Alex Chalkidis
Technology, kids and mountains

Protests go both ways

June 6, 2008 02:58 by alexanderchalkidis

Όταν μιλάμε για προκλήσεις από τα Σκόπια σίγουρα δεν είμαστε αντικειμενικοί.  Ούτε και αυτοί βέβαια και ο φανατισμός των πολιτικών και των ΜΜΕ δεν βοηθάει κανέναν.

 

Μια καλή αρχή είναι η ανάγνωση των δικών τους ΜΜΕ.  Τέσσερα σημερινά παραδείγματα στην τύχη:

1. Έλληνας βουλευτής ζητάει την θανατική ποινή όσων αυτοαποκαλούνται Μακεδόνες! 

2. Ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας μας καλεί τον πρωθυπουργό τους και μετά του απαγορεύει να προσγειωθεί με την δικιά του αεροπορική εταιρεία.

3. Άσκηση του ΝΑΤΟ αναγκάζει τους Σκοπιανούς να ξηλώσουν τα σήματά τους.

4. Ο Ελληνικός στρατός προσπαθεί να περάσει από τα Σκόπια αλλά τους σταματάνε.

 

Πιο κάτω οι ειδήσεις όπως παρουσιάζονται στα Σκοπιανά μέσα και βγάλτε μόνοι σας συμπεράσματα.   Αλλά σκεφτείτε λίγο το θέμα και από την πλευρά αυτού του νεοσύστατου κράτους και των ανθρώπων που προσπαθούν να διαμορφώσουν εθνική συνείδηση.  (Σήμερα ανακοινώθηκε και ο εθνικός ύμνος του Κοσσόβου...)

1.

Greek MP asks for death penalty for Macedonians in Greece      

 

 

 
 

Death penalties were demanded for the members of the "Vinozito" party of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as well as for "Greek Helsinki Watch", by Member of the Greek Parliament, Athanassios Plevris of "The People's Orthodox Rally" ("LAOS") Party.

The MP of the ultra-nationalist party Georgios Karatzaferis sent a written request to the Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyannis and to the Minister of Justice, Sotirios Hadjigakis saying that there is a map of Europe on the VINOZHITO website showing "Skopje" as Macedonia and that "Helsinki Watch", which is financed by the Greek government, talks about the existence of a Macedonian language. "This is absolutely unacceptable" he said as he describes the Macedonian language as "Slavic".

Treason

Athanassios PlevrisFurthermore MP Plevris asked Minister Hadjigakis if he intends to start legal procedures against the two organizations following the criminal code, article 30, paragraph 1. According to Plevris the two organizations are violating article 138, to which the highest degree of penalty should be appropriately levied because it applies to violation of territorial integrity: "Which by means of threat of violence there is intent to separate territory belonging to the Hellenic Republic and join it to another country". The penalty for such a violation is death, states the article.

The last time a death penalty was executed in Greece was August 25th, 1972. Vasilis Limbersis was shot because he had killed his wife, his mother-in-law and his two children. The Greek state abolished the death penalty except for treason and serious war crimes.

Plevris asked Bakoyannis how it is possible that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs finances such organizations serving the "Pro-Skopjan propaganda". The parliament's officers forwarded the letter to the prosecutor of the highest court. This happened on April 23rd, to which Vinozito reacted on May 23rd as follows:

"We would not need to be addressing this case if the answer of the Minister of Justice had been similar to that of the Foreign Minister Bakoyannis, stating that 'Greece as a democratic country guarantees freedom of speech to all its citizens, which, of course, applies to the members of Vinozito as well." This was stated in response to the statements made under the title "Now we are awaiting maximum penalty". According to Vinozito, Plevris's request is considered justified by the Minister of Justice, so article 138 could be applied to the ethnic Macedonians living in Greece .

