Greek PM firm on Macedonia name dispute
Skopje must put aside excuses, nationalism and historically unfounded obsessions, and its hopes of Macedonia joining EuroAtlantic structures depend on its own choices, Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis said on May 10 2009.
Greek media reported Karamanlis as telling his New Democracy party’s central committee that the former Yugoslav republic’s hopes of getting into Nato and the EU depended on one condition: "The solution of the name dispute, (a compromise) which will be acceptable to both countries".
"History cannot be written off, history cannot be rewritten," Karamanlis said.
Athens and Skopje have been locked for years in a dispute over the use of the name Macedonia. Athens’ objections to Skopje using the name, which Greece holds to be historically unfounded and open to exploitation to back up territorial claims in Greece, have led Greece to block Macedonia’s Nato and EU hopes.
United Nations-brokered talks are expected to resume later in the summer.
Gjorge Ivanov, recently elected president of Macedonia, was expected to announce his approach to the name dispute on May 12. Ivanov was elected with the backing of the ruling party led by Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who has taken a hard line against Greece in the dispute.
Bulgarian news agency Focus reported Skopje-based daily Utrinski Vesnik as saying that Ivanov was inheriting a list of political issues from his predecessor Branko Crvenkovski that were neither simple nor easy, and Macedonia was "stuck" on the road to EuroAtlantic integration because of the name dispute.
On April 30, Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milohovski said that Skopje was ready to continue dialogue with Greece "under Nato’s protection".
Speaking after meeting Nato Secretary General special representative Robert Simmons, Milohovski said: "Macedonia wants and is ready to reach reasonable compromise with Greece. The aim is this irrational dispute to be solved so that the region can reach together bigger co-operation and stability".
Greek media reported Karamanlis as telling his New Democracy party’s central committee that the former Yugoslav republic’s hopes of getting into Nato and the EU depended on one condition: "The solution of the name dispute, (a compromise) which will be acceptable to both countries".
"History cannot be written off, history cannot be rewritten," Karamanlis said.
Athens and Skopje have been locked for years in a dispute over the use of the name Macedonia. Athens’ objections to Skopje using the name, which Greece holds to be historically unfounded and open to exploitation to back up territorial claims in Greece, have led Greece to block Macedonia’s Nato and EU hopes.
United Nations-brokered talks are expected to resume later in the summer.
Gjorge Ivanov, recently elected president of Macedonia, was expected to announce his approach to the name dispute on May 12. Ivanov was elected with the backing of the ruling party led by Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who has taken a hard line against Greece in the dispute.
Bulgarian news agency Focus reported Skopje-based daily Utrinski Vesnik as saying that Ivanov was inheriting a list of political issues from his predecessor Branko Crvenkovski that were neither simple nor easy, and Macedonia was "stuck" on the road to EuroAtlantic integration because of the name dispute.
On April 30, Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milohovski said that Skopje was ready to continue dialogue with Greece "under Nato’s protection".
Speaking after meeting Nato Secretary General special representative Robert Simmons, Milohovski said: "Macedonia wants and is ready to reach reasonable compromise with Greece. The aim is this irrational dispute to be solved so that the region can reach together bigger co-operation and stability".