The Holy and Sacred Synod convened today, Monday May 9, 2022, under the chairmanship of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and discussed extensively the ecclesiastical matter of Skopje. Having assessed in its final stage the petition of appeal of that Church to the Mother Church, along with the repeated pleas of the State of North Macedonia, it made the following decisions:

1. It welcomes into eucharistic communion the Hierarchy, clergy and laity under Archbishop Stefan of this Church, thereby healing the wound of schism and pouring “oil and wine” on the ordeal of our Orthodox brethren in that country. To this end, the appropriate Patriarchal and Synodal Act is issued.
   
   
2. It cedes to the Most Holy Church of Serbia the regulation of the administrative matters between itself and the Church in North Macedonia, in the context of course of the sacred canonical order and church tradition.
   
   
3. It recognizes “Ohrid” as the name of this Church (understood as the region of its jurisdiction solely within the boundaries of the territory of the state of North Macedonia), as also promised in writing to the Ecumenical Patriarchate by its Primate. Thereby excluding the term “Macedonian” and any other derivative of the word “Macedonia.”
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The Ecumenical Patriarchate continues to express interest for the growth, progress and stability of this ecclesiastical entity of Ohrid, just as it has done through the centuries for all the local Orthodox Churches, as “the inn of love, the source of piety of all Orthodox Christians” (Metropolitan Paul of Drama).

At the Patriarchate, on May 9, 2022

From the Chief Secretariat

of the Holy and Sacred Synod

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Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate

The official results of the September 2021 national headcount, published on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, show the country’s population has shrunk by 9.2 per cent over two decades since the last census.

The population now stands at 1,836,713, which is 185,834 people less than the number recorded in the previous census conducted in 2002.

Together with 260,606 counted non-residents, whose participation in the census was optional, the number rises to a total of 2,097,319, the State Statistical Office said at a press conference in Skopje.

Results show the average age of the population is just over 40, and 207 settlements in the country, predominantly villages, are now empty of people.

While the population has fallen sharply, as many experts anticipated, the results have shown that the ethnic composition of the population has not shifted that much.

The ethnic ratio has been a matter of much concern over the past two decades, and was the main reason for several postponements, and for scrapping the census of 2011.

The new results show that, of the resident population, 58,44 per cent are ethnic Macedonians [sic] and 24,3 per cent are ethnic Albanians.

Of the rest, 3,86 per cent are ethnic Turks, 2,53 per cent are Roma, 1,3 per cent are Serbs, 0,87 per cent are Bosniaks and 0,47 per cent are Vlachs.

Taking into account the non-resident population as well, the ratio between Macedonians [sic] and Albanians has shifted a little in favour of the latter.

In this case, Macedonians [sic] comprise 54,21 per cent of all counted citizens while Albanians make up 29,52 per cent.

Compared to the previous census from 2002, the number of Albanians in the country has remained largely the same but the number of ethnic Macedonians [sic] has shrunk.

That census showed that 64 per cent of the then population of 2,1 million was Macedonian [sic] and 25 per cent was ethnic Albanian. Same as now, Roma, Turks, Serbs and other minorities made up the rest.

One factor that might explain why there are less ethnic Macedonians [sic] while the Albanian population is unchanged might be that an additional 132,269 people who have refused to take part in the local headcount have been counted in the final number of residents.

Their data has been taken from the existing national data bases but without any ethnicity or religion, since those data are a matter of personal identification, the Statistical Office explained.

After many delays, the country finally conducted a census in September last year.

Although the process was marred by many technical difficulties, and by a call for boycott from one of the opposition parties, called Left, which urged ethnic Macedonians [sic] to abstain, citing suspicions of rigging, the head of the State Statistical Office, Apostol Simovski, insisted that the operation was “successfully and professionally carried out” and that “the results reflect the reality”.

Politicians in their reactions avoided sensationalism.

“The headcount gave us a clearer picture about the number of residents in the country,” the head of the main ethnic Albanian party, the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, Ali Ahmeti, said. The main ruling Social Democrats merely welcomed the success of the operation.

