One Country's Treasure is America's ... Embassy?
One Country's Treasure is America's ... Embassy?
dzadzev One Country's Treasure is America's ... Embassy? By Kerri Houston August 26, 2004 A foreign country comes to America and decides to build its embassy on Bunker Hill. A letter is sent by the Bunker Hill Historical Society to the nation's embassy, requesting that it not impose bulldozers on our national treasure, and the embassy replies ...nothing. Would we stand for it? Of course not. But that is what the U.S. government is doing in Skopje, the capital city of the Balkan nation of Macedonia - building a new embassy on a historical, treasured, and yet to be explored archeological site that is the cultural and spiritual heart of the city. First settled during the Bronze Age, the Gradiste-"Kale" (an Ottoman word for fortress) has been a symbol of the capital city of Skopje and the Macedonian people for thousands of years. It has both historical and religious significance. Its picture is on their money. It is believed that a sixth-century city called Justiniana Prima created by Byzantine Tsar Justinian of Skopje is buried under it, as well as churches and monasteries, including the revered site where the Pope crowned Tsar Samuel in the 15th Century. Gradiste-Kale was the military and administrative center of the first pan-state of the Macedonians, and the site of many battles. A letter sent to the U.S. State Department by a coalition of ten Macedonian organizations trying to save the Gradiste-Kale from the American diplomatic invasion states that building a foreign embassy on this site is "trampling on a national treasure." The Macedonian Orthodox Church is also opposed. The anger over the purchase on this historical area by our Ambassador to Macedonia, Lawrence Butler, has been widespread and furious throughout the country. Out of the public eye and with assistance of only a few in the Macedonian government, Ambassador Butler signed a contract with Ministry of Transportation for nine acres at a cost of 2.5 million dollars. This is generally referred to in Macedonia as the "indecent proposal." One published analysis referred to the contract as "a thing that brings disgrace to the current authority in Macedonia, and of course, to the Ambassador Mr. Butler himself, as a representative of the US in Macedonia." There are also serious political overtones at work within the country's government that make this sale even more suspect, and its ramifications potentially dangerous. These implications seem to have been ignored by our embassy in its quest to raise its flag upon the highest point in Skopje. Macedonia is comprised of a majority of ethnic Macedonians and a 25% minority of ethnic Albanians. The duality is not always peaceful, and some in the Albanian population wish to remove themselves politically and geographically from the Macedonian map. Animosity between the two escalated into violence in 2001 when Macedonians were attacked by the Albanian National Liberation Army ("NLA") led by Ali Ahmeti. Mr. Ahmeti is currently the President of "DUI," the ethnic-Albanian party for Democratic Integration. DUI came to power as a political party in 2002 after the signing of a peace agreement, and then entered into a coalition government with the socialist party comprised of many former communists. This August, on the third anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement which ended this violence, Fazli Veliu, a DUI Member of Parliament publicly stated, "NLA's vision has begun with Kosovo and will end with the Albanians' unification in the future Greater Albania, which includes Macedonia, Albania and eastern Kosovo." The Minister for Transport and Communications, Agron Buxhaku - the government official who sealed the Gradiste-Kale deal - is a member of DUI. This ethnic Albanian is effectively selling an ethnically Macedonian historical site to another country. Macedonia has been a great friend to the United States. Under the leadership of its late President Boris Trajkovski who was tragically killed in a plane crash last February, Macedonia was one of the first countries to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and pledge troops to Iraq. A coalition of Macedonian-American organizations in America is now lobbying Congress to stop the construction before the final August 30th contract date. Their action alert points out that the sale of this land is illegal under the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, based on the General Urban Plan adopted by Parliament in 2001; thus rendering the USG a lawbreaker in the eyes of many Macedonians. They also hold that the sale contravenes American's own 1906 Antiquities Act. Last spring, our embassy initiated a pre-construction exploration to determine if the land was archaeologically important. The excavation was only six feet deep and one month long, but it found Muslim gravesites - 203 in all, a stretch of aqueduct, and a Iron Age jug. Our Ambassador, however, determined that these finds were not significant enough to halt construction. This lack of sensitivity by an Ambassador who is already ridiculed in comic strips and comedy routines in the country hardly endears our people to theirs. Once again, we are the ugly Americans. Still recovering from the economic brutalities of communism, Macedonia does not yet have the financial strength to excavate this treasured area. Gradiste-Kale's depths promise answers to mysteries of history that Macedonians long to discover. The Macedonian coalition opposing the embassy's construction on Gradiste-Kale states, "Turkish overlords specifically chose this hilltop overlooking Skopje to be perceived as looking down on their conquered subjects. While the (U.S.) embassy is not directly on the (fortress), it is still on the hill looking down over the city." Americans have a long tradition of respect for all cultural treasures, and this an opportunity for us to put that respect into action. Gradiste has survived attacks by Romans, Bulgars and Turks - and two major earthquakes fifteen hundred years apart. We must ensure that it survives us. ------------ Kerri Houston is Vice President of Policy for Frontiers of Freedom, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans and restoring constitutional limits on the extent and power of government. -------------------- Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. Превземено од [url="http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/khouston/2004/kh_0826.shtml"]GOPUSA[/url]