Via the BBC: Nato denies Georgia and Ukraine

Nato has confirmed it will not yet offer membership to Georgia or Ukraine after the 26-member alliance was split amid strong objections from Russia.

[...]

US President George W Bush had called for Georgia and Ukraine to be allowed to join.

But the move was opposed by Germany and France, amid concerns voiced by Russia over Nato’s eastward expansion.

Also on the rejection front:

The alliance also said it would not invite Macedonia to join after protests from Greece over Macedonia’s name.

I find this of interest, as I received a first hand feel for the passion over the name issue at a panel I attended at the recent Alabama Political Science Association meeting. During the discussion of the papers, a member of the audience was talking about UN peace-keeping forces and mentioned his own experiences in Macedonia. An member of the audience, a graduate student of Greek origins, eventually got somewhat upset and recounted why Macedonia should not be called Macedonia. Apparently the Greeks have extremely strong objections to the usage, and only will refer to the country of Macedonia as FYRM (”Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”). ¹ Further, they see the name as suggesting a claim on Greek territory. There is also some cultural pride issues as part of the situation, as the Greeks claim Alexander the Great as one of their own, but he was born in what is now FYRM. The issue is such that the Macedonian parliament was considering name changes earlier this week (see here).

The Macedonians, however, aren’t too happy about the rejection from NATO, as one might imagine:

“We are punished not because of unfulfilled NATO benchmarks, but for who we are. We are punished for our Macedonian identity,” Nikola Dimitrov, Macedonia’s negotiator in the ‘name’ dispute talks with Greece, told the Associated Press news agency.²

Back to NATO, not everyone was rejected:

But at a summit in Romania, Nato said Balkan neighbours Albania and Croatia would be asked to join the alliance.

Also of interest:

President Nicolas Sarkozy said that France would make a decision on Nato by the end of the year, indicating it would return to the military command it left in 1966 in protest at the dominance of US commanders.

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1. For some background go here [↩]
2. Source: BalkanInsight.com: Macedonia Disappointed Over NATO Rejection [↩]

One Response to “No NATO for You! (Plus, What’s in a Name?)”

1. Boyd Says:
   April 3rd, 2008 at 10:27 am

   Having lived in Greece for many years, I’ve come to expect irrational behavior from the Hellenic Government as the norm. Admittedly, this has left me with a bias against them, so there may be valid points to their objection over Macedonia’s name.

   Since no one has reported any rational objections, though, all we’re left with are the irrational ones.