Athens. While Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was calling Skopje to solve the dead-lock the name dispute has fallen into, the foreign minister of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) blamed Athens for the dispute, Greek Makedonia newspaper writes. In interview to Serbian Novosti newspaper, Papandreou pointed at the national red line in the name dispute with Skopje and remarked that Greece has made a fundamental step forward accepting a name with geographic term as a basis of name dispute’s solution and appealed for FYROM to do the same and thus the two courtiers to meet midway. In an interview to Vecer newspaper, Antonio Milososki accused Greece of trying to impose its position of the powerful and expressed his pessimism for possible solution to this dead-lock.
Serbian President Boris Tadic has declared Tuesday the desire of his country to become a mediator in the notorious name dispute between Greece and Macedonia. Tadic made this statement in Belgrade during a meeting of ambassadors which was also attended by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. “George Papandreou has once again given us his support on our road of European integration. This is the man who launched Agenda 2014, when all of southeastern Europe should become part of the EU, a hundred years after the start of the First World War. There are hardly any issues on which we have a different stance. There are hardly any problems our countries and Europe are facing on which we have different positions. I can say that our partnership has a significant strategic dimension,” said Tadić Monday night during his official meeting with the Greek leader, as quoted by B92. The Macedonia name dispute has been going since the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared its independence in 1991. Because of it, Greece has already vetoed Macedonia’s NATO accession, and has caused the postponement of giving Macedonia a date for starting EU accession negotiations.
III. ANA: Greece reiterates support for Serbia
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday reiterated Athens' standing and energetic support for Serbia's EU accession, in a published press interview appearing in the Serbian capital on the occasion of Papandreou's official visit here. "Greece fully supports Serbia's EU accession prospects and will stand by the Serbian people in this long and demanding phase," Papandreou was quoted as saying in an interview published in the Monday edition of the Belgrade daily "Vecernje Novosti". Regarding the thorny Kosovo issue and whether Greece has been pressured to recognise Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, Papandreou stated that Athens' position on the issue "is known and will not change." "The stability of the greater region and international law remain the cornerstones of our policy and in this spirit we are focusing on efforts that are aimed at the creation of a safe and prosperous environment for all people in Kosovo, the Serb community included," Papandreou stated, adding that "the protection of the cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo is immensely important and our involvement in the region is proof of our dedication to these goals. This means that preserving the Serbian cultural and religious heritage is a top priority for everyone in the EU." Asked about the still unresolved fYRoM "name issue", Papandreou reminded that "Greece wishes a definitive settlement of the issue", while noting that the oft-repeated "national red line" is clear. "We have made an important step by saying that we will accept a name with a geographic qualifier. We expect from our neighbors to do the same and meet us half way." He also underlined that Greece welcomes a recent EU foreign ministers' council decision as regards the implementation of the interim agreement. Papandreou stated that the Thessaloniki Agenda, drawn up during the previous Greek EU Presidency, is still the cornerstone for the western Balkans' EU course, adding that the accession pace will depend on the performance of each individual country as regards agreed upon principles and preconditions. Moreover, he also expressed a conviction that Serbia's efforts toward this direction will produce specific results soon. Finally, he cited his proposal for a new "road map", one aimed at further facilitating the course toward the European integration in full compliance with existing EU standards and criteria, as he again cited 2014, the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI, as a symbolic date.
