April 15, 2011 – New York, NY – The United Macedonian Diaspora (“UMD”) met yesterday with the United Nations (“UN”) Special Envoy, Mediator Matthew Nimetz, in New York. During the meeting UMD stressed the unprecedented resolution asking the Republic of Macedonia to negotiate over its official name. These imposed “name negotiations” have de facto deprived the basic right of self-identification from the millions of Macedonians worldwide, and the UMD delegation used the opportunity to call once again for their immediate termination.
UMD once again underscored that the “name negotiations” between Macedonia and Greece are merely used as a smoke screen to veil the state-sponsored human rights violations against ethnic Macedonians living in Greece. Furthermore, while Macedonia has demonstrated its commitment to partake in these mediations, Greece on the other hand, has continued to decline many proposals that have been put forward, and has been vetoing Macedonia’s membership in Euro-Atlantic organizations, such as NATO and the EU. Unsurprisingly, the ongoing UN-mediated agenda faces public criticism because Greece’s official state-sponsored position allegedly violated Article 11 of the United Nations Interim Accord, and is presently at issue in litigation before the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
The delegation led by UMD President Metodija A. Koloski consisted of George Atanasoski, President of the Macedonian Alliance and the largest Diaspora investor in Macedonia, civil rights attorney and one of UMD’s founders Steve Gligorov, producer of New York’s Macedonian Radio Hour, Vladimir Naumovski, and former Macedonian Minister of Foreign Investment (2006-2008) and current UMD Advisory Council member, Gligor Tashkovich.
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