MHRMI Meets With Canadian Foreign Affairs, Calls On Canada To Denounce Macedonia Name Negotiations

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On October 1, 2012, MHRMI President Bill Nicholov, MHRMI member Chris Balkos (Balkovski), and Vinozhito member Dimitri Ioannou (Jovanov) met with senior members of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Among the topics discussed were human rights abuses against Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and throughout the Balkans, the denial of entry into Greece to Canadian-Macedonians, Greece’s embassy and consulates denying assistance to Canadian-Macedonians, and Canada’s position regarding the Republic of Macedonia and the name negotiations.

MHRMI called on Canada to condemn Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and other countries’ persecution of Macedonians, and to take concrete steps in ensuring that it ends or force these countries to face repercussions.

Specifically, they called for Canada to publicly denounce the name negotiations and support immediate international, not just bilateral, recognition of Macedonia.

“We expressed our expectation that countries which have recognized Macedonia must fully support its name and we denounced the United States and Western Europe’s hypocrisy in calling for a “compromise” or “solution” to the so-called name dispute,” said MHRMI in a press statement.

“MHRMI pointed out that there is no human right more basic than that of self-identification, and, ironically, that it is Greece’s position on the very use of the word Macedonia that has changed in the past 25 years and that Macedonia and Macedonians have always been known as such. Greece initiated the “name dispute” in order to deny the existence and persecution of its large Macedonian minority,” the statement continued.

The statement ended: “We highlighted Canada’s international reputation of leadership in the field of human rights, and called for it to be showcased in Canada’s denouncement of the name negotiations and condemnation of those countries that persecute Macedonians.”

5 thoughts on “MHRMI Meets With Canadian Foreign Affairs, Calls On Canada To Denounce Macedonia Name Negotiations

  • October 11, 2012 at 2:51 am
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    Hey Canada. The Greeks in the province of Macedonia are Macedonians. FYROM was known as Vardaska prior to 1944. The Greeks do not want to give away there Macedonian identity which is 4000 years old. They do agree, however, to share the name. All they are asking for is a regional qualifier is the name and for Skopje to stop it’s irredentism. As far as history is concerned the following is a quote by FYROMs first Foreign Minister describing how they inveted their identity:
    enko Malevski(1st minister of foreign affairs in FYROM):

    The creation of the “Macedonian” nation, for almost half of a century, was done in a condition of single-party dictatorship. In those times, there was no difference between science and ideology, so the “Macedonian” historiography, unopposed by anybody, comfortably performed a selection of the historic material from which the “Macedonian” identity was created. In those years, we lost our capability for strategic dialog. With Greeks? No, with ourselves. Since then, namely, we reach towards some fictional ethnic purity which we seek in the depths of the history & we are angry at those which dare to call us Slavs & our language & culture Slavic? We are angry when they name us what we are if we have to define ourselves in such categories, showing that we are people full with complexes which are ashamed of ourselves.
    The idea that Alexander the Great belong to FYROM,was at the mind of some outsider political groups only!!These groups were insignificant the first years of our independence..the big problem is that the old Balkan Nations have been learned to legitimate themselves through their history. In Balkans,if you want to be recognised as a Nation,you need to have history of 3000 years old.Since Greeks made us to INVENT a history..we did invent it…

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  • October 11, 2012 at 2:58 am
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    Just ask these morons if they truly believe they are the Makenoids and Fathers of the white race …this is the kind of stuff you find in their history books and state TV.
    Or ask them if they believe that Alexander the Great was Greek?
    Ask them if they think that the demotic Egyptian on Rosetta stone is their ancient “macedonian” langauge.
    Remeber that if you don’t agree with them then you are denying their communist inspired identity.

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  • October 12, 2012 at 5:26 am
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    Why doesn’t the Macedonian diaspora get organized, and take all of their complaints, etc. and officially take the issue and Greece to the International Court of Justice? This is just painful to hear this never ending moaning and complaining with no action. Clearly define the issues and get on with it! The World is tired of this BS from both sides – grow up and get on with your lives. There are mechanisms in place to officially deal with it.

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    • October 22, 2012 at 5:22 pm
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      Robert, Greece has been taken to the ICJ on multiple accounts, lost on almost all, yet they do not face any repercussions time and again. It is a must that the MHRMI, AMHRC and other lobby groups continue to put pressure on their governments to call for an end to the disputes. The problem is that all too often conflicts like the one in Syria currently dominate world affairs and issues such as these get sidelined.

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  • October 24, 2012 at 4:04 pm
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    Hey “Chris” and “Rober”t.. have you and your Greek-hating apologists already forgotten this about FYROM’s past claims about their sacred “Macedonian” identity?

    ‘We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian.’ – FYROM´s Ambassador to Canada Gyordan Veselinov, Ottawa Citizen Newspaper, February 24 1999

    “We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century … We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians” – Kiro Gligorov, FYROM’s first President
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB8UjOHG_8

    “The creation of the Macedonian nation, for almost half of a century, was done in a condition of single-party dictatorship. In those times, there was no difference between science and ideology, so the “Macedonian” historiography, unopposed by anybody, comfortably performed a selection of the historic material from which the “Macedonian” identity was created. There is nothing atypical here for the process of the creation of any modern nation, except when falsification from the type of substitution of the word “Bulgarian” with the word “Macedonian” were made.” (Denko Maleski, former Minister of foreign affairs of FYROM from 1991 to 1993 in an interview to FYROM newspaper Utrinski Vesnik)

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