I was very glad when Miroslav sent me the good news today, regarding his email to Google Weather, where he asked for using the proper name for our country.
As you have already guessed it, Google Weather now uses "Macedonia" as the name of the country if you search for the weather in any Macedonian city. Kudos Miroslav, and thank you Google for making this right.
The South American country Chile is the 117th country that recognized Republic of Macedonia under our constitutional name, according to A1.
I wish to extend our gratitude on behalf of the citizens of Macedonia. We appreciate your kind gesture very much. This gives us the kind of support we need in order to preserve our name, our identity and our dignity as a nation equal to all others.
During the past two months, several Macedonian and Foreign Officials had sent letters to the UN as well as EU Organization regarding the plight of Macedonian and other minorities in Greece. The European Commission responded that it is not competent to review the situation of minorities.
The United Nations on the other hand, decided to dispatch an expert to verify Athens claim of 99.9% Greeks with zero minorities. Greece showed their dismay by the UN visit when Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis announced she will personally meet with the UN expert Gay McDougall where it is expected for Athens to exert pressure on the UN representative.
Athens blames the UN visit squarely on Macedonian Officials for their letters, even though previously had mocked them. The results of UN Expert Gay McDougall to her "Greece's Minorities" mission will be made available to the world in March of 2009. She will investigate Aegean Macedonia, Thrace and other regions.
Hans-Lothar Steppan is the former German ambassador in Macedonia and the author of the book "The Macedonian Knot". In an interview for the Macedonian television station A1, among other things, he said the following:
I am sure that all historians agree that if you want to understand the current political situation, you need to enter the history chapters. This history proved that before 1912, Greece never owned the Macedonian territory. Not in the Antique times, not in the Roman times, not in the Slav times, and not during the Ottoman Empire's rule.
Only after the violation of the international law in 1912-1913 during the Balkan wars, together with Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, they occupied and annexed Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus. Basically, Greece stole the Macedonian territory, because this act was against the international laws.
This historic link is completely independent of the right of Macedonia for self-determination. All nations in the world have that right, therefore Macedonia too can decide on it's identity and name. Nobody has the right to interfere...
... EU and NATO politicians know that Greece is skillful, that it cheats and even lies to Macedonia, they know things aren't supposed to be like this. Especially not from the cradle of Europe, from the cradle of the democratic principles. Greece should have responsibility for truth and justice. The European Commission knows about this, and if they continue to support Greece with this false solidarity, then there must be something invisible going on in the background.
This is one of the emails of support from foreigners that are coming in my inbox. This one is from Michael, the author of the site Slavic Brothers:
Just a few words to congratulate you on your efforts to maintain the identity that Macedonia and Macedonians deserve.
I am a descendant of the Slovak people who were treated in much the same way by the Hungarians and the Lithuanian people who suffered under the dark hand of Russia. I defend my own people in similar ways.
Please continue to demand proper recognition for Macedonia and it's people, culture, language and heritage when ever and where ever possible.
A group of Greek fascists, members of the neo-fascist organization Hrisi Avgi (Golden Dawn), deliberately provoked inter-ethnic incidents in the village of Vrbeni (Xino Nero), near the town Lerin (Florina), in Aegean Macedonia.
The situation nearly went beyond control, but spirits calmed down after the mediation of the more cold blooded ones. The members of the Golden Dawn arrived at the village in a convoy of cars, holding Greek flags and shouting, and then headed to the central square of the village. The tensions culminated when member of Vinozhito (Rainbow) who resides in the village demanded that they should leave.
Radical rights and villagers exchanged fists and swears despite the efforts of the very few police men to stop the incident. The situation nearly went beyond control when a villager took the Greek flag from the hands of a Golden Dawn member. But due to the mediation of more moderates, the flag was returned and the members of the Golden Dawn left the village. Earlier the radical rights had put the Greek flag on the municipality building and had choired the national anthem of Greece.
Before coming to the village of Vrbeni, the Golden Dawn members earlier were attending the annual celebrations for the victory of the monarcho-fascists against the communist rebels in mountain Vitsi during the war of 1948. The following poster was used to call the participants of this event:
The translation of this Greek text is:
The only solution for [Greek] Macedonia is for it to border with Serbia
The same poster, together with several others, was printed in vast numbers and distributed in many populated places, especially in Aegean Macedonia.
Despite the fact that that the members of the Golden Dawn had decided to move towards Vrbeni while they were in Vitsi for the annual celebration of radical right organizations, the police didn't take the appropriate measures for securing the event.
The monument at the summit of Vitsi was honored by members of the Greek fascistic party LAOS and a municipality administration member, representing the mayor of Thessaloniki.
This is an email that one of Say: Macedonia's readers, Miroslav, sent to Google as a protest note to the improper naming of my country in some of their services. I will add their response, if they reply to Miroslav.
Hello,
I recently noticed that the search for "weather Skopje" on google.ca and possibly other domains and Google tools, returns the following:
Weather for Skopje, FYR Macedonia.
Both Canada and the U.S. have recognized Macedonia under its name, i.e. Republic of Macedonia, and I would appreciate it if Google did not use this insulting name, "FYR Macedonia" in the resources under your direct control.
Thanks in advance, Miroslav
I encourage other readers that share the same opinion in the naming dispute to file their protest to all companies and sites which use the insulting acronym or any other name for my country, rather than "Republic of Macedonia". Feel free to send copies to me, I will publish them on this site if you want.
Update:
Google answered the note:
Hi Miroslav,
Thank you for your note. We're sorry you encountered this unexpected results while using Google. Please be assured that your email will be forwarded to the appropriate team for further investigation. We appreciate your assistance in maintaining the quality of our search results. Thank you again.
I am a Macedonian. My country's name is "Republic of Macedonia". It is a basic human right to choose a name for yourself and to express your nationality. Please respect that and call me by my name. Say: Macedonia!
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