[council] Your complaint regarding references to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

Dear Mr. Lopes,
 
I am responding on behalf of ICANN to your message of 25 November 2000,
a copy of which appears below.

In your message, you raise two complaints:

   1.  You complain that ICANN has "allow[ed the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia] to use the code 'MK' as its Internet domain."  In
this regard, the country-code top-level domain ".mk" has been
established by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and
delegated with an official of Ministry of Foreign Relations of the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia listed as administrative contact. 
The IANA is not in the business of determining what is and what is not a
country.  Instead, in establishing country-code top-level domains the
IANA refers to the alpha-2 codes on the ISO 3166-1 list. 
<http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/codlstp1/en_listp1.html> 
The .mk code appears on that list as a code for "MACEDONIA, THE FORMER
YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF", and the .mk country-code top-level domain was
created on that basis.

   2.  You complain that ICANN "uses the adjective 'Macedonian' to refer
to" the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.  The ICANN web site's
search engine <http://www.icann.org/search.htm> shows that the word
"Macedonian" is used in three places on the www.icann.org and
members.icann.org web sites.  In one case, the word is used to indicate
that a candidate for the ICANN Board was "President of the Executive
Board of the Macedonian Academic and Research Network (MARNet)"; in
another that candidate's statement uses the word for the same purpose. 
In the third instance, the word is used in an application for a
top-level domain submitted by a third party (IATA) to refer to
Macedonian Airlines ME, one of its members.  ICANN seeks to avoid
censoring candidate statements and top-level domain applications in the
manner you suggest.

Best regards,

Louis Touton
Vice-President


------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           "Roberto Lopes" <roblopes@uol.com.br>
To:             aaus@mpaa.org, cchicoine@dkwlaw.com, comments@icann.org,
       Dennis.Jennings@ucd.ie, erica.roberts@melbourneit.com.au,
       gcarey@carey.cl, h.hotta@hco.ntt.co.jp, harris@cabase.org.ar,
       icann@icann.org, ip-webmaster@dnso.org, jmcgivern@ascap.com,
       kathrynKL@aol.com, kstubbs@corenic.org, mkatoh@wdc.fujitsu.com,
       Paul.Kane@reacto.com, philip.sheppard@aim.be, ppoblete@nic.cl,
       quaynor@ghana.com, questions@icann.org, rcochetti@netsol.com,
       sastre@anwalt.de, secretariat@dnso.org, Susan.Anthony@wcom.com,
       Theresa.Swinehart@wcom.com, webmaster@icann.org,
yjpark@nic.or.kr,
       zakaria@univ-nkc.mr
Date sent:      Sat, 25 Nov 2000 15:24:22 -0400
Subject:        URGENT: Serious errors of the ICANN.
Send reply to:  Roberto Lopes <roblopes@uol.com.br>
Priority:       urgent

URGENT: Serious errors of the ICANN.

Dear sirs at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers,

Your organization is undoubtedly very useful but I must call your
attention to VERY serious errors of yours, which I hope will be
corrected.

ICANN refers to FYROM (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
as "Macedonia" and uses the adjective "Macedonian" to refer to
FYROM*. Those are VERY serious errors, which can lead to grave
consequences in the future, such as increasing the chances of a war.

Most of all, your organization has been used to strengthen ABSURD
lies by allowing FYROM* to use the code "MK" as its Internet
domain. Obviously, "MK" implies that the name of the country is
"Macedonia", which is both WRONG and MISLEADING.

Regardless of its future consequences, those errors represent an
indirect support to a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, that is, an attempt
to falsify History. Of course, that's INADMISSIBLE for any serious
organizations or individuals, as I believe you are.

No respectful international organization, such as the organizations
of the European Union and the United Nations, recognize the use of
the name "Macedonia" by FYROM* and there should be no doubt that
no respectful organization or individual can recognize or encourage
the use by FYROM* of the adjective "Macedonian", which is as
WRONG and MISLEADING as calling that country as "Macedonia".

Basically, FYROM* has the same historical relation with Macedonia
as a person who has a meteorite from Mars has with that planet,
that is, NONE. Efforts to associate FYROM* to Macedonia are
CRIMINAL ones, implemented by corrupt governments.

If you let yourselves be misled and let the ICANN become an
instrument of dissemination of LIES, maybe you will someday find
your organization letting the following domain codes be used:

PEL: for a Peloponnesian "nation" or a Peloponnesian "language".
THE: for a Thessalian "nation" or Thessalian "language".
EPI: for an Epirot "nation" or an Epirot "language".

Note: Peloponnese, Thessaly and Epirus are regions of Greece.

Or, if you let ICANN be used to spread OTHER kinds of LIES, you
might someday approve the following codes too:

WHO: for "What Holocaust?!" for Web sites of people trying to deny
the crimes of the nazis against millions of persons of several nations.

TCY: for the so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", the
37% of Cyprus illegally occupied by 35.000 and 100.000 Turkish
settlers since the brutal invasion of 1974, despite the resolutions of
the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights.

WTP: for "White Power" for Web sites of people who spread the idea
that white people is somehow superior to all others.

Approving those imaginary domain codes would be as MISLEADING
and OUTRAGEOUS as letting FYROM* use the "MK" code, as your
organization ALREADY does.

As you must know, the name "Macedonia" is NOT, and could not be,
recognized by the United Nations. I will include here the words of
the United Nations about FYROM*:

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- (8 Apr. 1993)

--The General Assembly decided on 8 April 1993 to admit to United
Nations membership the State being provisionally referred to for all
purposes within the United Nations as "The former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia" pending settlement of the difference that
had arisen over its name.

Source: http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html

The actual name of the country will still be defined and, if justice
prevails over the commercial and geopolitical interests of certain
governments, the name "Macedonia" will not be used.

The improper use of the name Macedonia is just one of the SEVERAL
criminal actions taken by the government of FYROM* that aim the
theft of the History and territories of Greece and thus obtain an exit
to the Aegean Sea. Those actions started in the government of
Yugoslavia, in the 1940's, and are taken now by FYROM*.

Another of the CRIMINAL actions taken by FYROM* was the attempt
to use the flag of Macedonia, which includes the Star of Vergina, an
ancient Macedonian symbol. Of course, that's the flag of the Hellenic
province of Macedonia. Unlike the misuse of the name "Macedonia",
that action was already neutralized by Greece, years ago.

Any support to the efforts to associate FYROM* to Macedonia, which
have the support of part of the press of the USA and some European
countries, is a VERY serious error, whether intentional or not.

It's simple; a "Macedonian nation", a "Macedonian language" and a
"Macedonian ethnos" do NOT exist and NEVER existed. FYROM* has
NO historical, linguistic or cultural relation with Macedonia.

The fact that a small part (19%) of the ancient territory of
Macedonia was taken from Greece and ended up with Serbia and now
FYROM*, does not mean that country has a connection with the
Macedonians, just like someone who has a meteorite from Mars is
not able to claim they have a historical connection to that planet.

Note: Greece has 70%, FYROM* has 19% and Bulgaria has 11% of
the ancient territory of Macedonia.