ICJ Ruling Exposes NATO Duplicity, Greece Unintentionally Hints at Real Root Cause of "Name Dispute"

WASHINGTON D.C. and OTTAWA, Ontario, December 14, 2011 -

On December 5, 2011, the International Court of Justice ruled that Greece had illegally blocked Macedonia from joining international institutions such as NATO, in violation of the “Interim Accord” (1995).  As a matter of law, the ICJ ruled that the U.N. Security Council brokered agreement precluded Greece from blocking Macedonia from NATO.

“Ironically, on more than one occasion, NATO warplanes and troops have engaged in war solely to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions against countries found violating U.N. resolutions,” said United Macedonian Diaspora Chairman StojanNikolov.  “However, when the United Nations’ highest Court ruled Greece violated Security Council brokered U.N. law, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was silent as to the rule of law, and as to whether NATO is literally above the law.”

In his December 5^th statement, Rasmussen announced no punitive measures regarding a NATO member found guilty of U.N. violations.  Instead, Rasmussen merely suggested that “name negotiations” and other measures within the “Interim Accord” are to be obeyed by the Macedonian government, as well as requiring an eventual Greek-approved name for the country, whereas the blatantly illegal conduct by its own member state, Greece, goes unmentioned.

“The ICJ ruling’s overall historical significance is not entirely clear yet, but the ruling and the reaction expose NATO hypocrisy on the issue,” said UMD President Metodija A. Koloski.

“The Secretary General’s hasty statements reveal a serious legal and political credibility issue for NATO,” said one of UMD’s original founders and human rights lawyer, Steve Gligorov.  Specifically, “whether NATO overlooks U.N. violations as to its own member states, while it engages in acts of war against other countries that are found to violate U.N. laws, but are not NATO member states.”

The mere fact that the Greek legal teams criticized Macedonia’s discussions about the rights of minorities in Greece as “interference in Greek internal affairs” speaks volumes about what Greece’s “name dispute” with the Republic of Macedonia is really all about: specifically, the human rights violations by the Greek government against its own citizens, based on their respective Macedonian religion or ethnicity.

Under the Case ofSidiropoulos and Others v.Greece (1997)and again in the Case of OuranioToxo and Others v. Greece (2005) Europe’s Court of Human Rights repeatedly ruled that Greece violates Article 43 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms against Greek citizens of Macedonian ethnic origin.

UMD believes that silence from NATO and the EU leads to a serious credibility problem, both for Greece and the international organizations that support it. 

Founded in 2004, the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) is a leading international non-governmental and non-profit organization addressing the interests and needs of Macedonians and Macedonian communities worldwide.  Website:www.umdiaspora.org

For further information:

Washington, D.C.: Metodija A. Koloski - +1-202-294-3400 mkoloski@umdiaspora.org 

Canada: Mark Branov - +1-647-281-8442 editor@umdiaspora.org 

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