The Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS) has sent a letter to the Australian Government calling for action against a website and logo of the “Macedonian Communities Council of Australia” as it breaches the Prespa Agreement.
The work of AIMS involves research into Macedonian Hellenic history, institutions, and culture. They had a significant role in assisting various parties within the Hellenic (Greek and Cypriot) diaspora and Greek Government to resolve the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which resulted in the Prespa Agreement of 2018.
Under the Prespa Agreement, FYROM has been recognised internationally under the designation of the “Republic of North Macedonia.” This agreement now constitutes an International Treaty ratified by the United Nations, NATO and the European Union and was approved and fully endorsed by the Parliaments of the Hellenic Republic, as well as the Republic of North Macedonia. Moreover, this bi-lateral and International Treaty is also endorsed by the Australian Commonwealth Government.
The designation “North Macedonia” now constitutes the official nomenclature in the Constitution of their country, clarifying also that North Macedonia has no historical, territorial, or cultural connection with Greek Macedonia, Hellas and its history and culture. The Prespa Agreement applies “Erga Omnes,” which means all governments and their agencies, including that of North Macedonia, and other entities internationally have an obligation to abide by this agreement.
In their letter to the Federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles MP, the AIMS states that the logo used by the “Macedonian Communities Council of Australia” on its website, “aggressively illustrates irredentist and imperialistic ambitions” as it includes a map of a Greater Macedonia.
“The “Logo Map” unlawfully transects the international borders of Greece and stands as a revisionist provocation, vilifying all those Australian citizens of Greek background,” the letter reads.
The Institute also declared that the Logo Map “represents a breach of the Prespa Agreement as it erases any distinction between the country of North Macedonia and the northern province of Greece, Macedonia.”
“We are therefore lodging an official complaint, requesting the Commonwealth Government to take the necessary action needed to compel the website owners and its collective entity to completely remove or at least, modify the content of their illegitimate and provocative “Logo Map” in order that it complies with the Prespa Treaty,” the AIMS letter reads.
“We believe that these kinds of irredentist allusions should be constrained in Australia, in the interest of creating harmony among all ethnic communities. Nationalistic revisionist attitudes in this country should be legally hampered by the Commonwealth Government, availing ethnic unrest, radicalism, and fundamentalism.”
The President of AIMS, Professor Anastasios Tamis has signed the letter alongside the Institute’s head of information technology, George Lioukas.
The Institute is now undertaking a systematic campaign to oversee the compliance to the rules and clauses of the Prespa International Treaty by the Macedoslavs and the people of North Macedonia.
This comes as the Institute elevates its call for the appropriate use of the Prespa Agreement.
