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Macedonian Refugees from Greece Meet

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11912/

18 July 2008 Skopje

Macedonian refugees who fled from Greece during the 1946-1949 Greek
Civil War will meet on Friday in Skopje.
This is the forth such ``world meeting'' that will take place. The
meeting will last until Monday.

More than 6000 or so people who were made refugees when they were
children, now living in Macedonia, Canada, Australia,
USA, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and
other countries are expected to attend an opening
ceremony that will be held in Skopje's biggest sport hall "Boris
Trajkovski". The country's president Branko Crvenkovski is
expected to be present while the parliamentary speaker Trajko
Veljanovski will address the participants.

There are no hard historical records about the number who fled Greece.
Some historians claim that as many as 100,000 ethnic
Macedonians fled the country during the war between the right-wing
monarchist government and the Democratic Army of
Greece, a branch of the Communist party.

The people who will attend the meeting were children at the time of
the exodus. They are now elderly.

The meeting comes after Macedonia's Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski
sent a letter to his Greek counterpart asking for the
recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece and the return of
property to Macedonian refugees.
Greek media were outraged. Read more:
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11794/

Athens does not recognise those who fled as Macedonians and refuses to
issue citizenship to them or to their descendants.
In addition, Athens says they cannot be called a minority..

On Thursday the US State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack said
that this issue is a matter for Skopje and Athens to
resolve. He again urged both sides to find a quick solution for the
ongoing so-called "name" row, arguing that the issue of the
recognition of the Macedonian refugees and a resolution to the name
row are two completely different issues.

Relations between the two countries hit a new low in April when Athens
blocked Skopje's NATO accession saying the country
should change its name first. Greece argues that Macedonia's name
might imply territorial claims towards its own northern province with
the same name.

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June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbo...@gmail.com
(or) kalamos...@aol.com
www.kalamosbooks.com