With the multi-billion dollar bailout of banks and the White House's plans to reform public services, socialism was a buzzword in the US in 2009. Yet many are undecided whether Barack Obama is really socialist-oriented. For all the protests and public rage that Americans unloaded in 2009, one word remained a favorite amid the outcry. “I believe in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and I feel that the country is turning into socialism,” said one participant at a rally in Washington DC. From the “Tea Parties” to TV news channels, socialism was the boogieman of 2009, a villain seeking to swallow America’s precious capitalism. Barack Obama, the first black US President, spent hundreds of billions bailing out banks, auto companies, and reforming the healthcare system – blurring the lines between public and private entities. Weighing in on public opinion, Harlem Pastor James David Manning accused Obama of attempting to install a clandestine Karl Marx philosophy. “This two-tongue liar, this quasi-Muslim, socialist, communist, Marxist freak called Barack Hussein Obama!” Pastor James David Manning says about the American president. However, following Wall Street’s greed-inspired financial meltdown, US publications have asked if the father of communism was right and whether capitalism inevitably does lead to a destructive end. For many citizens the “S” word denotes a government takeover of guns, property and freedom, but to rapper and activist “Immortal Technique”, the archaic fears of old are a far cry from today’s reality. “The police department – aren’t they a paid-for entity by the government? The fire department? No one considers them a socialist entity. The post office, isn’t that a socialist entity? Anyone who’s ever been in the military… you know what socialism is as a caricature more than anyone else in the world, because if you get a tooth pulled out, the government is paying for it, you are not,” says Felipe Andres Coronel, AKA “Immortal Technique”. However, trend forecaster Gerald Celente says critics should fear resurging sympathies for Mussolini, not Marx. “Socialism is egalitarianism. It’s when everybody shares equally in something. And the government is in control of the system. It’s not socialism. It’s fascism. People are misunderstanding it because they’re afraid to call a spade a spade. It’s too ugly to look at,” Gerald Celente says. America begins 2010 suffering something of an identity crisis, divided over which economic system works best. What most agree on is that the model in place up until this point has failed to prevent a great recession that continues to take its toll on the people.
The Republic of Cyprus’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Minas Hadjimichael sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General on 18 December 2009 protesting over ongoing violations of the international air traffic regulations and the national airspace of the Republic of Cyprus by military aircraft of the Turkish Air Force, recorded from 1 October to 26 November 2009. Mr Hadjimichael conveys in the letter the Cyprus Government’s strong protest over the continued violations by Turkey and calls for their immediate cessation. He further adds the following: “Turkey’s policy of non-observance of rules and regulations governing international aviation continues to gravely jeopardize flight safety and perpetuate insecurity and apprehension on the island. Furthermore, Turkey’s systematic attempts to undermine the sovereignty and unity of the Republic of Cyprus by promoting an illegal secessionist entity, arrogating to itself, inter alia, the right to control part of the airspace of the Republic of Cyprus, further complicate the efforts to build trust and confidence between the two communities. Such policies and actions provide ample demonstration of the irresponsible behaviour of a country that now serves as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. It was regrettable that in the recent report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus (S/2009/609), there was not a reference to the aforementioned violations by Turkey, since these violations had been mentioned in the previous report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus (S/2009/248). The Government of Turkey should heed the call of the international community, abide by the Charter of the United Nations and respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus, thus contributing to the creation of the required conditions for the achievement of a viable solution to the Cyprus problem, according to the agreed basis endorsed by numerous Security Council resolutions.” The letter of Ambassador Hadjimichael was circulated yesterday as a document of the UN General Assembly, under agenda item 21, and of the Security Council.
VI. GAZETTE: The Crucified Patriarch
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, who is the spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians round the world, created a stir recently with an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes”. According to the Patriarch Orthodox Christians are treated as second-class citizens in Turkey and sometimes he feels “crucified”. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu regarded the comment as “an undesired slip of the tongue” and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinc dismissed the criticism as “unacceptable”. But despite the furore the interview has once again shed light on Turkey’s treatment of minorities. It should be noted that Turkey’s definition of ‘minority’ differs from Europe’s. According to the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which delineates the borders of modern Turkey, minorities are defined as non-Muslim. But the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995), which Turkey has not signed, applies ethnic, linguistic and cultural criteria. This complicates a settlement of the Kurdish question, as the Kurds are not officially recognized by Turkey as a minority. And the Alevis, who constitute 15-20 percent of the Turkish population, are still struggling for the recognition of their religion, as Turkish schools mainly teach Sunni Islam. The Patriarchate of Constantinople dates from the founding of the city in 330, and since the division of Christianity in the 11th century the Patriarch ranks with the Pope of