The torrent of political fallout in Macedonia after president Branko Crvenkovski fired Nikola Dimitrov, Skopje's negotiator in the "name dispute" with Greece, continued with Crvenkovski sending an open letter to the media responding to attacks by the head of the office of prime minister Nikola Gruevski.

Skopje and Athens are locked in a long-standing dispute over the use of the name "Macedonia". Greece objects to Skopje's use of the name, and attempts by the United Nations to mediate the dispute have failed so far. While there is unanimity on the issue on the Greek side, it has become the subject of bitter squabble between the president and prime minister.

A few weeks after UN mediator Matthew Nimetz presented his latest package of ideas to resolve the dispute, a package to which neither side has responded with enthusiasm, Crvenkovski fired Dimitrov on November 4.

Addressing parliament in Skopje on that day, during a debate on the country's strategy in the name dispute, Crvenkovski said that he had made the decision "in order to put a stop to this situation, which is already used by Greece as an argument against us, i.e. two negotiators, separate meetings, separate consultations."

Dimitrov, a former ambassador to the US, had been Skopje's representative in the dispute since 2003.

The decision by Crvenkovski brought condemnation from various quarters, with some pro-Gruevski media reports alleging that by withdrawing Dimitrov, Crvenkovski was in effect withdrawing from the name dispute negotiations.

In the relative terms of what is a highly emotional issue, Crvenkovski has been seen as the more conciliatory while Gruevski has been seen as taking a strongly nationalist and uncompromising line.

Reacting to the decision to fire him, Dimitrov said that it had come from someone who had made calls for unity, and time would tell whether the outcome was unity or further division.

Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milososki said that Crvenkovski's decision was certain to cause further division, Macedonian television channel A1 reported on November 4, according to Bulgarian news agency Focus.

The Macedonian parliament, after the debate in which Crvenkovski spoke, adopted a resolution calling for a strategy to be adopted as soon as possible to resolve the name dispute.

The resolution said that the strategy must protect the interests of the highest state bodies and national interests, and said that it must preserve the Macedonian people's integrity, language, history and culture, but also the Macedonian minority in Greece.

According to a report by Radio Free Europe, the resolution called on politicians to step up diplomatic activities both at home and abroad in order to resolve the problem as soon as possible. 

Crvenkovski then got involved in a war of words with Martin Protuger, the head of Gruevski's office. On November 7, according to a report by Macedonia's Dnevnik newspaper, Protuger described what was going on around the Greece-Macedonia name dispute negotiations as "shameful" and said that Crvenkovski's decision to fire Dimitrov had harmed Macedonia.

Protuger accused Crvenkovski of lying about the issue and said that in the end, Crvenkovski would persuade Macedonians that they could not win in the dispute.

Media reports then emerged claiming that Dimitrov had been fired because in a private meeting with Crvenkovski, the negotiator had told the president that his analysis of the dispute and his approach to it were wrong, and in any case Dimitrov believed that Greece did not want the dispute resolved.

Protuger said that he was from a new generation of politicians, and would not respond further to Crvenkovski, who he said was from a previous generation whose time had passed.

Crvenkovski came under attack from the opposition. On November 7, Focus reported that the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) had called on Gruevski to suggest a new representative of Macedonia in the name talks with Greece and announce what the country's stand will be in the future negotiations.

"Does your strategy envisage failure to resolve name dispute at any cost so that you could isolate the country from the EU and NATO and do you plan to make Macedonia a black hole in the Balkans where clans, crimes and lawlessness rule?" SDSM spokesperson Emilijan Stankovic said at a news conference in Skopje.
 
The following day, Crvenkovski challenged Gruevski and Protuger to say whether they were in favour of Nimetz's "double formula" for the name dispute, whereby the country would be known as Republic of Northern Macedonia but would be able to have its name as Republic of Macedonia in Cyrillic script on its passports and to be allowed to refer to the country's language as Macedonian.

Crvenkovski sent a letter to the media in Macedonia saying that he saw it as improper to reply to a letter by a young person who seemed to have the ambition to get into news bulletins and on to the front pages of newspapers by exchanging letters with Macedonia's president.

"But since this is a person who without professional experience enjoys the prime minister's trust to take part in a series of boards of managers meetings of public companies, pursue staff policy and head the government's marketing, I consider it proper to revive the debate on the essential issues.

"If the prime minister stands behind Protuger's position, I inform him that I am willing to hold a debate with him on any issue important for Macedonia at any time and at any place," Focus reported Crvenkovski's letter as saying.
 
Meanwhile, Greek media reports said that Greek representative Adamandios Vasilakis would travel to New York next week to give Athens's answer to Nimetz about his proposals.