Α massive, even by memorandum-era standards, rally was held in central Athens early Sunday afternoon to demand a hard-line stance by the Greek government in resurgent UN-mediated negotiations over the fYRoM “name issue”, namely, no compromise solution that includes the term “Macedonia” in a neighboring country’s name.
Greek police put the number of participants at the rally at 140,000, while organizers referred to a crowd exceeding one million. On Sunday, 283 coaches passed through toll ways leading to the greater Athens area.
“I am making a plea to all (Parliament) deputies, who have the right to request a referendum (over whatever proposal that ostensibly emerges), to convene a relevant debate in Parliament and to mobilize over this national issue,” renowned composer and leftist icon Mikis Theodorakis told the assembled crowd, whom he greeted as the “sovereign people” as the lead-off speaker.
“… We cannot agree with this falsification of history. We’d then be accomplices with those forces that openly target our territorial integrity…” he told a crowd waving numerous Greek flags and other symbols associated with Classical antiquity and Byzantine-era ecclesiastical standards.
The septuagenarian Theodorakis also condemned what he called an effort a day earlier – paint thrown at his home and a derogatory slogan scrawled on its exterior – to prevent him from speaking. “I am not ashamed, as the national nihilists who govern us are, to remain faithful to the sacred shadow of our ancestors, who taught us to love our homeland and nation.”
The other top speakers after Theodorakis were noted constitutional law expert Giorgos Kasimatis and the Metropolitan (bishop) of Syros island Dorotheos, who represented the influential Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece at the rally, and essentially reversed a previous decision by the Church’s hierarchy to abstain from rallies over the “name issue”.
In an almost immediate reaction, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias – Athens’ “point man” in the resuscitated “name issue” negotiations – took to Twitter to issue a particularly prickly statement that points to main opposition New Democracy (ND) party as the driving force behind the rally
“Today, the opinion polls of vested interests were refuted; ND was exposed to all, as well as those (protesters) that did not heed the Ecumenical Patriarch’s address … Millions of Greek patriots made their choice. I, therefore, continue, with a clean conscience and responsibility, to negotiate for the good of the country,” was his Tweet.
In echoing Kotzias, an official statement by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ office said the government’s “compass is the patriotic best interest (of the country), moderation, consensus and a perseverance on clear positions, with the target being cooperation, understanding and mutual development … any other stance will only lead to national defeats.”
In returning to a more partisan level, however, the same statement said ND’s expectations of “millions of protesters” were shattered.
While ostensibly held over the fYRoM “name issue”, Sunday’s rally – as well as a previous one in Thessaloniki – has served as a distinct focal point to express popular disapproval of Tsipras’ leftist-rightist coalition government, which is lagging behind center-right ND by double-digit percentage points in most mainstream opinion polls.
Finally, former Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, in an interview published on Sunday in the weekly “RealNews”, said any agreement achieved at present will only refer to the “name dimension” of the thorny and emotive issue, and not deal with what she called the “primary issue of irredentism … in other words, only the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) will change, while sending the important remainder (of issues) to the back-burner.
“… we’ll (Greek side) be paying in cash, and Skopje (fYRoM) on credit. At the same time, we’ll have lost a lever of pressure, namely, the acquis of the (2008) Bucharest (NATO summit).”