Rome. However, he is not recognized by Turkey as the Ecumenical Patriarch but only as the Bishop of Fener, the district of Istanbul where the Church’s buildings are located. At the beginning of the last century there were two million Greeks in Turkey, but because of the disastrous Greek invasion in 1920 and the subsequent population exchange one and a half million left. After a pogrom in Istanbul in 1955 directed at the city’s Greek minority a further 150,000 left, so that today there are only 4,000 in the whole of Turkey. The Turkish state has confiscated a great deal of property, including churches and schools, belonging to the Patriarchate, but in 2008 the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkey had unlawfully confiscated an orphanage on the island of Prinkipos (Büyükada). And last year the Court ruled that Turkey had violated the property rights of its Greek minority when it seized a church and land on the Aegean island of Bozcaada. It was therefore embarrassing when the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, last month inaugurated the headquarters of the Secretariat for Turkey’s entry into the EU. The building was previously a school confiscated from the Greek Orthodox community in Ortaköy in Istanbul. Another thorn in Turkey’s side is the Greek Orthodox seminary on the island of Heybeliada in Istanbul. The seminary was closed in 1971 after a law was passed banning private higher education. As a result, it is no longer possible to train Greek Orthodox priests, who must have Turkish nationality. In an interview with the Turkish daily Milliyet Patriarch Bartholomew said that the Patriarchate was dying from lack of oxygen. The Lausanne Treaty, which Turkey claims to abide by, stipulates that non-Muslims have the right to administer their own schools and religious institutions, but until now this article has been ignored. Bartholomew has visited Erdogan to explain the situation but has received no response. Last July Turkey launched a project costing 23 million euros to promote Turkish culture in France. But a closer look at the Mediterranean island of Cyprus can also give an insight into Turkish culture. The northern part of Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, has since 1974 been occupied by Turkey and has gradually been turned into a Turkish province. Last year the Helsinki Commission issued a report describing how more than 500 churches and monasteries have been destroyed, and valuable icons, frescoes and mosaics have been looted. As part of this “cultural cleansing” a large number of settlers have been imported from Anatolia, so the original Turkish Cypriots are now a minority. Since September 2008 the leaders of the two population groups, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, have negotiated determinedly to reunite the island and to avoid that part of Europe’s cultural heritage falls under Turkish domination.
The Russian Orthodox Church has opened its first seminary outside the former Soviet Union - in a small French town outside Paris. The institution is starting modestly but has big ambitions: to serve Russia's growing diaspora and foster closer ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches. The building is an old convent. But the nuns are gone and their Roman Catholic crosses have been traded for Russian icons and incense. The students are on the front lines of a bold experiment launched by the Russian Orthodox church, the first pupils of the church's first seminary in the West. The seminary was officially inaugurated in November and it is starting modestly with about a dozen students enrolled in its five-year program. Most are from Russia and former Soviet republics, but there are plans to diversify and grow the student body to 40 over the next few years, with the seminarians also earning master's degrees in theology from the Sorbonne University in Paris. Some students will return home after graduating. But others are being groomed to serve Russia's far-flung diaspora that has ballooned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Establishing a Russian Orthodox seminary in the West was the idea of Patriarch Kirill, who was elected to head the Moscow church in February. Orthodox priest and researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, Stephen Headley, says Patriarch Kirill wants to train priests to serve parishes wherever Russian expatriates are located. The relationship between the seminary and the French Catholic Church reflects more broadly the warming ties between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church after centuries-old divisions. The dialogue has intensified under the current leaders, Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill, who have met several times in the past. Although differences remain, Father Headley, the Orthodox researcher, believes the leaders are focusing on ways they can work together. "I think there was a conscious decision on the part of the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate to try to cooperate on the social level, which talks about the re-Christianization of western Europe and the Christian roots of western Europe, because that would be a more fruitful and productive venue for them to work on," Headley said. On a practical level, Father Headley believes the two churches may eventually lobby for causes they believe in. Both Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill have conservative views on matters like euthanasia, abortion and homosexuality. Russian Orthodox church expert Michael Bourdeaux, who founded the British Keston Institute, agrees. "If the Catholic and Orthodox churches came closer together, they would form a huge beacon for conservatism in the world today. Conservatism in terms of theology which they share, and conservatism in terms of sexual morality, morality in society in general," Bourdeaux said. As night falls, the students at the Epinay seminary put their books aside and head for the large, plain room that serves as the school's chapel. They chant for Vespers service in Russian, with director Siniakov chiming in in French. Asked earlier what the Orthodox Church can offer the West, student Anekcandroviych thinks for a while. His answer: spirituality. He says for many Russians, the Orthodox faith is not just a matter of rules and rituals. The Orthodox faith, he says, is alive.