By Andy Manatos
Special for NEO magazine

Efforts to expose America’s diplomatic mistreatment of Greece on the “Macedonian issue” were recently helped by one of Washington’s most effective techniques to change American policy – a commentary in a major Washington, D.C. publication – the Washington Times.

In this article, the bipartisan team of Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) exposed the damaging shortcomings of American policy, described previously unconsidered consequences, and offered a new path to solving the name dispute.

The Senators explained the complex “Macedonian issue” through a simple international principle with which few disagree: A country cannot choose a name for itself that describes neighboring territory that its people want to annex. Menendez and Snowe described how FYROM has demonstrated a desire to annex the territory of ancient “Macedonia”, the majority of which is in northern Greece, and they exposed FYROM’s unwillingness to accept names that describe only territory within their borders such as Upper Macedonia and Northern Macedonia.

The piece also exposed our State Department’s attempt to cover up the net effect of America recognizing FYROM as “Macedonia” -- encouragement of FYROM’s intransigence on the name issue and irredentism (efforts to acquire neighboring territory). Each time the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives makes reference to this country as FYROM instead of Macedonia, it demonstrates the Legislative Branch’s disagreement with this policy.

For the first time, this article opened the possibility of the U.S. withdrawing its recognition of FYROM as “Macedonia”. Prior to this article no one in the U.S. government, the UN or any others involved realized that this is a possibility that could have a profound effect on solving the problem.

The article also planted in the mind of FYROM’s inexperienced 32-year-old Foreign Minister that the new U.S. Administration is unlikely to continue the current policy towards FYROM. Menendez and Snowe are each personally very close with their respective party’s presidential candidates, Senators Barak Obama and John McCain, and their opinions will be heavily taken into consideration.

In writing an article on this subject, Menendez and Snowe went way out of their way for this issue, selecting this issue from among the literally hundreds of issues clamoring for their attention. The average Senator receives 15,000 written communications each week. Such advocacy was a bold move given the risk of negative reactions from the State Department and the “foreign policy establishment.”

Only time will tell if Menendez and Snowe’s article is enough to immediately alter such ingrained U.S. policy. However, there is no doubt that they exposed to thousands of people in the Washington, D.C.’s establishment and potentially millions of people around the county wayward American policies. As well, the State Department officials handling the FYROM issue and the key officials in FYROM will learn about compelling arguments as to why from their perspective the issue should be settled soon. There is no question but that their efforts will positively change the debate.

Little-Known but Crucial Information about – the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Few realize that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew:

(1) is the 269th direct successor of the Apostle Andrew whose brother the Apostle Peter has as his 271st direct successor Pope Benedict XVI;

(2) was selected Time Magazine’s 11th most influential person among the 100 most influential people in the world;

(3) is the spiritual head of the second largest Christian church in the world and the largest headquartered in the Muslim world; and

(4) will be the last or next-to-last Ecumenical Patriarch located in St. Andrew’s Sacred Sea and unchallenged head of world Orthodox Christians for nearly 2,000 years unless Turkey stops requiring that Ecumenical Patriarchs must be Turkish citizens, a disappearing group, and returns the 95% of its property that has been taken.

Little-Known but Crucial Information about – Cyprus

Few realize that the most recent U.S. plan (the Annan Plan) to settle Cyprus’ would have required:

A – Apartheid – Greek-Cypriots would be prohibited from buying property or voting in one third of their country;

B – Bolshevism – Like the Bolsheviks who took over Russia in 1917, the Turks that militarily took over the northern third of Cyprus could keep, as sort of a gift, the tens-of-thousands of homes, hotels and other businesses they took;

C – Colonialism – Foreign citizens will permanently serve on the Cyprus Supreme Court and foreign (Turkish) troops will be constitutionally authorized to remain in the country;

D – Discrimination – Only Turkish-Cypriots could run for president in one out of every three Presidential elections.

Andy Manatos is Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Former U.S. Senate Committee Associate Staff Director, President, Manatos & Manatos, President, National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH), Regional Commander, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Member of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Church of America.