VZCZCXRO4115
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBW RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSQ #0301/01 1231433
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021433Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY SKOPJE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7306
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 0293
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUESEN/SKOPJE BETA
RUEHSQ/USDAO SKOPJE MK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2261
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SKOPJE 000301 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV NATO EAIR MK GR
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: CHARTER FLIGHT BARRED FROM GREEK 
AIRSPACE; OTHER BILATERAL IRRITANTS 
 
REF: ATHENS 596 
 
SUMMARY 
 
¶1. (SBU) On April 28, an Egypt-bound Macedonian Airlines 
(MAT) charter flight was denied overflight rights for Greece 
without any explanation.  This first-ever denial of 
overflight rights, coupled with other irritants such as the 
lack of a Greek government reply to Macedonia's request to 
purchase a building for its consulate in Thessaloniki and the 
alleged harassment of Turkish exporters to Macedonia by Greek 
border officials, has further poisoned the atmosphere between 
the two neighbors (reftel).  Some observers in Macedonia 
believe these developments suggest a de facto trade embargo 
by Greece, and have called for reciprocal measures.  Others, 
who believe that an escalation will only hurt Macedonia, are 
calling for a calm response and are looking for ways to 
adjust to Greek actions.  End summary. 
 
EGYPT-BOUND MACEDONIAN CHARTER PREVENTED FORM ENTERING GREEK 
AIRSPACE... 
 
¶2. (SBU) On April 29, Macedonian media reported that late on 
April 28, a Macedonian Airlines (MAT) charter flight with 86 
tourists and four flight crew bound for Egypt had been 
prevented from flying over Greek airspace.  On April 30, 
MAT's Commercial Director Nicolas Kuemmerle (a Swiss 
national) confirmed the media reports.  He said that, minutes 
after takeoff on April 28, the MAT pilot asked for clearance 
for a 15-minute overflight over Greece, which was immediately 
denied by a Greek air controller without any explanation. 
Since the pilot had followed the usual overflight procedure, 
he again asked for permission, and received the same negative 
answer.  Following that, the pilot made a 180-degree turn and 
returned to a "holding area" in Macedonian airspace.  In the 
meantime, MAT received clearance for the plane to overfly 
Bulgaria and Turkey, which allowed the flight to continue to 
its destination in Egypt. 
 
FIRST-EVER DENIAL OF OVERFLIGHT RIGHTS 
 
¶3. (SBU) Kuemmerle added that the Macedonian media had 
confused the situation by conflating Greece's long-standing 
denial of MAT's repeated requests for air charter landing 
rights in Greece, and the first-ever denial of overflight 
clearance for a MAT plane.  He clarified that, despite 
Macedonia's willingness to grant air charter landing rights 
to Greek airlines and Greece's obligations under the European 
Common Aviation Area (ECAA) agreement, Athens consistently 
has refused to grant the same rights for Macedonian flights. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Regarding overflight rights, MAT had never had 
problems overflying Greek territory until last Monday, 
according to Kuemmerle.  He said that the April 28 
Egypt-bound flight had followed the usual procedure of 
applying in advance for a regular flight plan that included 
overflight permissions for all transit countries.  The whole 
procedure was completed through Eurocontrol in Brussels, just 
as had been the case for the last three years when MAT 
operated an average of 40 charter flights per summer to Egypt 
and Tunisia that required Greek overflight permission. 
According to Kuemmerle, MAT understood, and carried out in 
practice, the requirement that, while in Greek airspace and 
taking into account Greek sensitivities on the name issue, 
its flights use the call sign "MAK," rather than MAT's 
official international call sign, "Macedonia." 
 
¶5. (SBU) Zaneta Stanoevska, a senior official in the 
Macedonian Directorate for Civil Aviation (DCA), told us 
April 30 that, as a rule, the DCA was not involved in the 
process of applying for overflight permission.  She stressed, 
however, that Chapter II, Art. 5 of the Chicago Convention on 
International Civil Aviation obliges every signatory country 
to approve requests for overflight or landing for non-travel 
purposes (i.e. for refueling, security-related issues, etc.). 
 Since both Macedonia and Greece are signatories to the 
Convention, Stanoevska asserted that Chapter II of the 
Convention allowed Greece to deny permission to the MAT 
flight only "in a state of emergency or war," and only if 
that denial was applicable to all other states.  Neither 
condition was true at the time Greece denied the MAT 
 
SKOPJE 00000301  002 OF 002 
 
 
overflight request, Stanoevska said, so Macedonia "would have 
the right to file a complaint against Greece" at the 
International Court of Justice. 
 
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK? 
 
¶6. (SBU) Both Stanoevska and Kuemmerle said that some 70 
Greek commercial flights receive overflight clearance for 
Macedonia daily.  While Stanoevska suggested that Macedonia 
could impose reciprocal bans on Greek carriers, Kuemmerle 
said that "nothing could be gained from such an escalation," 
noting that a Macedonian ban would result in a daily loss of 
overflight fees amounting to as much as 35,000 euros. 
Kuemmerle said that, regarding MAT's plans for its remaining 
40 summer charters to Egypt and Tunisia, the company had 
decided against trying to fly over Greece for the meantime. 
Instead, the planes would keep flying through Turkish and 
Bulgarian airspace, which would result in fuel-cost losses 
for the company of up to 6,000 euros per flight.  Resigned to 
the fact, Kuemmerle conceded that the added expense would 
simply mean price hikes for MAT's Macedonian clients. 
 
...AND OTHER IRRITANTS 
 
¶7. (SBU) In an April 30 meeting with P/E Chief, MFA State 
Secretary Ilievski reported that the GOM is becoming 
 
SIPDIS 
increasingly frustrated over the lack of a Greek government 
reply to Skopje's November 2007 request to purchase a 
building in Thessaloniki to house the Macedonian consulate. 
Ilievski said similar purchases in Austria, Hungary and the 
Czech Republic had been approved by the host governments in 
one month or less, but that the GOM had tried repeatedly over 
the past six months, without success, to get Athens to reply 
to its request to purchase the building.  As a result, the 
GOM planned to raise with the Greek Ambassador in Skopje the 
fact that the paperwork for the current Hellenic Liaison 
Office premises (occupied since 1976) was incomplete.  The 
GOM would demand, on the basis of reciprocity, that Athens 
approve the GOM's request to purchase the consulate building 
in Thessaloniki, in exchange for which the Macedonian MFA 
would approve and finalize the paperwork for the Greek 
premises in Skopje. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ilievski also complained that Greek border 
authorities are forcing Turkish exporters sending goods here 
to alter customs documents showing "Macedonia" as the country 
of destination for the exports.  The Greek officials directed 
the Turkish exporters to cross out "Macedonia" and write-in 
"Skopje" as the country of destination, which Ilievski 
claimed was a violation of international customs practices. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶9. (SBU) Added to the bilateral irritants noted in reftel, 
these recent developments will make it more difficult for 
Skopje to demonstrate the additional flexibility it will need 
to reach a solution to the name dispute with Greece anytime 
soon.  Macedonians, fed by local media reports (including one 
recent unconfirmed report that Athens is now prohibiting 
Western Union wire transfers between Greece and Macedonia), 
increasingly see Greek moves as constituting an undeclared de 
facto trade embargo.  That is likely to reduce the GOM's room 
for maneuver in the name talks, especially given the election 
campaign dynamics here as the country prepares for 
parliamentary elections on June 1.  End comment. 
NAVRATIL