Greece, Macedonia sign deal over name

LEADERS HAIL POSITIVE STEP

GREECE and Macedonia have signed a deal that, if ratified, will resolve a decades-old dispute concerning Macedonia’s name.

Under the agreement, Greece’s northern neighbour will be renamed North Macedonia, a move the two countries’ leaders said would be the beginning of closer, friendly relations and an example to all Balkan nations.

The deal will also allow Macedonia to try to join Nato and the European Union. The two countries’ prime ministers, Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev, attended the signing of the deal on Sunday by the two countries’ foreign ministers, Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov.

Also at the ceremony were UN under-secretary for political affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN mediator for the name dispute, Matthew Nimetz, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn.

The village of Psarades, on the shores of Greater Prespa Lake, was chosen as a symbolic site since it is near where the borders of the two countries, as well as Albania, meet.

Zaev and Dimitrov arrived by speedboat and were greeted by Tsipras and Kotzias.

“This is our own appointment with history,” Tsipras said, adding that the Balkan people have long suffered from ‘the poison of chauvinism and the divisions of nationalist hatred.’