The main opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party has yet to comment. In the past, it has objected to the methodology chosen to count the population, complaining of a hidden agenda to exaggerate the number of Albanians in the results.

The results did not reveal a large hidden population of ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia [sic], and failed to confirm Bulgarian claims that over 100,000 ethnic Bulgarians live in the country. Only 3,504 people have identified as Bulgarian, up from 1,487 counted in 2002 but still statistically insignificant.

The Sofia government backed its claim about 100,000-plus Bulgarians with the large number of Bulgarian passports it gave to North Macedonia [sic] citizens since it joined the EU in 2007. It has argued that the Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia [sic] has been subjected to repression, which authorities in Skopje deny.

In North Macedonia [sic], it is widely suspected that most people who opt to take out Bulgarian passports do so for purely practical EU-related reasons and for greater ease of travel.

But there are concerns that the small number of ethnic Bulgarians reported in the census may provoke more negative comments from Sofia, which is blocking the start of Skopje’s EU accession talks in a dispute over historical issues – and that this may dampen recent hopes of a breakthrough that would enable North Macedonia [sic] to finally open EU membership talks.

Despite some nostalgia for the old days of the Yugoslav federation, only 344 people in the headcount identified as Yugoslavs, 0.1 per cent of the population.

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Source: Balkan Insight

Republished from: BIRN | Vasko Magleshov, Skopje

Eleven years since it was unveiled with a price tag that has since exceeded €700 million, some of the monuments that formed part of the “Skopje 2014” revamp are already crumbling.

Marred by controversy from the start, partly because of its steep price, and partly for its dubious artistic choice, drawing inspiration from Classical antiquity, the brainchild project of former PM Nikola Gruevski was originally promoted as giving a brand-new look to the shabby-looking City of Skopje.

During the hey day of construction, between 2011 and 2017, when the former government collapsed, critics pinpointed the project’s poor choice of materials and questionable artistic quality as some of its many flaws.

​Now, with many of the completed buildings, fountains, bridges and monuments barely five or six years old, the project already shows signs of wear and tear. Cracks and crevices are visible in many of them, and in some cases, constructions have literally started crumbling away, exposing the poor building materials used.

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Source: BIRN

Republished from: Kathimerini English

The prime minister of North Macedonia [sic] on Friday said that objections from Athens to the way his country’s name appears on the national soccer team’s jerseys are being addressed and will be resolved on the basis of the name deal signed with Athens in 2018.

“We have already raised the issue with the Federation and will resolve it on the basis of the Prespa Agreement, UEFA rules and tradition in the upcoming period, Zoran Zaev said in a written response to a request for comment from Greece’s state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) and broadcaster ERT.

The request for comment came after Athens last week lodged a complaint with UEFA – the governing body of the ongoing European soccer championship – over the name “Football Federation of Macedonia” and the FFM initials on players’ jerseys.

“All of Europe knows that our national football team represents North Macedonia [sic] at the Championship. Even if the federation is not a public entity, the national team is, as it is in all countries in the world. So it is and should be clear on all levels and to everyone that it is the national team of North Macedonia [sic], irrelevant of the initials of the Federation on the kit. We have already raised the issue with the Federation,” the ANA-MPA quoted Zaev as saying.

“[The] Prespa agreement’s implementation is a work in progress and our goal is to gradually find solutions with our neighbors… to move us forward on the basis of cooperation and mutual respect,” he added.

Source: Kathimerini English

North Macedonia [sic] remains in the waiting room of the European Union after Bulgaria’s objections caused the Council of Ministers to fail to adopt a negotiating framework on Tuesday that would have allowed Skopje to start EU accession talks before the year’s end as previously envisaged.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva told media that her country is ready to give the green light to Albania’s negotiating framework, but not to the one for North Macedonia [sic].

“I expressed the Bulgarian position, so at this phase, we cannot approve the negotiating framework with North Macedonia [sic],” Zaharieva said.

“Bulgaria is open for talks [with North Macedonia [sic]] and I would like to see more efforts being put in the progress of the talks, rather than in the campaign against Bulgaria,” she added.

She said that a candidate country cannot start accession talks if it has unresolved issues with an EU member state.

Bulgaria wants to scrap from the EU negotiating framework the use of the term ‘Macedonian [sic] language’ [which Bulgaria insists is just a dialect of the Bulgarian language].

Bulgaria would like to see the use of the formulation, “the language according to the Constitution” of North Macedonia [sic], which has been used since 1999 strictly in bilateral documents between the two countries.

Bulgaria also insists that North Macedonia [sic] should accept Sofia’s views on certain parts of the two countries’ shared history, most notably the . . . Bulgarian origin of the Ottoman era revolutionary Goce Delcev, who is celebrated as a national hero in both countries.

Sofia also insists that there is no Macedonian [sic] minority in Bulgaria and would like to see Skopje explicitly renounce its existence.

Meanwhile Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is expected to exert more effort to resolve the deadlock.

Before Tuesday’s conference of EU ministers, the German Minister for Europe Michael Roth said that both North Macedonia [sic] and Albania should be allowed to launch their talks in tandem by the year’s end.

“It is in EU’s best interest for both countries to start the accession talks as soon as possible,” Roth said in Berlin.

In contrast to Zaharieva’s claims, Roth, whose country has been putting in a lot of diplomatic effort lately to ensure the start of the talks, said that “the accession process must not be a hostage of the bilateral demands of certain member states”.

North Macedonia [sic] in the past few months has said it is ready to talk with Bulgaria to try to find a way forward, but insisted that some of Sofia’s claims touch on identity issues, which by definition are not for politicians to negotiate.

North Macedonia’s [sic] Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said that efforts for a solution will continue, and that more intensive pushes for a possible breakthrough should be expected in December.

By that time, a joint Bulgaria-North Macedonia [sic] history commission should also convene again to try once more to find a common ground over contested parts of history.

Source: BIRN

North Macedonia’s [sic] Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, wrote on Tuesday [September 22] to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, [today’s Istanbul], the global leader of Orthodox Christianity, urging him to grant the Orthodox Church in the country autocephaly, or ecclesiastical independence, and end its old dispute with the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Macedonian [sic] Orthodox Church broke away from the Serbian Church in the 1960s but its ecclesiastical independence has never been recognised by the rest of the Orthodox world.

“We demand to be free ecclesiastically within the borders of our country and for our hierarchs to serve alongside the hierarchs of all the Orthodox churches in the world,” Zaev told Bartholomew.

The letter says the Orthodox people in North Macedonia [sic] deserve independence for their Church after dreaming about it for a century, and expect to see its status recognised “with the blessing and a written decision” of the so-called Ecumenical Patriarch.

Just two days ago [September 21], North Macedonia’s [sic] President, Stevo Pendarovski, also sent a letter with similar content to Bartholomew.

The letters represent a continuation of efforts by Zaev to close this sensitive issue. Both Zaev and the Macedonian [sic] Church sent an earlier letter with the same request to Bartholomew in 2018.

They drew encouragement from that year’s decision by the Ecumenical Patriarch to recognise the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine in express defiance of the wishes of the Russian Church and political authorities.

Bartholomew indirectly rebuffed the Macedonian [sic] plea in 2018, however, insisting that the situations in North Macedonia [sic] and Ukraine were different, and advising the Macedonian [sic] Church to seek a resolution to its problems over its status through renewed talks with the Church in Serbia.

The Serbian Orthodox Church gained autocephaly back in the 13th century and has strong standing among Orthodox Churches in the world.

It has used this to block recognition of the Macedonian [sic] Church since it unilaterally declared ecclesiastical independence in 1967.

The Serbian Church insists that the Macedonian [sic] Church can get only a kind of autonomous status within the Serbian Church. The past decades have seen many failed attempts to resolve the dispute.

Scholars in North Macedonia [sic] say the latest letters sent by North Macedonia’s [sic] leaders reveal more about the way they now hope the dispute could be resolved.

Both letters remind Bartholomew of his canonical right to hear appeals and settle long-standing disputes between Churches.

