Greece rejects Milososki offer

Re paidia, pou kai pou h Dora dixnei 8etika simia patriotikhs skepsis.
Lete naaa......mpa....tipota perastiko 8a'tan.
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Greece rejects Milososki offer, disputes Macedonian identity...

Greece has rejected the initiative proposed by Macedonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki, which was sent to his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyannis on March 13 consisting of three concrete proposals.

Assessing the offered initiatives as "declarative statements with questionable benefit and efficiency", FM Bakoyannis in her response has for the first time in an official diplomatic correspondence admitted that the identity of the Macedonian people is also disputed besides the country's name, MoFA says in a press release.

- With regard to the name issue, which is the essence of the problems arising between our countries, Greece has made a significant move forward by accepting solely an erga omnes complex name, where the term "Macedonia" can be also included with a determinant that will clarify the difference between Your country and people with Greece's Macedonia and its people. This is a fundamental change of our initial position in an attempt to pave the way towards finding a mutually acceptable resolution, says Bakoyannis.

Considering Milososki's proposition on forming a Joint Committee for Education and History, the Greek FM states that there is no need for expert teams to "untangle" historical event that are presented as obstacles in the relations between the two countries.

- Given the Joint Committee for Education and History, taking into account Greece's extreme sensitivity towards history issues, I would like to emphasise that history is a science that determines historical truths through scientific methods. It cannot and should not be a subject of political use or any kind of political perception. In this regard, history is not something that can be negotiated. The history of the ancient world had been already written and documented for centuries through painstaking scientific researches by world renown historians and archaeologists. A bilateral commission cannot re-write history, Bakoyannis notes.

//03.30.09 MiNa