Greece, Macedonia leaders sign renaming deal at lake border

PSARADES, GREECE — The foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia endorsed an agreement to resolve a long fight over the Macedonia name Sunday during a signing ceremony filled with history and symbolism.

The Greek village of Psarades, located on the shores of Great Prespa Lake, was picked for the occasion because the borders of Greece and Macedonia meet in the water.

The two countries’ prime ministers, Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev, were there to see the deal they reached Tuesday get signed by their foreign ministers, Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov, respectively.

Macedonians Zaev and Dimitrov arrived from across the lake on a small speedboat. Their Greek counterparts welcomed them with hugs on a jetty that was enlarged for the event.

Under the agreement, Greece’s northern neighbor will be renamed North Macedonia to address longstanding appropriation concerns in Greece, which has a Macedonia province that was the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Greece in return will suspend the objections that prevented Macedonia from joining NATO and the European Union.

The two countries’ leaders said the signing would be the start of closer relations between them and an example for all nations in the Balkans region.

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

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

Zaev, for his part, hailed an “end to decades of uncertainty.” Greece and Macedonia would henceforth be “partners and allies” in modeling successful diplomacy for the whole region, he said.

“May we stay as united forever as we are on this day,” Zaev said.

Following the signing, the officials took a boat to the Macedonian lake resort of Oteshevo for a lunch.

Police cordoned off all approaches to Psarades to prevent protesters from reaching the site. The agreement has aroused the fury of nationalists on both sides who claim, simultaneously, that it gave too much to the other side.

More than 4,000 Greek nationalists, who oppose another country having the Macedonia name, gathered near Pissoderi, a village 25 miles away. Banners in the crowd read “There is only one Macedonia and it is Greek” and “Macedonian identity can’t be given away.”

Several hundred marched to a nearby police blockade and threw rocks. Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Greek police said 12 people were injured, including six police officers.

ARISTIDIS VAFEIADAKIS / ZUMA PRESS Protesters wave Greek flags in protest of an agreement that renames Greece’s northern neighbor North Macedonia, outside the Greek Parliament in Athens on Saturday. Nationalists on both sides protested in several locations.