A senior theologian at the theology faculty in Skopje told BIRN under the condition of anonymity that canons from the Fourth Council of the Church “identify the Patriarch of Constantinople as the ultimate authority when it comes to disputes between local churches”.

Serbian politicians, as expected, have criticised the letters sent by North Macedonia’s [sic] leaders. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Monday [September 21] warned North Macedonia [sic] not to seek “shortcuts” in solving the delicate issue and to respect the known rules of the Church.

“We want to see a deal reached, but we surely must respect the rules of the Orthodox Church, and we also expect the Ecumenical Patriarch to be on the same side, just as he was when he pleaded against the formation of a so-called Montenegrin Orthodox Church,” he said, referencing similar demands for autocephaly in Montenegro.

The Serbian Church is adamantly opposed to granting such status to either the Church in Montenegro or in North Macedonia [sic]. The difference, however, is that the Serbian Church remains in control on the ground in Montenegro, while in North Macedonia [sic] the Macedonian [sic] Orthodox Church is by far the largest religious community and enjoys the absolute backing of the political establishment.

Source: Balkan Insight

By Alec Mally, Director for Global Economic Affairs IPEDIS
Republished from: New Europe

Once again, to the delight of North Macedonia’s [sic] Western supporters, Skopje has a new coalition government that looks very much like last year’s pre-election government, with Zoran Zaev returning as prime minister.

Zaev and Ali Ahmeti, the head of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), announced on August 18 a power-sharing deal had been agreed by both parties, essentially mirroring the coalition arrangement existing before Zaev resigned in January and called elections.

Coalition building took more than a month after Zaev’s Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) won a razor-thin electoral majority in the country’s July 15 parliamentary elections, postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The SDSM won 46 seats, thus requiring it to reach a coalition deal to create a majority in the country’s 120-seat Parliament. With the DUI and one independent Albanian MP, the coalition will have 62 seats.

Going into the election, the DUI had been demanding that an ethnic Albanian become prime minister to acknowledge and expand existing power-sharing arrangements with the country’s large Albanian population, known to be at least 25% but possibly as high as 35-40% (a new census which could answer this extremely sensitive question has been repeatedly delayed).

Under the innovative agreement that both parties have reached, Zaev will be named prime minister almost immediately but he will transfer the prime minister’s position to an ethnic Albanian proposed by DUI a hundred days before the next election.

North Macedonia’s [sic] parliament will have to invalidate a 2015 mechanism requiring a caretaker/service government take over a hundred days ahead of parliamentary elections.  That arrangement had been brokered by the European Union to resolve a dangerous political crisis in 2015. At this point we have no information as to whether Brussels approved these changes or was even informed they would be coming.

Most analysts are viewing the coalition deal as the hoped-for victory for the West and a loss for Russia and other external actors who sought to expand their influence at the expense of NATO and the EU.

Back to first gear in Skopje

Reviving the economy and accelerating North Macedonia’s [sic] Euro-Atlantic trajectory are known to be Zaev’s top objectives.

A caretaker government has been running North Macedonia [sic] since Zaev resigned, as he had promised, from his post in January after the EU failed in October 2019 to provide a start date for accession talks. French President Emmanuel Macron had blocked further EU Enlargement until significant reforms were made in the accession process, most notably that the process would actually become reversible to prevent democratic backsliding in candidate countries, instead of an almost automatic, but sometimes excruciatingly slow, entry guarantee.

That procedural issue was resolved in Brussels in March and the green light both North Macedonia [sic] and Albania had long sought to begin accession negotiations was approved.

The formal accession negotiations will begin with the EU this fall, a priority for Berlin under the German Presidency of the EU Council.

Zaev can claim credit for resolving the “Name Dispute” with neighboring Greece and negotiated the final details of the so-called Prespes Agreement with then-Greek PM Alexis Tsipras in June 2018, which was ultimately ratified in both countries by the beginning of 2019.

The country then formally changed its name from 'Macedonia' to 'North Macedonia', and the transition in all official documents is ongoing. Use of the adjective “Macedonian” [sic] to describe the citizens of North Macedonia [sic] in various fora remains a flashpoint.

The conservative Greek government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, elected in July 2019, which fought hard against ratification of the Prespes Agreement while in opposition, now tolerates it as a pre-existing international commitment of the Greek state and has promised to support Skopje’s efforts towards EU integration, engaging in a positive manner in Brussels where possible.

Zaev had also previously signed a friendship deal with neighboring Bulgaria, removing another impediment to prepare for EU membership, but nationalist voices in Bulgaria are still working hard to keep controversies regarding the “Macedonian” [sic] identity alive.

Source: NewEurope

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia [sic] has apologized to the citizens of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia for issuing a stamp depicting a map of the fascist “Independent State of Croatia”, which includes territories of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to an article in MIA News Agency, the Foreign Ministry spoke of an unintentional design omission and that the appropriate measures had already been taken to withdraw the stamp in question.
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In addition, decisions were made to withdraw the stamp and the entire circulation, while as a result the head of the Philatelic Presidency was dismissed and the function of the Council for stamps was stopped.

An apology [1] was also issued by the Post Office of North Macedonia [sic], saying, “We apologize and regret the unintentional mistake and technical omissions in the issuance of the “North Macedonia [sic] in the EU” stamps series, which coincides with May 9, Europe Day. Our goal with this stamp was to express our gratitude to the Croatian Presidency of the EU for the assistance and support provided by the Republic of Croatia to our country”.

The Foreign Ministry, for its part, categorically rejects any connection to this unfortunate event, expressing its regret for all concerned, the citizens of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia.

​Regional cooperation and good neighborly relations are the main pillar of the foreign policy of the Republic of North Macedonia [sic] and we remain committed to our efforts for even stronger commitment and cooperation with the immediate and wider neighborhood in fulfilling the remaining commitments and reforms in the country’s path to European integration, in the interest of all citizens of the region, is noted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to MIA.

Earlier, the Serbian Foreign Ministry had issued a démarche at the North Macedonia [sic] Embassy in Belgrade for the release of the stamp and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

Source: IBNA

On 27 March 2020, NATO announced the following:

North Macedonia [sic] became NATO’s newest member, upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the US State Department in Washington DC. NATO Allies signed North Macedonia’s [sic] Accession Protocol in February 2019, after which all 29 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “North Macedonia [sic] is now part of the NATO family, a family of thirty nations and almost one billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together.“ North Macedonia [sic] is a long-standing contributor to our Euro-Atlantic security, including by participating in NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and in Kosovo.

A flag-raising ceremony for North Macedonia [sic] will take place at NATO Headquarters on 30 March 2020, in the presence of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, and the Chargé d’ Affaires of the Delegation of North Macedonia [sic] to NATO Mr. Zoran Todorov. The flag of North Macedonia [sic] will be simultaneously raised at the Allied Command Operations in Mons (Belgium) and at the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk (US).

​Source: NATO

Republished from: Ekathimerini English

North Macedonia’s [sic] parliament has voted to dismiss Labor Minister Rashela Mizrahi from the caretaker government for appearing during a press conference next to a sign that read “Republic of Macedonia.”

Lawmakers on Friday voted 62-26 to fire Mizrahi, a member of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, for violating the Balkan country’s constitution in the wake of a 2018 name deal with Greece.

The party had opposed the Prespes accord. A government statement said that Mizrahi had violated the constitution, thus “jeopardizing the country’s Euro-Atlantic future.”

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would allow North Macedonia [sic] to begin talks on EU membership if the Commission gives them a positive review in March.

Macron had refused to approve the start of accession negotiations at a summit in October.

Source: Ekathimerini English

The Prespes accord has emerged as a hot issue in North Macedonia’s upcoming presidential election.

Center-left candidate Stevo Pendarovski defended the name change at a campaign rally in the capital of Skopje on Sunday. He reminded the rally crowd that it was part of a deal with Greece that paves the way for NATO membership.

Conservative candidate Siljanovska Davkova blamed the current government for the “painful” name change on Saturday and accused it of corruption and nepotism.

