Europe.
* the title of this article was not given by the writer
As an example I am offering the case of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ilirida. The proclamation of independence of that republic, which was a territorial entity was the result of a referendum on the status of the Albanians held in January 1992. The government of the controlling power, i.e. the FYROM declared it illegal although 74% out of 92% of those eligible to vote, voted for the autonomy of the Albanians, which by the way would pave the way to the federalization of the FYROM.
So since the government of his own country refused to satisfy the will of a sizeable segment of its citizens, which by the way was legitimate demand under the interpretation of the right of self-determination of the UN Charter, the same government has no legal justification under the interpretation of the above charter to demand self-determination espousing a regional name that overlaps international boundaries and under conditions that infringes the right to others to call their land or themselves with the same name.
By the way the right of self-determination was proclaimed for the first time by Ivanov's former compatriots, the Slovenians. In May of 1848, the party "United Slovenia" issued a proclamation petitioning the Austrian Emperor to establish a Kingdom of Slovenia within the Austrian Empire with its own parliament, consisting of the historical regions of Carniola, Carinthia, Styria, and the Littoral region, with Slovenian as its official language.
The difference in the Slovenian case is that while other nations based their demands on historical precedence, the Slovenians demanded their state on the principle of national self-determination long before the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson adopted this principle in his "Fourteen Points." In essence, it was a de jure recognition that they were after. In 1918 they exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the internationally unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, which merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS). BTW, where exactly were the "Macedonians" who Mr. Ivanov refers to?
Moreover, the result of such a nomenclature along with education on all levels, maps and rhetoric to include, but not limited to songs sponsored by the FYROM consequent Slavic led governments and espoused by Slav citizens, and Slav diaspora point out to the reason behind such insistence of the name Macedonia and its derivatives.
Macedonia and specifically Thessaloniki are an issue of national security for Greece and hold the key to unity and territorial integrity of the country. The city of Thessaloniki holds the number one strategic importance not just in Greece, but in the Balkans. It converges and affords military and economic potentiality to Central and Eastern Europe.
* the title of this article was not given by the writer
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου