Greece and Macedonia are not only at loggerheads over the official name for the former Yugoslav republic: recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece - a particularly sensitive matter - has recently added further complications to the already complicated relationship between the two neighbouring states. Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has now sent letters to NATO, OSCE, G8 and UN Security Council members asking them to put pressure on Athens to recognize the existence of Macedonians living in Greece.

The Macedonian Prime Minister's current strategy began in July when he called for his Greek counterpart, Kostas Karamanlis, to concede Macedonians living in Greece "basic rights", including schooling in Macedonian and the possibility to use Macedonian in areas where the minority is especially concentrated. Gruevski did not have to wait for a reply: Karamanlis answered claiming that there is no Macedonian minority in Greece. While Athens does officially recognize that some people in northern Greece speak a "Slavic dialect", Greece denies that this language is the same as that spoken in the neighbouring Republic of Macedonia.

Gruevski claims Greece is violating international laws
With a direct plea to Karamanlis failing to yield results, the South European Times reports that Gruevski has decided to set his sights even higher and address the abovementioned organizations. Gruevski believes that, with its constant denials, Athens is violating international laws and treaties protecting ethnic and linguistic minorities. On 2 August, the national day of Macedonia, the Prime Minister said he would not stop calling for the rights of Macedonians in Greece to be respected until those rights are fully recognized, the MIC news agency explained.

Skopje also claims that there is a Macedonian minority living in neighbouring Bulgaria. The Bulgarian authorities disagree, arguing that the alleged presence of Macedonians in the Pirin region of southwestern Bulgaria amounts to a Macedonian manoeuvre to increase Macedonian influence in the area. The idea that Macedonian is not a genuine language but simply a western Bulgarian dialect is fairly commonplace in Bulgaria.

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