The Assembly elected the new Macedonian Government on Saturday with an absolute majority of 78 votes. The opposition parliamentarians did not attend this assembly session. VMRO-DPMNE and BDI form the new ruling coalition that came to power following the first early parliamentary elections in Macedonia, which were held on 1 June this year.

The 11 km long western part of the Skopje ring road whose construction was co-funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) was put use today, EBRD said.

The Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) will not participate in the work of the Assembly for an indefinite period and it will not attend the assembly session on Saturday when the Parliament will vote on the new government, the SDSM Executive Committee decided at its session held in Strumica on Monday, Vreme reports.

Macedonian Prime Minister Gruevski sends letter to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, informing him about Greece’s discriminatory policy against Macedonian minority in Greece and issue of Macedonians deported during Civil War in Greece.

In Greece there is no "Macedonian minority", and there has never been. All other claims are absolutely unfounded and mismatched with the historical reality of the region, says Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in his response to his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski's letter. Karamanlis believes that Gruevski's letter is taking both countries further away from the goal of the talks given that it is an attempt to interfere with Greece's home affairs.

The mayor of Strumica, Zoran Zaev, was detained in Strumica this morning on charges of abusing his official powers, media report. The Interior Ministry confirmed his arrest and said the official detailed report would be issued later in the day.

 

A reform to the so-called Greek nationalism is necessary, says Pavlos Voskopoulos, leader of the RAINBOW Party in his interview to Dimitar Culev in Florina (Greece)

Q.: How do you interpret the latest statement of Greek Foreign Ministry’s spokesman in which he called the question concerning the existence of Macedonian minority in Greece “non-existing and ungrounded”?

A.: Kumutzakos’s statement depicts the continual policy of the Greek state against the Macedonian minority since 1912 up-to-date. I would say “ungrounded” and “non-existing” is the claim that Greece is a democratic state.

Greece has a legislative, that is to say a Law from 1981 concerning the repatriation of the “political refugees” of the 1946-1948 Civil War which decisively says who belongs to the “Greeks by origin” category. Why do the state and the Ministry of the Interior mention “Greeks by origin”? Does it mean that the other citizens are not “Greeks by origin”? Does not the state indirectly recognize the existing minority from this Law by mentioning the “non-existing” minority? If Greece clearly declares the expelled Macedonians during the Civil War in Greece as “non-Greeks by origin”, does this mean that their relatives in Greece do not exist? Why does Greece take away the citizenship of members of the “non-existing” minority and forbids the economic emigrants-Macedonians living overseas to enter the villages in which they were born? Today it takes away the Greek citizenship on the base of the Law paragraph 1 g because our co-citizens declare their Macedonian identity in Australia or in Canada, for example. By mentioning the “non-existing” minority, the Greek state sends a message to the Macedonians, and even to their relatives living in northern Greece. The aim of the modern “sophisticated terrorism” is to intimidate the Macedonians from declaring their Macedonian spirit not only in Australia and Canada but also of their relatives in Greece. Why does not the “self-loving” Greek policy implement a census of the population asking about their identity and language in relation to the “non-existing” minority? Is perhaps the continual denial an expression of fear from the “existing” Macedonians?

Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said in an interview for Thursday’s edition of the daily Dnevnik that he would not run at the next presidential election.
Crvenkovski stressed that his decision is final, noting that one of the reasons for this decision is his disagreement with the Government’s policy on a number of crucial issues. The president stated that he does not want to be an accessory to a policy that would provoke serious and long-term consequences in the future.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski sent a letter to Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis today in which he addresses the problems of the ethnic Macedonians born in Greece. “Today these people, who were born in Greece but are citizens of Macedonia now, face triple discrimination. First, they cannot get their properties back. Second, they face serious difficulties when they want to enter Greece. Third, if any of them want to obtain double citizenship, they cannot do so,” Gruevski wrote in the letter, MIA reports.

A total of 192 years' imprisonment was ruled for the 17 persons arrested during the Mountain Storm police operation in the village of Brodec in November last year and indicted for terrorism.

The Hague Tribunal passed a not-guilty sentence in the trial against former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski for the “Ljuboten” case. The second defendant in this case, then police General Johan Tarculovski, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. Boskoski will leave for Skopje today. Tarculovski’s attorney announced that he would file an appeal against this ruling within 30 days.

Macedonia will continue to participate actively in the talks aimed at resolving the differences on the name, despite the fact that Greece violated the Interim Accord with its veto in Bucharest. Also, Macedonia will not accept any proposal that will affect the Macedonian identity. These are the positions that Nikola Dimitrov, Macedonia’s representative in the talks on the name, and Martin Protoger, chief of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s Cabinet, will defend at the meeting with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz in New York today.

