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Omogeneias's News |
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| Undersecretary Burns Receives Strong Message Regarding Macedonian Issue |
 Washigton April 15, 2005--President George Bush�s top person on the Macedonian issue, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, met on April 12 with Hellenic leaders bearing thousands of signatures of American citizens expressing their concerns on this issue. These leaders explained to the former U.S. Ambassador to Greece that this currently active issue is dire and much more than just that of a name. These leaders were headed by Andrew A. Athens, Chairman of the Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH) in America and World President of the World Council of Hellenes (SAE), and also included: Father Alexander Karloutsos from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Andy Manatos, President of CEH; and Panos Spiliakos, Treasurer of the Pan-Macedonia Association, USA.
This meeting with Undersecretary Burns followed a relatively recent meeting on this issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at which Athens, Karloutsos and Manatos accompanied His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, whose family is from the area in Greece that was the historic Macedonia. In this meeting Manatos mentioned to Secretary Rice an analogy for this issue that was particularly meaningful to her given her background from the Southeast U.S. He noted that just as with the confederate flag issue for Americans, which caused horrendous suffering in the past and if handled wrong now, could encourage extremists and bring more suffering today, so is the Macedonian issue for Greeks.
These leaders highlighted that American Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. called the �Macedonian issue� �a cloak for aggressive actions against Greece� when 42,000 Greeks were killed by the people wanting again today to claim the name �Macedonia.� In recent years extremists from that area have again planned violence against the Greek people.
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