North Macedonia and Greece reached a deal last year to end an almost three-decade dispute over the Baklan country’s name. The name change was one of the deal terms.

The election is April 21. North Macedonia’s prime minister is head of government, the president is head of state.

Source: Ekathimerini [via AP]

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was struggling Thursday to get the required number of lawmakers to finalize constitutional changes that will rename the country “Republic of North Macedonia” and allow its NATO accession under a deal with neighboring Greece.

Zoran Zaev told reporters in Skopje that he has not yet secured support from the required two-thirds of the 120-seat parliament, or 80 lawmakers. A planned parliamentary session on the matter Friday was postponed.

​Zaev’s efforts were complicated when a small ethnic Albanian party demanded that the planned constitutional designation “Macedonian citizenship” be changed to “citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia.”

The party says this will safeguard the identity of ethnic Albanians – about a quarter of FYROM’s 2.1-million population.

Zaev said the reference to “Macedonian citizenship” is key for his country in the deal with Greece. He also said that a group of opposition conservative lawmakers who had initially supported the constitutional changes – and were subsequently ejected by their VMRO-DPMNE party – strongly opposed the ethnic Albanians’ demand.

Hundreds of opposition supporters protested in front of parliament for a second day Thursday against the deal, demanding early elections and the dissolution of parliament.

VMRO leader Hristijan Mickoski addressed the rally, accusing Zaev of “bargaining” with lawmakers to secure the two-thirds majority.

He has claimed Zaev exerted pressure on members of the judiciary on cases involving conservative party lawmakers, or their family members, accused in connection with a violent parliament invasion last year.

“Look how publicly, how openly, this trade is going on with name and identity, like at a market stall,” Mickoski said.

Source: Kathimerini English

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) will seek the arrest with an international warrant of conservative former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski after confirming he fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year prison sentence for corruption, authorities said Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry responded nearly five hours after Gruevski announced he was in Budapest in a Facebook post, as police continued searches in the capital Skopje to try and locate him.

The 48-year-old Gruevski who ignored a summons on Monday to appear at a Skopje prison to serve a two-year sentence after being convicted influencing officials to purchase a luxury car for government use.

He also faces trial in four other cases that emerged from a wiretapping scandal which erupted in 2015 and plunged the country into a deep political crisis. He has been charged with abuse of office, electoral fraud, criminal association and incitement to violence.

He had surrendered his passport and it was unclear how he reached Hungary.

Gruevski was prime minister from 2006-2016. He is the former leader of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, which is the main opposition party which is allied with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz party.

Contacted by The Associated Press, the Hungarian prime minister's office refused to confirm or deny Gruevskis presence, adding that "ongoing asylum procedures" couldn't be commented upon.

Gruevski's flight marks the latest dramatic episode in a volatile confrontation between his conservatives and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats.

The two sides remain bitterly at odds over a proposed deal to change the republic's name to "North Macedonia" and end a dispute with neighboring Greece that would allow FYROM to join NATO.

Western leaders provided Zaev's government strong backing in supporting the deal, while Russia argued that it was the target of the alliances expansion eastward.

The Social Democrats accused Gruevski of making a "cowardly escape."

Source: eKathimerini [AP]

Nikola Gruevski, the former prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Friday lost his final appeal against serving a two-year prison sentence over corruption-related charges.

A panel of judges at the Skopje criminal court said in a statement that they rejected Nikola Gruevski’s appeal after "reviewing all the facts and evidence" in the case.

It was not immediately clear whether Gruevski intended to hand himself in to authorities to serve the sentence.

The former leader of the conservative main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party was sentenced in May to two years in prison for unlawfully influencing Interior Ministry officials over the purchase of a luxury vehicle at an estimated cost of 600,000 euros.

He was ordered to present himself at the capital Skopje’s "Shuto Orizari" prison Thursday, but submitted a last-minute appeal.

The 48-year-old politician, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2016 and is still a VMRO lawmaker, had requested that the prison sentence be deferred, citing parliamentary duties.

​Earlier Friday, FYROM lawmakers fell short of votes needed to expel Gruevski as a member of parliament. Parliament voted 58-29 to revoke Gruevski’s mandate, but failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in the 120-seat assembly.

