From: zarros@turing.scs.carleton.ca (Theodoros Sp. Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Fri, 12 Nov 1993 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Sofia, 12/11/1993 (A N A - K. Christodoulou / N. Georgiadis): The break-up of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) would not contribute to peace in the Balkans, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias said yesterday. "I do not believe that a break-up of the entity of the state of Skopje will contribute to peace in the Balkans and for this reason Greece can not accept any change of borders in the Balkan peninsula", he said following talks with the Bulgarian leadership. The Bulgarian Prime Minister agreed with the Greek foreign minister; his spokesman said after talks that Bulgaria would not tolerate the break up of FYROM and the creation of a Greater Albania. The spokesman said that in talks between Mr. Papoulias and Bulgarian Prime Minister Lyuben Berov, Mr. Papoulias said that Athens was in favour of the inviolability of FYROM's borders and that it would not support any separatist trends by Albanians in the republic. Nine ethnic Albanians in FYROM, including Deputy Defence Minister Hisen Haskaj, were arrested earlier this week on alleged charges of conspiracy against the state, with the Skopjan press reporting that the conspirators had smuggled some 300 automatic rifles from Albania for an estimated 20,000 supporters. According to Skopjan television, Haskaj, belongs to a group plotting union with Albania. This organisation is reportedly linked with like-minded Albanian nationalist groups in the neighbouring Serbian province of Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians account for at least a quarter of FYROM's two million people, and 90 per cent of Kosovo's (southern Serbia) two million. Albania itself has three million people. On Monday Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, speaking to the press on the Skopjan issue after meeting with Mr. Papoulias, referred to a possible dissolution of FYROM due to a trend by Albanian-speaking minorities to want to break away. Mr. Milosevic said the Albanian-speaking people of the republic wanted the republic to change its constitutional structure and become a two-people's republic, namely of "Macedonians" and "Albanians". In Athens, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said Greece was closely following developments in FYROM and its "firm aim" was the preservation of peace, stability and safety in the greater southern Balkan region. "The Greek government is watching developments in Skopje with great concern and its firm aim is to maintain peace, stability and security in the greater southern Balkan region", Mr. Venizelos said. Meanwhile, Albanian Defence Minister Safet Zhulali rejected charges by FYROM media and opposition leaders that Tirana had channelled arms to ethnic Albanian separatists. "The Albanian government has not been involved in any illegal arms traffic to 'Macedonia' ", Mr. Zhulali said in a televised statement in the Albanian capital, Tirana, late on Wednesday. "Such accusations aim at destabilising relations between Skopje and Tirana and are part of an anti-Albanian strategy aimed at isolating Albania", he added. In further statements after his talks, Mr. Berov referred to Turkey's statement that it would intervene in the event of war spreading to southern Yugoslavia. "Such an eventuality could also lead to the military involvement of other Balkan countries with incalculable consequences", Mr. Berov said. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Svetoslav Daskalov said Sofia's good relations with Greece would not be affected by any dispute between Greece and FYROM, adding that the controversial issue of FYROM's name should be resolved with dialogue. Mr. Papoulias termed contacts and the exchange of views with Bulgaria President Zhelyu Zhelev, Prime Minister Lyuben Berov and his counterpart Svetoslav Daskalov in Sofia "very fruitful", expressing the conviction there was positive ground for the further development of relations between Bulgaria and Greece. The two sides agreed to a meeting of a joint economic committee in early December and meetings and exchanges of views at regular intervals between the foreign ministers of the two countries while the two countries' justice ministers will also hold contacts to handle related issues. It was agreed to further develop co-operation in the commercial and political sectors and continue co-operation at a military level. The two foreign ministers agreed that current agreements should be reconsidered, supplemented and modernised to facilitate and speed up progress in relations between the two countries. The issue of the waters of the Nestos and Strimonas rivers was discussed but no decision was taken. The two governments will pressure the European Community for a joint handling of compensation for countries harmed by negative repercussions emanating from the embargo on former Yugoslavia. An exchange of views followed on the Balkans and on Mr. Papoulias' contacts in republics of the former Yugoslavia. Programmes of mutual interest were discussed as was Greece's intention, as EC president in the first half of 1994, of promoting wider co-operation between Community and Balkan countries. The rejection of the transitional commercial agreement between Bulgaria and the Community by the EC's Foreign Ministers Council was examined and Mr. Papoulias said the issue will be supported by the Greek presidency, expressing the conviction that it will be resolved positively. The two delegations discussed co-operation with Black Sea Economic Pact countries and Greece proposed that the organisation's bank be established in Thessaloniki, to which Bulgaria agreed in principle. Mr. Papoulias said that technical obstacles to his visit to Sarajevo had been overcome and that he would arrive in the city tomorrow. He will visit Bucharest today, Sarajevo tomorrow and then Tirana, concluding his tour of Balkan capitals. Mr. Papoulias also met Patriarch Maximos late in the afternoon. An inter-Balkan conference will be held when the situation in the region is normalised, Mr. Papoulias said, adding that when it takes place in the framework of tackling international issues, the Cyprus issue will also be discussed since it is an international problem. Asked by Journalists why he did not include Ankara in his tour, Mr. Papoulias said he intended to meet his Turkish counterpart Hikmet Cetin at the NATO conference due to take place shortly. Athens, 12/11/1993 (ANA): Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou will be received by President Constantine Karamanlis on Monday. Athens, 12/11/1993 (ANA): Alternate Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos yesterday acknowledged that all EC countries with the exception of Luxembourg were faced with a common problem in implementing the goals of the Maastricht treaty, in statements shortly after his return from Rome, the last stop on a tour that included the Netherlands and France for talks on the assumption of the EC rotating presidency by Greece in January. Mr. Pangalos was commenting on statements by EC Commissioner Henning Christophersen that Europe's economy continued to cause concern and that forecasts were far from encouraging. It will be necessary to reconsider all time schedules, but not the aims of the convergence plan itself, he added. In Rome, Mr. Pangalos had a 90-minute meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Beniamino Andreatta on the EC presidency, bilateral issues, Cyprus, the crisis in former Yugoslavia and the situation in Albania. He said views coincided on EC institutional and development problems, adding it was agreed there should be close co-operation between the two countries. Italy raised no objections to the Community's expansion, he said, adding that it sought establishment of a "think-tank" that would deliberate on institutional issues -something Greece would easily agree to. Mr. Pangalos said there was a common approach to the crisis in former Yugoslavia, within the framework of basic aims set by the Community to provide humanitarian aid and establish a dialogue to reach a settlement. "There are certain positions on which we (the EC) are working, stemming from previous work by (mediators) Stoltenberg and Lord Owen", he added. "It is not our aim to favour any particular party. We seek to help all parties to overcome the clash and reach a state of initial stability in relations among them", Mr. Pangalos explained. There was a prevailing view, however, that if there were some sort of territorial settlement, the Moslem side might alter its attitude, he stressed. Cyprus was also discussed in light of a Community decision to appoint an observer to the UN-sponsored talks. Mr. Andreatta said the Italian government felt the Community should address the issue in a manner conducive to a favourable outcome. Political interest would continue and talks with Cyprus and Malta should begin, when EC expansion reached a stage of fulfilment, Mr. Pangalos said. Italy also adopted a positive attitude on the admission of Skopje to the CSCE, as this would lead to an improvement in the state of the ethnic Albanian minority there. Mr. Pangalos also raised the issue of the ethnic Greek minority in Albania, including the problem caused by the massive immigration of Albanians -- over 250,000 -- to Greece. Mr. Andreatta also assured Mr. Pangalos that Italy nurtured no designs of exercising a patronising role of any kind over Albania, as such concepts were "obsolete". it was agreed that the freedom and welfare of Albania suited both Italy and Greece, and both countries would co-operate to that end. Athens, 12/11/1993 (ANA): Economic indicators for Greece presented by European Commission Vice-President Henning Christophersen were "basically correct" and his observations were "strong criticism" of the previous government's policy, the government said yesterday. Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said that the figures had been known since last June and that Mr. Christophersen's criticism should have been expressed "in good time" before general elections on October 10. Mr. Christophersen asked Greece to submit a new economic convergence programme at a press conference in Brussels Wednesday where he outlined the Commission's forecasts for the European economy in 1994 and 1995. He said that a new programme would be in the best interests of the Community in the face of "the worse than expected" situation of the Greek economy. Mr. Christophersen added that all member-states would submit new convergence programmes. Mr. Venizelos said that the aim of the government was convergence and that "real figures" must be taken into account, since the convergence programme submitted by the previous conservative government was based on "fictitious or prettified" indicators. National Economy Minister George Yennimatas said yesterday he agreed with Mr. Christophersen's grim assessment but added that he thought the situation was even worse. "We are struggling night and day to cover public deficits, which have become a daily nightmare for me", Mr. Yennimatas said, stressing the government's promises to the people would be fulfilled. He said economic policy would aim at promoting development, safeguarding the buying power of salaries and wages by "freezing" indirect taxation and maintaining public utility concern bills at steady levels, and expanding the tax base without affecting the working classes. Mr. Yennimatas said he disagreed with EC estimates that development and deficits aims would not be achieved, stressing such forecasts were pessimistic. Deficits would be brought under control, he added. He agreed, however, that EC estimates colluded with the government's aim to reduce the rate of inflation to single digits by end December 1994. Athens, 12/11/1993 (ANA): Culture Minister Melina Mercouri yesterday accepted an invitation to visit Moscow next January for talks on cultural exchange. The invitation from Ms Mercouri's Russian counterpart, Yevgeni Sidorov, was conveyed yesterday by Moscow's ambassador in Athens, Valery Nikolayenko during a meeting on the exhibition of Byzantine icons to open at the National Gallery on November 18. Also discussed at the meeting was a bilateral agreement providing for cultural agreement providing for cultural exchanges to be signed by Greece and Russia. Ms. Mercouri restated a Greek request for an exhibition of the treasure of King Priamos of Troy at the Ilion Mansion in Athens. She pointed out that during a visit here in June, Russian President Boris Yeltsin had pledged that Moscow would lend the treasure to Greece for exhibition. The treasure was discovered last century at Hissarlik in Turkey by renowned German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann who once resided at the Ilion Mansion. Ms. Mercouri also received Colombian Ambassador to Athens Mario Kalderan who handed her an invitation by Colombian Foreign Minister Noemi Savin de Rubio to visit his country. Ms Mercouri and Mr. Kalderan discussed cultural relations between Athens and Colombia. An exhibition titles "Athens, 5000 years of History", organised by the Athens Municipality, will be exhibited at the Bogota national Museum. The culture minister also received Archbishop Damianos of Sina and accepted an invitation to visit the Monastery of Saint Katerini in the Egyptian Sinai desert.