Skopje, 12 August (AKI) – Macedonia's prime minister Nikola Gruevski on Tuesday requested United Nations mediation in a dispute between the Macedonian and Greek Orthodox Churches.
Ahead of new round of talks on Macedonia’s name to be held in New York on Thursday and Friday, Gruevski wrote to UN mediator Matthew Nimitz demanding that the recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church by its Greek sister be included in the talks.
Gruevski said in the letter to Nimitz that Serbian clergy had blocked recognition of the Macedonian church because it was strongly under the influence of the Greek Church.
“An important part of the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been schooled, financed and spent considerable time in the Greek churches and monasteries and has remained under their influence,” Gruevski said.
He pointed out that the problem was that Greek Church in fact wasn’t separated from the state and that its non recognition was a part of the “Greek negation of Macedonian identity.”
Greece blocked Macedonia’s entry into NATO at the summit in Bucharest last April, demanding that Macedonia change its name, which, according to Athens, implies territorial pretensions towards northern Greek province with the same name.
The Skopje government refuses to change the country's name and the 17-year-old dispute has hampered relations between the two Balkan neighbours.
Before the break up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Macedonian Christians were a part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, but declared autonomy in 1963.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church, however, hasn’t been recognized by other Orthodox Churches, including the Greek one.
Adding another hot issue to the long-running name dispute, Gruevski demanded that the airport in the northern Greek city of Salonica should drop “Macedonia” from its current name.
The Athens government earlier objected to the airport in Macedonian capital Skopje being named after the famous Greek warrior Alexander the Great.
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