70 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CALL ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO REVERSE NEW U.S. POLICY REGARDING FYROM
-- 11 U.S. Senators also write to Powell --

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 23 – “Last evening, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell received letters signed by numerous key United States Senators and Members of Congress expressing their extreme displeasure with the recent U.S. decision to now refer to FYROM as the `Republic of Macedonia.’ We are quite pleased with the outcome of this CEH-supported effort, which was initiated on November 4, when this new U.S. policy was announced,” said CEH leaders.

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Seventy Members of Congress, representing all parts of the country and all ideological perspectives, expressed their great concern with the “sudden, unilateral departure from the long-standing US, UN, EU and NATO policy regarding FYROM,” and called on the State Department to “return to the long-standing policy of referring to FYROM as such.” They emphasized that this “counterproductive” action “contradicts the historical facts about Macedonia and unnecessarily injures the culture of our faithful ally, Greece,” and “interferes with the very successful efforts of our long-time ally, Greece, to bring economic prosperity to FYROM and bring peace and stability to the Balkans.”

These influential U.S. policy-makers stressed that, “this is more than an issue of a name for the Greek people. As you may recall, over 50,000 Greek-Americans attended a May 31, 1992 memorial service in Washington, D.C. for the 42,000 Greek citizens who lost their lives when this part of the former Yugoslavia first tried to create a `Macedonia’ nation. When those lives were lost, our Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius, Jr., called `talk of a Macedonian nation…unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic nor political reality” and “a cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece.’”

In conclusion, they strongly urged the administration to, “work hard to assure that no other UN countries break with this UN policy and to strongly support, as Archbishop Demetrios has requested, UN-sponsored efforts to reach a solution on the name that is acceptable to both the people of Greece and FYROM.”

In addition, 11 U.S. Senators signed a letter to Secretary Powell also expressing their deep concern with this new U.S. policy, calling it “ill-advised and ill-timed” and urging the Secretary to “reconsider this decision.”

“We would like to thank those who were the prime sponsors of these letters in the U.S. Congress – Representatives Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), members of the House International Relations Committee, and Representatives Mike Bilirakis (R-FL) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the co-chairs of the Hellenic Caucus; as well as Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Below is a list of the 70 Members of Congress and 11 Senators who signed these letters to Secretary Powell.

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Members of Congress Who Signed 11/22/04 Letter to Secretary Powell Regarding FYROM

1. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
2. Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL)
3. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
4. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
5. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
6. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ)
7. Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA)
8. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY)
9. Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH)
10. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
11. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
12. Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
13. Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA)
14. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA)
15. Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO)
16. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY)
17. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
18. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA)
19. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
20. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)
21. Rep. Phil English (R-PA)
22. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
23. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
24. Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA)
25. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
26. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
27. Rep. Raul Gijalva (D-AZ)
28. Rep. Gene Green (D-TX)
29. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
30. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
31. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)
32. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
33. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
34. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
35. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
36. Rep. James Langevin (D-RI)
37. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
38. Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)
39. Rep. Frank Lobiondo (R-NJ)
40. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
41. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)
42. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA)
43. Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL)
44. Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA)
45. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
46. Rep. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
47. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-MO)
48. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA)
49. Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
50. Rep. Michael McNulty (D-NY)
51. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
52. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
53. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
54. Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ)
55. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ)
56. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
57. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA)
58. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
59. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
60. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA)
61. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT)
62. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)
63. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA)
64. Rep. John Tanner (D-TN)
65. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA)
66. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY)
67. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
68. Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA)
69. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
70. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)

NOTE: Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) sent his own letter to Secretary Powell

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Senators Who Signed 1/22/04 Letter to Secretary Powell Regarding FYROM

1. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
2. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
3. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
4. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
5. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD)
6. Senator Herbert Kohl (D-WI)
7. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
8. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
9. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
10. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
11. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

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