FT: No entry date in sight for Macedonia

London, / 15.10.09

There is no EU entry date in sight for Macedonia and Turkey, The Financial Times (FT) said on Wednesday.

Unnamed EU diplomats told FT there was no immediate evidence that Greece's new government would permit accession talks to begin unless the name dispute was resolved.

The Commission's report, released yesterday, lifted Croatia's hopes for EU entry. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Croatia was nearing the finishing line of its membership talks. It might join the 27-nation bloc in 2012. As regards Albania, Montenegro and Serbia - entry is unlikely before 2016.

In its annual reports about countries that aspire to join the European Union, the Commission recommended Macedonia should start its accession talks, which have been held up for four years by a dispute with Greece.

The Commission noted that maintaining good neighborly relations, including a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution to the name issue, remains essential.

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You mistake what is probably going to happen with what people want. The majority of the people in Greece do not want FYROM to break in two or three parts but this does not mean that it is not a possible outcome of their insane nationalism.

I think he meant that it's so outrageous for Macedonia to call itself by the name it chooses, but Greeks have a fair amount of sympathy for Kurdistan becoming an independent state.

And all that.

People would not give a rat's ass about the name if our beloved neighbours were not trying to a get a piece of the "Greek history pie". Those people know they are Slavs but they constructed a history of their nationality out of thin air. Well, not exactly thin air, more like stealing Greek history. I can almost hear you saying "why shouldn't" they, but for Greeks history is an important thing.

As for Kurdistan, it's a completely different situation. There is also the whole "the friend of my enemy is my friend" thing. Plus, the Kurds were really oppressed and under the leftist PASOK government of 1981-2004, Greeks because very "insert-oppressed-minority here"-phile. This trend is still very active. Every week or so there is a "bad bad israelis, good palestinians" demonstration, mostly by leftist groups. They are still living in the 70s and the 80s when Palestinians used leftist "rhetoric" to justify their struggle against Israel.

Yeah... The "good old days" as my mother calls them.

I'm not gonna defend Macedonia here, but if Kurds being your "enemy's enemy" is why they're popular with Greeks, remember that these are the same Greeks who complain about Turkey and Macedonia being friendly, and remember that while history might be important to Greeks, people lose their kids over Kurdish/Turkish identity.

I know people died but what does Greece have to do with it? Just because Greeks believed that the Kurds should get their own state, it does mean that we share responsibility for what the Turks did to them. We didn't ban their language, we didn't deny their existence, we didn't burn their villages to the ground and whatever the Turks might say, Greece did not help the Kurds in their fight. Hell, the handed the Turks Ocalan on a silver platter. They sure can't complain about that.

Easy now friend. Who say I don't agree the Kurds should have their own state?

No, I was mostly trying to clarify what I thought Blistanbul was saying, which I think is legitimate, which is that it's easy to seem hypocritical when you get very sensitive about issues in which your state gets something abstract (history) "stolen" when you have no problem endorsing something tangible (land) getting "stolen" from someone else.

Ok, I can see your point. But still, there is a difference between "Macedonian" fairy tales and real oppresion of a ethnic group by another. The land grab is imo a consequence of that.

There is of course a difference. The difference is that you're getting more upset over their fairy tales than you need to and Turks have a right to get upset about dead people.

As for the Kurds...
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That is all I will say until either Kurdish or Turkish extremists force me to say more.

Each people have their own problems I guess. Today, in a forum I read, a Swedish guy was complaining about things that for a Greek would seem very trivial. And yet he was really pissed.

Do tell.

Speaking of the Swedes, see the film Tillsammens/Together. In case you thought Swedish cinema was all suicide.

Apparently the free food in his college was not as good as he expected. Plus Sweden has a lot of empty space, nuclear reactors and a too good welfare system.

Will do. Speaking of Sweden, have you read the Millenium trilogy?

seconded.

I have not. Wikipediaing it now to find out what it is.

I doubt they'll get the point.


It will go on forever and ever with them repeating the same thing over and over.

Some of these Greeks are keciler.

Swedish cinema (actually whole scandinavian ciname) is doing great jobs lately. Låt den rätte komma in (let the right one in) was one of the best vampire movies i've ever seen for years. Director of Tillsammans Lukas Moodysson is a bit weird guy and i gotta admit that "A Hole in My Heart" was one of the most stupid films i've ever watched. But same guy directed Lilja 4ever and it was a great movie.