From: than...@athena.mit.edu (Thanos Tsekouras) Subject: Greek news for June 3, 1993 Date: 4 Jun 1993 04:25:17 GMT To: New York From: Genikh Grammateia Typou 6-3-93 8:31am To: Boston From: Greek Press Info Office 212-752-2056 Bulletin 03/06/1993 Moscow, 3/6/1993 (Reuter) Russian President Boris Yeltsin will probably pay an official visit to Greece towards the end of this month as long as the domestic scene at home remains calm, Interfax news agency said yesterday. It quoted sources close to the president as saying an agreement on bilateral relations would be signed during the visit. Yeltsin has called a meeting of a special assembly to prepare the draft of a new constitution to help end Russia's political crisis. He has made clear he wants the meeting, which starts Saturday, to be over before the end of the month. Brussels, 3/6/1993 (ANA - P. Pantelis / K. Verros) Five of the 12 European Community leaders decided yesterday to push for a extraodinary EC summit to be held as soon as the troubled Maastricht treaty had been ratified by all the Community states. Speaking during a recess at the European People's Party (EPP) meeting in Brussels yesterday, Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis said the proposal put forward by Chancellor Helmut Kohl was unanimously accepted by all present, which included, apart from himself and Mr. Kohl, the leaders of Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium. He said the special summit would attempt to put the ailing process of European integration back on track and discuss the next stage of implementation of the Maastricht treaty. Ratification of the treaty and preparations for the next EC summit in Copenhagen dominated discussions at the meeting, Mr. Mitsotakis said and he added that confidence had been expressed that the treaty would be fully ratified by September. He also referred to the presentation of the Belgian EC presidency's programme, whose priorities include the implementation of the Maastricht treaty, the handling of the next phase of economic and monetary union (EMU) that begins next year, Europe's course in the face of the huge crises of recession and unemployment it is now facing and the Community's expansion. Mr. Mitsotakis stressed that all sides agreed on the need to apply the rules and criteria of unification. "All European countries must make their own efforts so that the total economy of Europe can overcome the great difficulties... it is going through now", he said. With regard to Community expansion, Mr. Mitsotakis reported that all countries had agreed to press ahead with the admission of the four countries under discussion at present and to keep to the time schedule. This will be followed by the next phase, he said, which includes the Cyprus application. ---The meeting also discussed the situation in former Yugoslavia and Bosnia and, as an announcement said later, instisted on the implementation of the Vance - Owen peace plan and the finding of a political solution to the problem. After setting out Greece's positions against military intervention, Mr. Mitsotakis successfully insisted on the deletion of a phrase saying that NATO is ready to participate in combat operations. He said afterwards: "No such issue is (being) posed. What should happen basically is the finding of a political solution which will support the Vance - Owen plan". He explained that the Washington accord did not ignore the Vance-Owen plan which is not perfect but constitutes a good starting point". Brussels, 3/6/1993 (ANA - V. Zissis) Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis yesterday said that he considered it possible that the Security Council would assume a new initiative over the next few days to achieve rapprochement of views between Greece and Skopje. Following the rejection of the Vance - Owen proposals, Mr. Mitsotakis said "the torch has now been passed to the Security Council which can accept the Boutros Ghali proposal or make a fresh effort". "What I consider most probable is that it will make a fresh effort for views to come even closer, he said, explaining that the new effort will be undertaken mainly by the US, Russia, France, Britain, Spain and the Security council Chairman. Speaking to reporters during his flight to Brussels yesterday to attend the European People's Party summit, Mr. Mitsotakis strongly criticised press reports that Greece is "directly negotiating" with Skopje and that "there ia an agreement between Mitsotakis and (Skopjan President Kiro) Gkligkorof". Athens 3/6/1993 (ANA) Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev will visit Athens on June 14 and 15, foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Papaconstantinou said yesterday. Mr. Kozyrev will also be in Athens on June 11 to take part in a meeting of the NATO Cooperation committee which groups Alliance and central and east european delegates. Apart from the meeting at the conference, Mr. Kozyrev and Foreign Minister Michalis Papaconstantinou will confer separately, the spokesman added. Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) The chief of the British Army General Staff, Sir Peter Egan, will pay a three-day visit to Greece beginning June 6 at the invitation of his Greek counterpart Lieutenant-General Efstratios Kapravelos. During his stay here, the British army chief will hold talks with the political and military leadership of the national defence ministry and visit a number of army units and archaeological sites. Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) Greece supports the ratification of the START II agreement restricting strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, National Defence General Staff spokesman Lieutenant Colonel L. Dermetzoglou said yesterday. The spokesman was responding to reports that Albania was to take delivery of nuclear material. Anapa, (Russia), (ANA - C. Christodoulou) Greece will support the Russian government's efforts to develop its economy, Foreign Undersecretary Virginia Tsouderou said yesterday during her talks at the international conference on "Southern Russia: developmental prospects in the reion: possibilites for cooperation with Black Sea and Mediterranean countries". The two-day conference is aking place in what was once the Greek town Gorgippi, now Anapa, in Krasnodar. Delegations from the countries of the former Soviet Union, Cyprus, Italy, France, Egypt, Malta, turkey and others are attending. Ms. Tsouderou is heading the Greek delegation, made up of representatives from gevernment departments, research centres, businesses, banks and local authorities. In its capacity as an EC country and especially during its term as EC president, Greece will push for economic and technical help for Russia and establish substantive cooperation between the countries of the former USSR and the European Community, Ms. Tsouderou said. Apart from its general interest in helping Russia, Greece also wants to help the thousands of Greeks in the area stay in the land they were born in, she said. In collaboration with the authorities in Krasnodar, the Greek government is already working on an aid plan to provide shelter and employment to Krasnodar who have fled local unrest in surrounding areas. This plan is be discussed with Russian President Boris yeltsin, who is expected to visit Athens in the near future. During her two-day stay in Krasnodar, Ms. Tsouderou will also visit areas in which ethnic Greeks live to discuss the problems they are facing. During her first visit with presidents of Greek associations on Tuesday, local inhabitants pointed out the need for more personnel to staff the Greek school in the area. This problem with initially be addressed by sending two Greek teachers. Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) National Defense Minister Ioannis Varvitsiotis will visit Hungary and Austria during a trip which will begin today and end June 8. Mr. Varvitsiotis will have talks in both countries on matters of bilateral interest. In Hungary, Mr. Varvitsiotis will attend the "NATO workshop", due to take place on June 4, and give a speech on "A Greek assessment of the dangers stemming from the end of bipolarism". Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) President Constantine Karamanlis yesterday received Parliament President Athanassios Tsaldaris, who briefed him on parliament's work for the summer recess. The president also received the rector of the Thessaloniki University Antonis Trakatelis and the president of the International Rotary Club, clifford Rochtermann, who was accompanied by members of the presidium of the Greek branch of Rotary. Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) The Greek army contingent to the UN peace-keeping forces enforcing the armstice on the border of Kuwait and Iraq will be ready to leave in three months time. The contigent will comprise of volunteer officers, non-commissioned officers and will not exceed 400. Athens, 3/6/1993 (ANA) UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali's report on the Skopje issue, submitted to the Security Council on May 28, was released in New York yesterday, confirming press reports that mediators Lord David Owen and Cyrus Vance have proposed the name "Nova Makedonija" for Skopje. Greece has rejected the draft report, but says there exists a degree of agreement on the confidence-building measures. The report refers to a treaty drafted by Vance and Owen confirming existing national borders and establishing measures for confidence-building, freindship and neighbourly relations between Athens and Skopje. The draft refers to the "principle of inviolability of frontiers and territorial integrity of States which are incorporated in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) signed in Helsinki". It bears in mind UN Charter provisions referring to the "obligation of States to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state" and is also guided by the Helsinki Final Act, the Charter of paris for a new Europe and other pertinent acts of the CSCE. It expresses a desire to confirm existing frontiers as enduring international borders and "recalls the obligation not to intervene, on any pretext or in any form in the internal affairs of the other". The chapter on the confidence-building measures, states, in Article 1, that "the Republic of Greece shall formally recognise the Republic of Nova Makedonija and the Parties promptly establish relations at the ambassadorial level" on ratification of the agreement. The confidence-building measures are, in part as follows: "Article 2: The Parties hereby confirm their common existing frontier as an enduring and inviolable international border. "Article 3: Each party and undertakes to respect the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and political independence of the other Party. "Article 4: The Parties shall refrain, in accordance with the purpose and principle of the Charter of the United Nations, from the threat of use of force designed to violate their existing frontier, and they agree that neither of them will assert or support claims to any part of the territory of the other Party or lcaims for a change of their existing frontier. "Article 5: The Republic of Nova Makedonija hereby agrees to use that name for all official purposes. "Article 6: 1. The Republic of Nova Makedonija hereby solemnly declares that nothing in its constitution, and in particular in the preamble thereto or in article 3, can be interpreted as constituting or will ever constitute the basis of any claim by the Republic of Nova Makedonija to any territory not within its existing frontiers. "2. The Republic of Nova Makedonija hereby solemnly declares that nothing in its Constitution, and in particular in article 49, can be interpreted as constituting or will ever constitute the basis of any claim by the Republic of Makedonija specifically to protect the status and rights of any persons in other states who are not its citizens. "3. The Republic of Nova Makedonija furthermore solemnly declares that article 5, regarding the use of that name, and the interpretation given in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 6 of this international Agreement will not be superseded by any other interpretation of its Constitution. "Article 7: 1. Each Party shall promptly take effective measures to prohibit hostile activities or propaganda by State-controlled agencies and to discourage acts by private entities that are likely to incite violence, hatred or hostility against each other, and especially activities of an irrendentist nature against the other Party. "2. Each party undertakes not to use symbols, names flags, monuments or emblems that constitute part of the historic or cultural patrimony of the other Partyl in this regard, the Republic of Nova Makedonija agrees,as a confidence-building measure, not to use the Vergina Sun in any way. Furthermore, each Party shall respect the official geographic names and toponyms in the other country. "3. If either Party brings to the attention of the other any alleged violation of paragraph 1 or 2, the latter shall promptly take the necessary corrective action or indicate why it does not consider that it need do so". [Copied by Thanos Tsekouras] [p.s. I've tried to keep the spelling and the syntax of the original even when I thought that there were obvious mistakes, leaving it to the reader to decide how the text should read.]