ng Greek histor IF DR. Edward McWhinney successfully earns the Liberal nomination (o succeed John Turner in Vancouver Quadra, there is at least one surprising army standing by to assure electoral victory. And Kim Campbell, in neighboring Vancouver Centre, had better keep one cye sharply focused on the Broadway neigh- borhood that straddles both coristituencies. Dr. McWhinney’s credentials in constitutional law surpass those of any other Canadian. The international law professor at Simon Fraser University spent years on United Nations postings in New York and The Hague, and he wrote the definitive legal work on sovereignty as it relates to air- craft skyjacking and piracy. He had spent part of his career asa professor in Thessalonika, Greece. Although he has been frequent- ’ ly quoted on matters of Canadian affairs, McWhinney’s invaluable political ally concerns a strip of " impoverished wasteland in southern Yugoslavia that has ap- ‘propriated for itself the Greek Mame Macedonia. Canada’s 300,000 Grecks are ‘ outraged and insulted, while ill- ,informed newspaper editors and ‘politicians have been quick to embrace hastily concocted history and independence rhetoric by a territory that Josip Tito ‘ audaciously named the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. Tito invented the nationality “Macedonian” for the multi- racial, multi-religious, multi- lingual area of Yugoslavia, to thwart any revolutionary urges by its citizenry. + A quarter of its population were Albanian muslims. The majority are Slavs and Serbs. « The Bulgarian government, allies of Hitler, had annexed both Greek and Yugoslavian Macedonia as its spoils of war, As Germany surrendered domi- nance to Stalin, communist regimes in the Balkans rewrote the map. Tito’s Macedonia was a _ useful buffer between Albania and Bulgaria. A Greek revolution followed the war. It took four years to defeat the communist movement which would have had the inevitable consequences of Stalinist contro! through the entire Balkans, right to Thessalonika and the Aegean Sea. ; No one — including the gov- ernment of Greece — opposes the ‘independence of the Yugoslavian Macedonian state and its capital, the City of Skopje. The name ‘‘Macedonia”’ was _ the first insult. A constitutional pledge that the new country would aspire to unite all Macedonians was a direct pro- ‘vocation to Greece, 2 territorial “For more information, please call i Tho Worth Shore’s only full Service Investment firm DOMINION — SECURITIES 925-3131 _, 201-250 15th Street, West Vancouver < beeae tise OPEN LINES imperative that awakened fears that had been dormant since the 1940s. In a paper he prepared on the topic, Dr. McWhinney referred to these Skopje excesses as ‘‘blatant provocation.’’ He suggested that the worid community should ignore all ef- forts of Skopje Macedonian statehood unless it repudiates any claim to Greek territory and discards ‘gratuitous pretensions to the Alexandrine historical in- heritance.’’ Apostolos (Paul) Fyssas, who owns a janitorial company based in North Vancouver, has become a monumental! nuisance to the edi- tors of The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, other publications and a long list of prominent poli- ticians. As public relations officer for the National Canadian Hellenic Congress in British Columbia, he has been conducting a veritable paper war. Writing to The Financial Post in March, he said: “Greeks all over the globe wonder who is real- ly hiding behind this. “Surrounded as we are by so many ‘friends’ coveting our land, seas and patrimony, we learned to keep an cye on them. This is not paranoia.” In April, when External Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall ap . peared to accept the new Macedonian argument, Fyssus not so subtly reminded her that 300,000 Greek Canadians were watching, and that she seemed to contradict a statement Prime Minister Brian Mulroney ha made to this community. The president of the Hellenic Congress in British Columbia, Nick Panos, wrote to former Globe and Mail publisher Rey Megarry in June: ‘For over four months now, we go through your paper almost daily hoping to read not just a favorable statement about Greek claims concerning Macedonia, but any statement that will be based on what is the accepted, so far, historical truth about this area. We are sorry ta report that we have not found aa yet.” ; When the breakaway Yugoslavia state first announced its claim on the name Macedonia, Giceks were upset. When their expatriate communities around the world made this anger known, their complaint was trivialized. Newspapers and prominent Ca- nadian politicians have called them paranoid. Greece — the cradle of democracy —- is falsely accused of standing in the way of this tiny new republic. At one point, one million peo- ple marched in a demonstration through the streets of Athens; The Canadian government vacillation on this topic has back fired. It was quickly identified that al! of the anti-Greece, pro-Skopje Macedonian rhetoric had been purchased by a wealthy Toronto- nian, John Bitove, who owns among other things the food con- cessions at the Skydome and at Pearson International Airport. Bitove, a native of the Yugoslav territory, has hired a number of luminaries to pursue his cause. The Greek community is well aware that John Bitove was in- strumental! in raising $9 million for Brian Mulroney's 1988 cam- Paign. ‘ Macedonia gives new emphasis lo the question “What's ina name?”" Panos replies, ‘Quite a lot, ac- tually. History. Culture. Ter- ritory.” [have a helpful hint for John Bitove and his Yugoslav Macedonia friends in Ottawa, The World's largest replica of the Parthenon is in a Nashville, Tennessec, park. He should try to buy it and donate it to Skopje. And if they can continue to ac- - quire heirlooms for 2,500 years, they’! have a history of their own, Sunday, January 31, 1993 - North Shore News - 9 Patti Cake Patti Cake How many Pancakes can you eat? . For all of February we're featuring RN our new Buttermille Pancakes $7 99 A stack of five e +. With Saskatoon Berries, Blueberries, $Q49 SQ Bananas or Chocolate Chips. ° Add Side Bacon (5 slices) $4 25 or Side Sausages (4 sausages) ° Served unt! 11 a.m, Saturday till 12 noon located at the “Sundown” end of Park Royal South 922-1123 AN ASKATCHEWA RESTAURANT | ee ee in Sao nore Saye ome mat fs cane ce re seat tao et ty | SAVE RIVERVIEW LAND FOR THE | MENTALLY ILL & SPARE OUR UNIQUE & IRREPLACEABLE TREES Mental Patients nced Riverview. 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