Source: Kathimerini

Kate Marie Byrnes has been nominated by US President Donald Trump as the next ambassador to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Byrnes, a 24-year veteran of the US diplomatic corps and a member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Athens.

​Her previous assignment was Charge d’Affaires, a.i. at the US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, where she had also served as the Deputy Chief of Mission since September 2014.

Source: Kathimerini

As citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) decide in Sunday’s referendum whether to change the country’s name to North Macedonia, proponents of the “yes” camp are concerned over the possibility of low voter turnout. 

​The referendum seeks to ratify the name deal – the Prespes agreement – signed in June between Athens and Skopje, which will allow Greece to lift its objections to the country’s bid to join NATO and the European Union. 

The question put to voters is: “Are you in favor of NATO and EU membership, and accepting the name agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece?”

According to registers, 1,806,336 people are eligible to vote. 

The government of Zoran Zaev has campaigned fiercely to get the deal approved and has urged citizens to vote as the referendum’s result will not be considered valid or credible if turnout is below 50 percent.

The main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party has repeatedly denounced the deal, but has said nonetheless that it will respect a “yes” vote if turnout figures are more than 50 percent.

The concern is further compounded by the mass migration of recent years, which has depleted many villages in the Balkan country. On Thursday, FYROM President Gjorge Ivanov told the UN General Assembly that by being asked to ratify the deal, his countrymen were effectively being asked to commit a “historical suicide.” 

He urged citizens to boycott the vote, describing the referendum as a “noose” and said that the proposed name change is “a flagrant violation of sovereignty.” 

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the UN General Assembly on Friday evening that the agreement was not reached due to the imposition of the interests of a stronger party on a weaker one. “It was mutually acceptable, defending the dignity of both sides,” he said. 

FYROM’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bujar Osmani, who met on Friday with EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, said that “citizens understand the importance of this moment” and the country is poised “to make history.” 

In response to Ivanov’s comments, Hahn told reporters a “boycott is not an expression of democratic majority.”

Ballot boxes in 80 municipalities will open from 7 a.m to 7 p.m. The vote will be monitored by some 2,500 local and 500 international observers.

Source: Kathimerini English

Twelve days before a referendum in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on whether the Balkan country should change its name to North Macedonia, a new opinion poll has shown that the "yes" vote has a small lead over the "no."

According to the survey, which was carried out by the firm Market Vision for the news website Mkd.mk, 51.1 percent of respondents said they would answer "yes" to the question of whether they accept a recent deal with Greece to change the country's name so that it can join NATO and the European Union.

The remaining 48.9 percent were opposed to the deal.

Only 33.4 percent of ethnic Slavs supported the deal with 66.5 percent rejecting it while 95 percent of ethnic Albanians were in favor.

Source: eKathimerini

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and his counterpart from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Zoran Zaev held their second joint commemoration on August 2, 2018 of the 1903 Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.

The meeting of the two government leaders in the Bulgarian town of Blagoevgrad also marked the first anniversary of Borissov and Zaev signing the treaty of good neighbourliness between Bulgaria and the FYROM, subsequently ratified by both countries’ parliaments and which came into effect in February 2018.

Borissov and Zaev held talks before heading to Blagoevgrad’s Macedonia Square to pay tribute at a monument to Gotse Delchev, the VMRO leader who died in a clash with Ottoman forces in May 1903 while involved in the planning of the uprising.

​The Ilinden Uprising was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was prepared and carried out by the Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).

The history of the uprising and of figures such as Gotse Delchev have been contested between Skopje and Sofia for decades, including during and after the respective communist eras in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav republic.

However, with the official warming of bilateral relations over the past year, Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic are seeking deeper formal dialogue over shared history, including through the formation of a joint commission on such issues.

If you were to deconstruct Washington, all you’d be left with was a think tank, a lobby and a hotel. The crossroads of K and 15th now has all three components, as the newest member of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s lobby, the “Macedonia Political Action Committee” (MACPAC), just opened next to the almighty Atlantic Council and across the street from the Architect Hotel.

