62nd U.N. General Assembly - Macedonian President speech (1)

25.09.2007
Speech of the Macedonian President Crvenkovski at the 62nd U.N. General Assembly in New York

The new president of the United Nations General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim called the Balkan country's head of state, Branko Crvenkovski, as president of the Republic of Macedonia when he came to the rostrum to address world leaders, prompting an immediate protest from the Greek ambassador in the chamber.

Greece objected to the name when Macedonia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, contending that it implied claims on the northern Greek province of the same name.
But in 1988 the Greek state renamed their Northern region from 'Northern Greece' into 'Makedonia', that part of Macedonia (Aegean Macedonia) which was "given" to the Greek kingdom in 1912/13 by the Bucharest Treaty. The Treaty of Paris and Bucharest after the Balkan wars partitioned Macedonia finally into 3 parts (Vardar Macedonia to Serbia, later to Yugoslavia, Pirin Macedonia to Bulgaria and Aegean Macedonia to Greece).

After the break up in Yugoslavia, Greece deprived the Republic of Macedonia's right of self-determination, starting anti-Macedonian propaganda and forced Macedonia to use a ridiculous referance-name.

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