Macedonia was not able to find a mutually acceptable resolution for the name dispute with Greece by today, 9 July, as a result of which only Croatia and Albania will sign accession agreements in the NATO Head Office in Brussels today. As a result of Greece’s obstructions, the strategic Adriatic Charter, on which NATO experts worked meticulously for years, was destroyed. As is well known, a new condition for accession to NATO – resolving of the name dispute – was set at the summit in Bucharest, despite the fact that Macedonia fulfilled all the necessary criteria.

A new round of consultations on the name dispute will be held with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz in New York at end of this week. The Macedonian state leadership and Nikola Dimitrov, Macedonia’s representative in the talks on the name dispute, held a meeting in the President’s Cabinet yesterday to coordinate their positions. According to reports, this was one of the most constructive meetings so far, where the state leadership discussed possible scenarios for resolving of this dispute.

The Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) will enter the government led by VMRO-DPMNE with concrete demands: that the Albanian language become an official language in Macedonia; that the status of the members of the former National Liberation Army be resolved; and that Kosovo’s independence be recognized.

Contrary to these assertions of BDI, VMRO-DPMNE stated officially over the weekend that there would be a moratorium on the demand for amendment of the Law on the Police and the Law on the Flags;

With regards to the policy proclaimed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who accused Macedonia of being an undemocratic country and openly supported Greece in the name dispute, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said that the Republic of Macedonia would not assume any special measures as regards its bilateral relations with France.

Nine individuals were wounded in an armed incident that took place outside a teahouse in the Skopje village of Radusa at about 23:45 last night. The Interior Ministry confirmed this incident, adding that 25-year old Besfort Aliti, son of BDI parliamentarian Rafiz Aliti, was among the individuals wounded.

•French President Sarkozy tells his Macedonian counterpart Crvenkovski the name should stop being an obstacle to Macedonia s accession to the EU.

The Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) will enter the new government. This is the result of the talks led between mandatary Nikola Gruevski and BDI leader Ali Ahmeti over the last few days, Vest reports. Gruevski and Ahmeti have already agreed on the chief contours of the future government and this new coalition could be made public as early as today, party sources said.

The demarcation of the border between Macedonia and Kosovo started yesterday with the laying of a boundary column at the junction of the three state borders of Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania. The first boundary column was placed at the location known as Serupa, on Sar Mountain, at 2,100 meters above sea-level, in the presence of representatives of Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania, and representatives of the international community.

For the first time in the talks on the name dispute, Macedonia raised the issues of rights for the Macedonians deported from Greece and rights for the Macedonian minority in Greece.

UN mediator Matthew Nimetz will arrive in Skopje today where he will meet with Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski and Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

•Rosemary DiCarlo, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, is paying an official visit to Macedonia today.

Mandatary Nikola Gruevski gave BDI leader Ali Ahmeti and PDSH leader Menduh Thaci room to decide whether they agree to join the future government together. Gruevski proposed to Thaci and Ahmeti that they enter the new ruling coalition together and that they share five minister posts between them. The mandatary gave them one week to think about this proposal. The daily comments that it is not certain whether these parties will accept this proposal considering the big antagonism between them.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki stressed at the Tuesday summit in Brussels dedicated to the Balkans that Macedonia was resolved to meet the tasks required for joining the EU. However, as a small country Macedonia is worried that additional unprincipled conditions and obstacles which are not at all part of the Copenhagen criteria may also be set. "The EU should respect the principles it sets and evaluate the progress of the candidate countries on that basis. An EU member state abuses a bilateral name issue, puts pressure on Macedonia to renounce its right to national self-determination and blocks its European integration," he said.

Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski gave the mandate for formation of the new government to VMRO-DPMNE Chairman Nikola Gruevski yesterday. Immediately after this, Gruevski started talks with PDSH and BDI on formation of a new ruling coalition.

The Macedonian state leadership held an hour-long meeting in the President’s Office yesterday with regards to UN mediator Matthew Nimetz’s upcoming visit to Macedonia this Friday. It was a

New Macedonian Assembly was constituted on Saturday. VMRO-DPMNE’s Trajko Veljanovski was elected assembly chairman, receiving votes of 79 of 114 parliamentarians. BDI supported Veljanovski’s designation to this post, while PDSH boycotted constituting of Assembly, maintaining that results of repeated voting were suspicious.