Trouble Brewing in Slav Macedonia

Thank you for publishing Tad Szulc’s perceptive and unbiased column on the Balkan entanglement (“The President’s Next Crisis: The Coming Third Balkan War,” Opinion, Nov. 1). The problems in Kosovo concern Macedonia, Albania and Serbia. The Greeks at least would like to stay out of the fray and all that they ask of neighboring Skopje is to stop acting as if it has rights to Greek territory and, thereby, to give up the usurpation of the name “Macedonia.” Skopje’s stubbornness and jingoism, however, are aided and encouraged by the Turks, who, as Szulc points out, are “busy establishing their sway” in the region and in the former republics of the former Soviet Union.

While Germany has stopped military aid to Turkey, because it uses NATO arms to slaughter its own people, the Kurds, the United States continues military assistance--tanks and planes and ammunition that will be used by Turks, Albanians and Skopjeans in what Szulc calls “the coming third Balkan War.”

MINAS SAVVAS

San Diego