EC Report Cements Macedonian's stance on the name
Sunday, 23 October 2011
The protester pictured to the left comes from Stefan Fule's country, the Czech Republic.
Macedonians all over the world are irked by the European Commission report with many intellectuals blatantly calling the ommission of the term Macedonian as "fascist".
Dozens of Macedonian organizations from home and abroad have sent scathing letters to EC chairman Stefan Fule. Some of them openly suggest to Fule, he is not welcomed in Macedonia.
The latest protest letter is from Struga Poetry Evenings' steering board and management protest over the omission of adjective "Macedonian" in the European Commission progress report on Macedonia, calling it "a brutal and incomprehensible act."
Stressing that SPE - one of the oldest poetry festivals in the world -this year marked its 50th jubilee edition, which saw the participation of 300 poets from five continents, its organisers say that Struga is a synonym for bringing people and poets together as well as traditions and languages.
"Dozens and dozens of world-renowned poets have been translated into Macedonian, thus preserving the dignity of their ideas and messages. Vice versa, poetic vibrations of the Macedonian language are present throughout the world through numerous translated works by Macedonian authors," reads the letter.
"It has been said that language is poet's fatherland. The Macedonian language is our fatherland," SPE's steering board notes.
A protest letter has been also sent to the European Commission by linguists from "Krste Misirkov" Macedonian Language Institute.
"Macedonian language is a reality, fact, an official language in the Republic of Macedonia used by nearly 2 million speakers. It is also used by Macedonians from the diaspora, not only in Europe, but also all over the world. Having no identification - which is the case years back in EC reports on Macedonia - means that in an unidentified state in Europe lives an unidentified nation that speaks in an unidentified language. Does anyone believe that such a thing exists in Europe?!"
In recent days, similar letters protesting the omission of the term "Macedonian" have been sent to the European Commission by rectors and students parliaments of the universities in Skopje, Bitola and Stip, the Writers' Association, trade union organisations and several sport federations including Football, Basketball and Handball.