Accused of irredentism

"Are we now back in the Greek Civil War? We are tired of repeating over and over again that the ethnic minorities are an internal issue. Again and again we try and emphasize that we are not irredentists and provocateurs. Only provocateurs pose the question of changing borders. The television media in this country, while pretending to practice democracy, constantly distorts our views and our positions. The political system here characterizes us as irredentists by force. Are we now expected to face the highest penalty for that?" asks EFA and Vinozito in a public statement.

Panayote Dimitras, chairman of the Greek Helsinki Committee, says that both Ministers are overly hostile towards Vinozito and the Greek Helsinki Committee and are willing to take action against them. This confirms the fact that in Greece it is dangerous to say "Macedonian state", "Macedonian language" and "Macedonian minority".

Despite the multiple decrees and judgments the Council of Europe and the UN has exacted against such acts, Greece continues to violate international human rights treaties, stated Mr. Dimitras for "Dnevnik". The fact that no political party, no medium and no public organization in Greece protested against the actions of both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Justice, is a clear indication that the political system and society that needs to address the rights of the Macedonians, Turks and others in Greece are locked out. This shows that democracy does not work when dealing with the rights of the minorities in Greece, says Dimitras.  

 

2. Macedonia's president had been invited by his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias as a guest to an Athens Forum few days ago.

However, this morning, Macedonian officials received a note from the Greek Presidential Cabinet that Crvenkovski is not welcomed in Athens if he uses "Macedonian Airlines" as his mode of transportation, says Greek Daily Eleftheros Tipos in its article titled "Veto" from Papoulas for Crvenkovski.  

The Forum was to be held next week in Athens, the topic is "Management of Water Resources in SouthEastern Europe". Regional leaders will be present at the Forum, which takes place every two years

>>>  Greek Embassy in Skopje via Athens, had informed Crvenkovski he can not travel to the Forum via Macedonian Airlines or the Government Plane because it also has the Macedonian insignia on it. However Greece would be more than happy to accomodate the president with other Airlines, says Athens in its message. Macedonian President had canceled his visit to Athens.

 

3.

After the verbal attack by an Athens officer at the "Steadfast Junction" NATO training in France, where he requested Macedonian officers to remove their patches (name and flag) NATO's Secretary General this morning sent a letter of apology to Macedonia's Officers insulted in the incident, the Defense Minister, as well as the Central Command Center.

This is after Macedonia's Defense Minister sent a letter of protest to NATO's General Secretary.
Meanwhile, NATO will have an internal investigation on the incident. 

 

4. The Macedonian Authorities blocked the Greek Army from entering Macedonia earlier today.

The Greek Army had been on their way to Kosovo. Greece voiced their displeasure, however, must now go through Bulgaria, or Albania to get to Kosovo.

Macedonia's constitution doesn't allow for a foreign Army to enter Macedonia's territory. The political situation between the countries also contributed.

Another reason, and this is just a speclation on our part, is the Macedonian Authorities may have feared the Greek convoy could be attacked if people noticed the Greek flag. So far, besides us, only Greek ERT news had reported this.

>>> The Ministry of Interior has informed the local media the Greek Convoy did not have a proper documentation to enter Macedonia. Two convoys were forbidden to enter. The first one had 76 soldiers in a bus for which the Greeks had zero documentation, and the second was 25 vehicles for which the Greek side had a hand written scribble in Greek showing 14 vehicles, even though they had 11 extra. Macedonian Authorities asked for Official NATO documentation in English or French, which  the Greeks didn't have. The Greek officers verbally attacked the Macedonian Custom officials once they were told they did not have the proper documentation to enter.

Macedonia's MoFA spokesperson issued a statement: "We have already notified NATO about this, we aren't going to wait for the Greeks to notify Brussels. NATO knows they didn't have the proper, actually didn't have any documentation to enter". said Andonovski.


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June 5. 2008 21:25

ntebis

na sou po exeis poli dikio min leme oti mono oi skopianoi kanoun prokliseis

ntebis

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January 5. 2009 15:27