John Hyde, the WA Shadow Minister for Multicultural Interests and Citizenship, has rebuffed accusations that he made inappropriate comments to parliamentarians in Skopje when visiting FYROM last month.
As reported previously by Neos Kosmos, Mr Hyde met with the Chairman of the FYROM Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Antonio Milososki on July 22. The self-proclaimed ‘Macedonian Information Agency’ in Skopje reported the meeting under the headline “Efforts made towards speeding up the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name.”
A separate report, published on the web site of the self-proclaimed “Assembly of Macedonia,” stated that the MLA for the electorate of Perth, “underlined that Australian MPs are working on proper acknowledgement of the ‘Republic of Macedonia’ by Australia”.
Following the report’s publication, Con Berbatis, National Coordinator for the Australian Hellenic Council wrote to Mr Hyde to seek clarification of the Labor MP’s alleged statements, which contravene the Australian Government’s stated policy in relation to ongoing discussions on the renaming of the FYROM. Australia recognised the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1994, using the nomenclature in accordance with the terminology used by the United Nations.
At the instigation of Mr Hyde, Mr Berbatis met with the WA Shadow Minister after his return to Australia on August 15. Also present was Mr Vic Toutountzis, President of WA’s Florina Association. According to Mr Berbatis, during the meeting Mr Hyde acknowledged his position as a supporter of what Skopje refers to as the ‘constitutional’ name of ‘the Republic of Macedonia.”
“He’s heard the arguments and he’s not going to budge,” Mr Berbatis told Neos Kosmos following the meeting. “He confirmed he supported the constitutional name. He virtually said two things; that many countries, including the United States have accepted the so called ‘constitutional’ name, and that in his view, many young Greek Australians in particular ‘aren’t worked up on the issue’.” Following the meeting, the Greek Consul to WA Sofia Choli also invited Mr Hyde to share views on the matter, and to discuss the international treaties that are in place regarding FYROM.
Neos Kosmos tried this week to contact Mr Hyde to ask for his version of the events and the issues in question; the following statement from his office was received: “John Hyde has met with representatives of the Pan-Hellenic community here in Perth and the Greek Consul. Mr Hyde is disappointed that he has been recently attributed to misrepresented comments made in cities that he had not even visited.”
Con Berbatis told Neos Kosmos that the Australian Hellenic Council WA would now be writing to Stephen Smith, Federal Member for Perth to make the Minister aware of the issues.