Greeks rally in Athens over Macedonia name row

ATHENS (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to protest against the use of the term Macedonia in any settlement the government pursues with the ex-Yugoslav Republic to end a decades-old name row.

The two countries have agreed to step up negotiations, mediated by the United Nations, this year to settle the dispute, which has frustrated the aspirations of Greece’s small northern neighbor to join NATO and the European Union.

Thoroughfares in central Athens turned into a sea of people waving blue and white Greek flags in what locals said was the largest gathering in decades, easily outdoing rallies against austerity foisted by lenders on the crisis-hit country.

Greece objects to Macedonia’s name because it has its own region called Macedonia, and argues that its neighbor’s use of the name, along with contentious articles in its constitution, imply territorial claims over Greek land.

Protesters hoisted a giant Greek flag over the demonstration with a crane on Sunday. They held banners reading “Hands off Macedonia!” and chanted the national anthem.

“I‘m here for Macedonia. Macedonia is ours, it’s part of Greece. We won’t let them take it from us,” said 72-year old Persefoni Platsouri clutching a Greek flag.

The case evokes strong emotions among Greeks who consider Macedonia, the ancient kingdom ruled by Alexander the Great, to be an integral part of their homeland and heritage.

Talks also reopened at a sensitive time for a country which is struggling to emerge from its worst debt crisis in decades and to regain sovereignty over economic policy-making after years of austerity mandated by international lenders.

“HISTORICAL LIE”

Among Sunday’s speakers was world-renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who said the eight-year economic crisis had not wiped Greece’s history from people’s memories.

“If we give in, we are leaving the doors wide open for a tragic historical lie to come through and stay forever,” the 93-year old leftist, a symbol of resistance against the 1967-1974 military junta, told a cheering crowd.

Talks between the two countries have been inconclusive since the Balkan state broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Due to Greece’s objections, Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations with the provisional name “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in 1993, which remains its official title in international organizations. A majority of countries in the world refer to it simply as Macedonia.

Greece’s leftist-led government has proposed a compound name, with a geographical qualifier, which would be the only name that could be used for the country.

But opinion polls in recent weeks have shown a majority of Greeks oppose the use of “Macedonia” in any solution. About 300,000 people turned out at a demonstration on Jan. 21 in Thessaloniki, capital of Greece’s Macedonia region.

The issue has also strained relations between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party and his small coalition ally, the right-wing Independent Greeks. The coalition government controls 154 seats in the 300-seat parliament.

The Macedonia issue helped bring down Greece’s conservative government in 1993; the same party, now in opposition, has criticized Tsipras’ administration for its negotiating tactics.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said last week that Greece is preparing proposals which would be the basis of negotiations for a settlement with its neighboring country.

“Here are the borders. This is Macedonia … Macedonia is Greek, no one can take this name, no one can use it,” said protester Rania Mainou, pointing on a map.

Writing by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Catherine Evans

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Pressure mounts on Poland to back away from Holocaust bill

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland is seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism over pending legislation that would impose jail terms for suggestions that the nation was complicit in the Holocaust, local minority groups warned, as pressure mounts on the president to veto the bill.

Parliament passed the measure on Thursday, drawing outrage from Israel, U.S. criticism and condemnation from a number of international organisations. President Andrzej Duda has 21 days to decide whether to sign it into law.

The bill would impose prison sentences of up to three years for mentioning the term “Polish death camps” and for suggesting “publicly and against the facts” complicity on the part of the Polish nation or state in Nazi Germany crimes.

More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

In a rare show of unity, Polish minority and ethnic groups, including Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian, urged Duda and other authorities to counteract all forms of xenophobia, intolerance and anti-Semitism, although they did not directly call on the president to veto the bill.

“Our particular concern and objection is caused by the numerous and loud manifestations of anti-Semitism that we have been witnessing this week after the (parliament) passed (the Holocaust bill),” the groups said in statement.

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw also issued a statement on Friday, saying that in the last few days there was “a wave of anti-Semitic statements, reaching the embassy through all channels of communication.”

The area around the embassy in Warsaw has been cordoned off by police since Wednesday to prevent a far-right demonstration. The protest was later cancelled.

“We would like to use this opportunity to repeat that Israel stands with Poland in using the proper term for the death camps – German Nazi camps,” the embassy said in its statement.

Poland is one of the most ethnically and religiously homogenous countries in Europe, but before World War Two Jews made up 10 percent of the population and the country also had large Ukrainian, German, Belarussian and other minorities.

Poland’s ruling party, the socially conservative PiS, has reignited debate on the Holocaust as part of a campaign to fuel patriotism since sweeping into power in 2015.

The party says the bill is needed to protect Poland’s reputation and ensure historians recognise that Poles as well as Jews were victims of the Nazis.

Israeli officials said the legislation criminalises basic historical facts. Critics of the bill have raised concerns it will curb free speech and could potentially be used against Holocaust survivors or historians.

A U.S. congressional task force on combating anti-Semitism and a number of Jewish groups urged Duda to veto the bill.

The International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the office of the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Friday the bill’s imprecision raised “legitimate concerns about restricting freedom in discovering the truth about the Holocaust”.

Duda has not said whether he would sign the bill, but his spokesman told the Polish state radio Trojka: “The president believes that Poland, as any other country, has the right to defend its good name … has the right to defend the truth”.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of PiS and de facto the country’s leader, told the public radio Jedynka on Saturday that Duda should sign the law,

“He should sign it …,” Kaczynski said. “We must talk to our allies in a way that would allow them to understand that we have no intention of renouncing our dignity.”

Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Stephen Powell/Mark Heinrich

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