Greece settles row with Macedonia over disputed name
THE PRIME minister of Greece says his country has reached an agreement with the country’s northern neighbour to end a 27year dispute over Macedonia’s name that has kept the former Yugoslav republic out of Nato.
Alexis Tsipras said a deal had been reached that would give Macedonia a different name that would be used domestically and internationally.
He did not immediately reveal what the newly agreed name will be.
Since Macedonia’s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece has argued that the young country’s name implied a claim to the territory and ancient heritage of Greece’s northern region of Macedonia – birthplace of ancient warrior king Alexander the Great.
But administrations in Macedonia’s capital Skopje have resisted demands to change or modify the name.
The dispute poisoned relations between the two neighbours, and the United Nations appointed a special envoy to mediate.
Resolving the dispute would see Greece lift its objections to Macedonia’s accession to Nato and the European Union.
In Skopje, the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, said Macedonian prime minister Zoran Zaev had informed party leader Hristijan Mickoski that he had “achieved a solution with Greece”.
Mr Tsipras’s comments came shortly after a much-anticipated phone call with Mr Zaev.
“A short while ago we reached an agreement with the prime minister of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia on the disagreement our two countries have,” Mr Tsipras told President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
“We have a good agreement that covers all the preconditions the Greek side had set,” he said, adding that Macedonia would revise its constitution for the name change and that the deal “secures the historic heritage of ancient Greek Macedonia”.
Greece plans to ratify the deal in parliament after Macedonia has made the necessary changes to its constitution, Mr Tsipras said.