North Macedonia bridges Balkan schism with ‘selfie democracy’
GREECE’S prime minister paid a historic visit to the newly renamed North Macedonia yesterday, cementing a name-change deal that normalised relations between the neighbours after three decades, but provoked anger among nationalists on both sides.
In what was labelled “selfie diplomacy”, Zoran Zaev, the prime minister of the Balkan nation, took a photograph of himself with his arm around Alexis Tsipras, his Greek counterpart, outside the main government building in Skopje, the capital.
Mr Zaev hailed the visit – the first by a Greek prime minister to the Balkan state since it became independent from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 – as an “historic milestone”.
He described Mr Tsipras as “a close personal friend” and, befitting of diplomacy in the age of social media, posted their selfie on his Instagram and Twitter accounts
“We showed Europe and the world that with bold decisions, anything is possible,” Mr Zaev said in reference to the name-change accord.
In a referendum last year that was marked by low turnout, North Macedonians voted to change the name of their country to assuage Greek concerns that the name “Macedonia” implied claims on the heritage and even territory of a northern Greek region of the same name.
Many Greeks were angry at what they saw as the appropriation of ancient historical figures such as Alexander the Great.
In exchange, Athens agreed to drop its long-standing opposition to its neighbour joining Nato and applying for membership of the EU.
“We want to build a strong bond of trust and stability. When I used to take a plane to Europe, the pilot would avoid the airspace of what was the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Now we will no longer have this nonsense.”
He was accompanied by more than 100 Greek business leaders who together signed deals worth millions of euros and pledged new investment in the country of just two million people that is squeezed between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania.
The two prime ministers signed agreements to ease trade barriers and establish embassies in each other’s capitals.
The accords strengthen a détente that has resolved one of the Balkans’ many disputes at a time when the West fears that schisms along ethnic and nationalist lines can be exploited by a resurgent Russia, which bitterly resents Nato expansion.