North Macedonia notifies the world about its new name

SKOPJE, North Macedonia – The foreign ministry of newly renamed North Macedonia says it has formally informed the United Nations, U.N. member states and international bodies that its new name has come into effect under a historic deal to end a long dispute with neighboring Greece.

The ministry said in a press release late Thursday it submitted relevant notes to "the United Nation's Protocol, member and observer states, and to all international, multilateral and regional organizations."

The country was officially renamed North Macedonia on Tuesday, and as a first move to reflect the change, authorities have replaced road signs on the border with Greece.

The move is a precursor to a series of steps that the renamed country will take as part of the agreement, including changing airport signs, web pages and printed materials.

Three decades on, Greece, Macedonia sign pact to change ex-Yugoslav republic's name

PRESPES, Greece/ BITOLA, Macedonia (Reuters) - Greece and Macedonia defied protests and set aside three decades of dispute on Sunday as they agreed on a new name for the Balkan state, potentially paving the way for Macedonia’s admission to the European Union and NATO.

The foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia signed an accord to rename the former Yugoslav republic the “Republic of North Macedonia,” despite a storm of protest over a deal seen as a national sellout by some on both sides.

In the idyllic setting of Prespes, a lake region that borders Greece, Macedonia and Albania, officials from the two countries embraced, shook hands and penned a deal in the presence of European and United Nations officials.

The agreement still requires the approval of both parliaments and a referendum in Macedonia. That approval is far from assured, as it faces stiff opposition from the Greek public, and Macedonia’s president has vowed to block the deal.

“We have a historic responsibility that this deal is not held in abeyance, and I am confident that we will manage it,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said as he and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev received a standing ovation from guests at the lakeside ceremony.

Tsipras survived a no-confidence vote mounted by Greece’s opposition in parliament on Saturday, but the depth of public emotion against the deal is strong.

In the Macedonian city of Bitola not far from the Greek border, protesters wrapped in national flags chanted “This is Macedonia” and began to march across the city.

“This shameful deal will not pass, we will defend Macedonia’s name and pride,” said Petre Filipovski, 40, dressed in the trademark red T-shirt of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.

In the Greek village of Pisoderi, protesters carried a giant Greek flag and one group clashed with riot police on a mountain slope as they tried to break the cordon. Others chanted the Greek national anthem.

Up to 70 percent of Greeks object to the compromise, an opinion poll by the Proto Thema newspaper showed on Saturday. In Psarades, the tiny lakeside community where the deal was signed, the village church bell tolled in mourning, draped in a Greek flag. ContinueReading

Macedonia's president said he will not accept his country's name change

- Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said Wednesday he would not support an agreement reached between his country's prime minister and Greece to change the Balkan country's name.

Just hours after the deal was announced, Ivanov told reporters at a televised news conference that "such a harmful agreement, which is unique in the history of mankind, is shameful and unacceptable for me."

Prime ministers of the two countries had agreed earlier this week to refer to Macedonia as the Republic of Northern Macedonia, or Severna Makedonija in the Macedonian language, which would effectively end a 27-year feud between the two nations. The name change is an effort to prevent territorial claims to Greece's northern region of Macedonia.

However, Ivanov remained firm on his position, saying that the agreement gave too many concessions to Greece.

"My position is final and I will not yield to any pressure, blackmail or threats. I will not support or sign such a damaging agreement," he said.

The president is backed by the nationalist opposition group VMRO-DPMNE, whose leader Hristijan Mickoski said the party will "oppose this deal of capitulation with all democratic and legal means."

The capital of Skopje adopted the name of Macedonia in 1991 following its independence from former Yugoslavia, and Greece vetoed the country's bid to join NATO and the European Union over the name dispute. Ending the feud would open up the possibility for Macedonia to become a member of Europe, a goal Macedonia has held since it applied for full membership in 2004.

Macedonian PM says Greece agrees to discuss proposed name

abcnews- Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Saturday (May 19) he is ready to go ahead with a new name for his country in order to solve a centuries-long name dispute with Greece and pave the way for full integration of the small Balkan country into the European Union and NATO.

But Greek political leaders briefed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected the Macedonian proposal outright and the Greek government itself, in a response to Zaev's remarks, was evasive about the particular name proposal.

Zaev said that "Republic of Ilindenska Macedonia" is the compromise name acceptable to both sides. The adjective "Ilindenska," meaning, literally, "the day of the prophet Elijah" refers to a 1903 uprising against Turkish occupiers.

"With this possible solution, we preserve the dignity, we confirm and strengthen our Macedonian identity," Zaev said, but added that final say on the new name will be put to a referendum.

Zaev reiterated that Macedonia has no territorial claims to its southern neighbour and confirmed the inviolability of the borders. "Macedonia is ready to confirm this in all necessary ways," Zaev said.

Macedonia was a part of the former Yugoslavia and declared independence in 1991. Greece claims the country's name implies territorial designs on its northern province of Macedonia.

He also said that with the new name proposal "we make a complete distinction with the Macedonia region in Greece".

