FYROM's behaviour toward Macedonia and Yugoslavia's historical claims with regard to Macedonia and Greek Macedonians strike most governments and informed NGOs as inappropriate and unconvincing. Greeks and Macedonians are the same ethnic group; the fact that Macedonians identify as Macedonian Greeks, doesn't prevent FYROMians from identifying as Slavs, as they are. Jason Pouliotis claims Canada's recognition of FYROM under her constitutional fake name risks Greek territorial integrity. Everyone one believes this claim; both NATO, and the European Union, and the United Nations.
On the other side, how can the "name" of a large area of Greece (Macedonia) be a threat to the territorial integrity of FYROM? Macedonia's name isn't new, it has been in use... since the 600 B.C. and Greece is still around. Evan Sotiropoulos reminds us that FYROM entered the United Nations under great duress with the "right designation"—former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The majority of countries recognize FYROM under her OFFICIAL name, including Israel, the European Union. I'm not proud of Canada for not respecting the principle of self-determination. Countries like FYROM, that do not respect the principle of self-determination, have huge human rights issues. In fact, FYROM's problem with Macedonia isn't Macedonia's name. This insidious dispute is actually about the indigenous Macedonian population living in FYROM, an ancient historic population whose very existence FYROM denies. The "name issue" is merely a red herring.
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