PM hails ‘historic’ deal with Greece to resolve name row

ATHENS: Macedonia and Greece on Tuesday resolved a nearly three-decade row by agreeing to call it the Republic of North Macedonia, as Skopje hailed a “historic solution” to a dispute which had blocked its bid to join the EU and NATO.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the two sides agreed to the rename the former Yugoslav republic after months of intensive diplomacy.

“There is an agreement. We have a historic solution after two and a half decades. Our agreement includes Republic of North Macedonia for overall use,” Mr Zaev told reporters in the capital Skopje.

Greece has long objected to its northern neighbour being called Macedonia because it has its own northern province of the same name.

In televised comments, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared the deal “a great diplomatic victory and a great historic opportunity” for the region to have “friendship, cooperation and co-development”.

Macedonia hopes that resolving the name dispute will help clear the way for it to join the European Union and Nato.

But the deal still needs to be approved by the Macedonian parliament and pass a referendum there, as well as ratification in the Greek parliament.

Mr Tsipras insisted the Macedonian government needed to get parliamentary approval otherwise “Nato’s invitation is cancelled and negotiations with the EU will not move”.

European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted his support for the agreement: “Thanks to you the impossible is becoming possible.”

“I am keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.

Greek officials earlier said the list of

potential names included “New Macedonia” and “Upper Macedonia”, but after months of discussions “North Macedonia” was chosen.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias had prepared a 20-page draft agreement after repeated talks with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov.

Mr Tsipras said that the agreement would specify that Macedonia’s language is of Slavic origin.

Both governments have faced criticism ahead of the compromise and on Tuesday Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov signalled his concern. “There is a need for a wider national consensus to find a solution that won’t hurt the dignity of the Macedonian people and citizens,” said Mr Ivanov.

He is close to the nationalist VMRODPMNE party which was defeated by Mr Zaev in elections last year.

The party’s leader Hristijan Mickoski said he would not support changes to the “constitutional name” of Macedonia. “The government signed a capitulation because of his [the prime minister’s] incompetence to lead the negotiations and he accepted every request made by Greece,” said Mr Mickoski.

This year there have been several protests against an agreement in Skopje, as well as in Athens.

In Greece, Mr Tsipras’ conservative rival Kyriakos Mitsotakis also denounced the deal. “The acceptance of the Macedonian language and nationality is an unacceptable national retreat,” he said.

Ancient Macedonia was the cradle of Alexander the Great’s empire. But under the Romans, the province of Macedonia was expanded to include territory in modern-day Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania.