Greece and Macedonia sign deal to end decades-long name dispute

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 yesterday by the two countries’ foreign ministers, Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov.

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.

“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”.

Recalling his first meeting with Zaev earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tsipras told Zaev that “very few believed we would succeed” in ending what he called “26 years of sterile dispute between our countries”.

Zaev, on his part, hailed an “end to decades of uncertainty” and said Greece and Macedonia would henceforth be “partners and allies” setting an example for the whole Balkan region.

“We are proud of today’s agreement, may we stay as united forever as we are on this day,” Zaev said.

Police had cordoned off all approaches to Psarades to prevent protesters from reaching the site, so more than 4,000 Greek nationalists gathered near Pisoderi, a village 25 miles away.

Macedonian nationalists who also object to the agreement held a rally in the city of Bitola, near the Greek border.