MACPAC does not boast lofty offices, but is tucked away behind hundreds of small boxes lining the wall of a well-known express delivery firm. It is a common practice of many new businesses, but also of shady organizations like MACPAC, to use PO boxes for their international correspondence. But what makes MACPAC stand out is not its location, but its founder, a woman by the name of Louette Ragusa.

Ragusa did not appear to be in any way associated with the Skopje lobby until recently. She is better known as the operations director of the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) and her office is just a 5-minute walk from MACPAC’s PO box. This suggests that MACPAC is not some formal yet negligible effort of the colorful yet active FYROM lobby, but is rather an initiative of the powerful Turkish lobby.

The TCA poses as an independent nonprofit organization of the Turkish-American diaspora, with revenues of nearly a million dollars a year and assets of more than $8 million. It employs a professional, full-time staff and has an active volunteer corps that donates thousands of dollars a year. Similar Greek diaspora groups are nowhere near the TCA in terms of organization, funding and strategy, with the exception of the Hellenic American Leadership Council – an oasis in the diaspora desert.

We do not know whether the TCA created MACPAC on its own initiative in order to further Skopje’s agenda or whether it was in communication with mother Turkey or the FYROM lobby. I believe that there was some level of coordination, but nevertheless, the main message behind the move is that the Turkish Americans are very well aware of the importance of backstage lobbying in the American political system.

The same cannot be said of the Greek Americans, unfortunately, as many of our leaders – and politicians – are more concerned with applause and lack the know-how to carry out the duties they chose to undertake.

Political action committees (PACs) like MACPAC are aimed at finding funding to support members of Congress and promote issues that concern specific social groups and interests. In the US, in contrast to Greece, there is significant transparency regarding the funding of parties and politicians.

According to the federal database, the TCA has created various PACs across American to promote the Turkish agenda and undermine Greek national issues like Cyprus and the Pontic* and Armenian genocides. The largest of the TCA’s PACs has spent nearly $2 million in the last decade working closely with more than 140 members of the House of Representatives who comprise the Turkish alliance in Congress – one of many informal congressional groups that come together to promote various issues.

The Greek alliance has about the same number of members, some of which are also funded by the Turkish community, but it doesn’t have the dynamism it deserves. Most diaspora groups have failed to rise to the occasion and expend their energies on initiatives that have zero impact in Washington.

Thus, the diaspora’s significant political and economic capital remains unused, wasted in the pursuit of self-promotion. The problem is that if the diaspora ever wants to support or create a PAC similar to its only professional grassroots organization, the Hellenic American Leadership Council, it will mean its members having to dig into their pockets without enjoying any applause.

There is no glamour in that, however, as the real work that needs to be done is hard, systematic and comes at a personal cost, with the only reward being the satisfaction of serving the greater good.

In most cases, the real work is done in silence, away from the cameras and the lights, unacknowledged on Facebook and Twitter, hidden away in the most unlikely places – even PO boxes. Unfortunately, these boxes appear too small and dark for our great leaders.

About Nikolas Katsimpras:
Nikolas Katsimbras is a lecturer at Columbia University's Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program and an assistant adjunct professor at the Dispute Resolution program at City University of New York. He is also a consultant on strategic planning and analysis for conflict management and a former officer of the Hellenic Navy.

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Note by the Macedonian League:
* The Macedonian League recognizes the genocide of the Greeks in Asia Minor as the "Greek Genocide"

Federica Mogherini, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, met on Thursday with Deputy Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in charge of European Affairs, Bujar Osmani.

The meeting was part of the regular contacts the High Representative is having with the country's leadership in view of the latest developments, in particular regarding talks on the name issue, and the upcoming Council meetings. Federica Mogherini expressed the European Union's full support for the ongoing work on the name issue and the readiness to accompany and support an eventual positive outcome. 

Federica Mogherini and Bujar Osmani also discussed the progress in the implementation of the reform agenda and determination to continue on this path, with an inclusive and constructive approach towards the opposition to ensure unity in support of reform work ahead.

Source: European Union-EEAS