AMAC offers FYROM history lesson

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) this week distributed a 1944 communication from the US Secretary of State, which it says captures the origins of the present-day name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The message, written as an airgram on Boxing Day in December 1944, by Secretary of State Edward Stettinius to US diplomats and consular officers, contains his views and recommendations in relation to the manoueverings of political factions within Yugoslavia and Bulgaria as WWII in Europe entered its final phase.

Stettinius later became instrumental in the formation of the United Nations.

In the airgram, he shares his apprehension over "rumours and semi-official statements in favor (sic) of an autonomous Macedonia, emanating principally from Bulgaria, but also from Yugolslav Partisan and other sources, with the implication that Greek territory would be included in the projected state."

He goes on to remind the US diplomatic core that, to the US government of the time, "talk of a Macedonian 'nation', Macedonian 'fatherland', or Macedonian 'national concsiousness' " was "unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic nor political reality, and sees in its present revival, a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece."

AMAC says that Secretary of State's message provides evidence that the idea of a 'Macedonian' nation is a recent invention conceived to justify territorial aspirations against Greece.

In a statement to the media AMAC said: "FYROM continues to harbour these aspirations to this day, as numerous recent statements by current Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski attest to.

"This is the reason why Greece refuses agree to FYROM using the name Macedonia in an unqualified manner, and not merely because of a historical disagreement or to bully, as the government of FYROM and its proponents claim."

The Advisory Council will pass the US State Department document on to federal parliamentarians at consultations taking place in Canberra next month.