“Mr Pavlopoulos you are unwanted; if you visit Melbourne, we the Greek diaspora officials will not welcome you.”

This is the clear message the Pan Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria (PMAMV) will send to the President of the Greek Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos in a co-signed letter of complaint.

It has not yet been confirmed, but Mr Pavlopoulos is expected to visit Australia in October.

The letter of complaint will be one element of the action plan that was decided on Thursday during the flash meeting that took place at the PMAMV’s headquarters regarding the Greece-FYROM deal signed by the two countries last week. According to the agreement, Greece’s neighbouring country will be officially recognized as ‘Republic of Northern Macedonia’.

Attended by 120 community officials and Melbourne Greek diaspora stakeholders, there was a lot of tension among members arguing about the Greek government’s decisions in spite of them all agreeing in their condemnation of the name deal.

Several participants expressed their anger, making vile statements against the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras and the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition, dubbing the government a “dictatorship”.

Some were so infuriated, they suggested the diaspora unite with Greek nationals in positions of power who are opposed to the deal and attempt to overturn the government.

Fortunately, the most reasonable amongst the displeased prevailed, deciding to send out several complaint letters to Mr Pavlopoulos and all the Greek government MPs supporting the Greece-FYROM agreement.

As mentioned in the official announcement by the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association (WHIA), the complaint-letters written with “strong language”, will include a demand for a referendum, for the people of Greece to decide on the future of the deal.

Christos Moutzikis, chair of the PMAMV told Neos Kosmos before the meeting that “if the Greek people vote in favour of the deal, the diaspora will have no other choice but to accept it”.

Meanwhile, none of the religious leaders from the Greek community in Australia who were instrumental in the ‘Macedonia is Greece’ Melbourne rally back in February attended Thursday’s meeting.

Source: neoskosmos