In Athens, premier Tsipras briefed Greece's president and opposition leaders. All the opposition leaders said the name "Ilinden Macedonia" was unacceptable because, as Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas said, it is "neither a geographical nor a temporal" designation, as agreed in nearly two decades of talks mediated by the United Nations. Some opposition leaders called the proposal a provocation on Macedonia's part.

A statement released by the Greek government reflected its ambivalence about the name.

"We welcome the acceptance by (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) that a solution to the nomenclature cannot exist without the adoption of ... a name for all uses," the statement said, meaning that Macedonians could not simply call their country "Macedonia" domestically, while having another name for international use.

"However, we encourage our neighbours to continue working together to find a commonly accepted name with a geographical or temporal designation, just as the package of proposals tabled by the U.N Special Envoy, Matthew Nimetz, also provides," the Greek statement added.

Zaev did not have an easy time with his country's opposition leaders, either.

The leader of the main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party Hristijan Mickoski said after meeting with Zaev that his party is against the name change. He reiterated that his party will not support a change of the constitution and of Macedonia's constitutional name "Republic of Macedonia".

Zaev has urged Macedonians to support the proposed name.

That was quick: Macedonia's main opposition party rejects proposal for new country name

Skopje-Macedonia says it needs prospect of joining EU to thwart authoritarianism

theguardian.com - Efforts to promote liberal politics in the Balkans will be set back if Macedonia is not offered a firm prospect of Nato and EU membership next year, the leaders of the country’s fledgling government have warned.

Radmila Šekerinska, Macedonia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, told the Guardian: “The next year is crucial. We need to show that there are developments – people do not expect everything to be solved tomorrow – but they expect progress because we have been stuck for 10 years. What happens will create either inspiration or frustration right across the Balkans.”

She said the six-month-old government, one of the few social-democratic success stories in Europe, wants to find a way to end the 26-year dispute with Greece over the name the Republic of Macedonia is given in international forums. Since it became independent in 1991, the country has been referred to internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

In one of the more obscure but emotive European disputes, Greece has been blocking Macedonia’s push for Nato membership since 2008, claiming that by using the name Macedonia, Skopje has been hijacking Greek history and culture, pointing to the erection of a statue of Alexander the Great in 2011 and naming Skopje airport after the ancient Greek warrior.

Greece also fears that Macedonia, with a population of 2 million people, has irredentist territorial ambitions over the Greek province of the same name.

“No one in Macedonia has territorial pretensions, literally no one. It is laughable,” Šekerinska said. “The only time when we might occupy Greece is when we pour to the Greek beaches as tourists.”

The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is presenting a new face of the country to Europe after taking power in June following a prolonged impasse, a violent invasion of parliament by extreme nationalists and revelations in 2015 of mass wiretapping by the secret police to defend corrupt business interests.

The government has set about making judicial changes, ensuring fairer funding of the media, placing democratic controls on the secret police and trying to encourage ethnic Albanians into the SDSM. It has also ended years of stony relations with Bulgaria by signing a friendship treaty and started to cool ethnic tensions by changing language laws to allow greater use of Albanian.

In local elections in October, despite a personal campaign appearance by the rightwing Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, the conservatives were crushed as voters punished the old regime. After ruling Macedonia for 10 years, the VMRO-DPMNE won five out of 81 municipalities. (ontinueReading

Related: EU accession remains Macedonia's top priority for 2018: FM

Report: ‘New Macedonia’ the Name Proposed by FYROM, Athens to Agree

Vardar Macedonia’s Dreams Unrealised 25 Years After Independence

"Vardar Macedonia"

(BalkanInsight) - Twenty-five years after becoming independent from Socialist Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991, Macedonia still has external problems with its neighbour Greece and internal problems with democracy which are blocking its ultimate goals of Euro-Altantic integration.

“These goals were set by all political parties after the country gained its independence in 1991, but they didn’t succeed,” Mirjana Malevska, a professor at South East European University, told BIRN.

“The democratisation process in the country is tightly linked with the integration processes and is the main condition to enter the Euro-Atlantic family,” she said.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status back in 2005. At that point, the country was a regional leader among ex-Yugoslav states in the race to join the European club. In 2009, it was given the recommendation to start the accession negations.

But now the recommendation is at risk. Due to institutional failings in reforms and the ongoing political crisis that has gripped the country, the European Commission said in autumn last year that it would issue another recommendation after Macedonia’s next elections - but only if the polls are judged free and fair and if the country carries out the necessary reforms.

But the unsolved ‘name’ dispute with Greece is another stumbling block in the Euro-Atlantic integration of the country. NATO’s door will also not open to Skopje until two neighbours find a mutual solution for the problem - and Greece is still strongly opposed to Macedonia calling itself Macedonia.

Malveska says that there have been some democratisation efforts but the ongoing political crisis had a negative impact.

“The political crisis emerged after the massive illegal wiretapping by government services. It is massive violation of human rights and freedoms. If the [current] investigations [by the special prosecution into wrongdoing allegedly revealed by the tapes] prove the allegations of corruption true, that would be a jolt for the democratic process in the country”, she said.

The crisis escalated in February 2015, when the opposition Socual Democrats started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes, which it said showed that the VMRO DPMNE-led government was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. The oppostion said the tapes proved many that government members were involved in various crimes.