poiuytrewq0987
03-26-2011, 10:02 AM
In its opening arguments on Thursday, Athens rejected Skopje's claims that it broke the 1995 bilateral UN accord by blocking Macedonia from joining NATO in 2008, the source of the suit.
The 1995 UN-brokered Interim Accord, which regulates relations between the two states, obliges Athens not to block the accession of its neighbour to international organisations.
Greece’s lawyers insisted that this was not the case and that despite Greece’s objections to the country’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, the decision not to invite the country was reached by NATO as a whole.
Macedonia, which presented its arguments on Monday and Tuesday, said that by its conduct Greece “ deliberately and unequivocally violated that obligation”, citing examples of how Athens publicly opposed and lobbied against Skopje joining NATO.
The Greek side on Thursday also argued that the International Court of Justice could not rule on the validity of a NATO decision.
Presenting the joint communiqué after the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest as evidence, the head of the Greek team, Maria Telalian, suggested that “the court has no jurisdiction” over decisions reached by NATO.
Lawyers for Greece told the Court that Macedonia had violated the UN accord in the first place by waging an irredentist policy and stealing Greek national symbols and heroes.
Macedonia’s renaming of its main airport in Skopje after the ancient warrior king Alexander the Great, as well as the naming of its main highway after his father Philip of Macedon “are not in the spirit of good neighbourly relations” the Greek side argued.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/greece-presents-counter-arguments-before-world-court-to-be-updated-later
The 1995 UN-brokered Interim Accord, which regulates relations between the two states, obliges Athens not to block the accession of its neighbour to international organisations.
Greece’s lawyers insisted that this was not the case and that despite Greece’s objections to the country’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, the decision not to invite the country was reached by NATO as a whole.
Macedonia, which presented its arguments on Monday and Tuesday, said that by its conduct Greece “ deliberately and unequivocally violated that obligation”, citing examples of how Athens publicly opposed and lobbied against Skopje joining NATO.
The Greek side on Thursday also argued that the International Court of Justice could not rule on the validity of a NATO decision.
Presenting the joint communiqué after the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest as evidence, the head of the Greek team, Maria Telalian, suggested that “the court has no jurisdiction” over decisions reached by NATO.
Lawyers for Greece told the Court that Macedonia had violated the UN accord in the first place by waging an irredentist policy and stealing Greek national symbols and heroes.
Macedonia’s renaming of its main airport in Skopje after the ancient warrior king Alexander the Great, as well as the naming of its main highway after his father Philip of Macedon “are not in the spirit of good neighbourly relations” the Greek side argued.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/greece-presents-counter-arguments-before-world-court-to-be-updated-later