Mon, Jun 18, 2018 page1

• Greece, Macedonia sign deal ending name dispute

  NOT OVER YET: The pact is to be submitted tomorrow to the parliament in Skopje. Once Macedonia’s constitution is changed, the Greek parliament will vote on the treaty

  • AP, PSARADES, Greece
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  Greece and the Republic of Macedonia have signed a deal that, if ratified, would resolve a decades-old dispute concerning Macedonia’s name.

  Under the agreement, Greece’s northern neighbor 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 EU.

  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.

  

  Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Dimitrov, front left, and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias, front right, sign an agreement on Macedonia’s new name in the Greek village of Psarades yesterday as Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, back left, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras look on.

  Photo: AP

  Also at the ceremony were UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Rosemary di Carlo, the UN mediator for the name dispute, Matthew Nimetz, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn.

  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.

  Zaev and Dimitrov arrived by a small speedboat from across the lake and were greeted by Tsipras and Kotzias.

  

  A man faces riot police yesterday as protesters holding Greek flags walk amid smoke during a protest at the village of Pisoderi in northern Greece near the border with the Republic of Macedonia.

  Photo: AFP

  “This is our own appointment with history,” Tsipras said, adding that the Balkan peoples 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 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,” he said.

  Following the signing, the officials left by boat for the Macedonian lake resort of Oteshevo for a celebratory lunch.

  However, in Psarades, priests tolled the local church bell in a sign of mourning, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.

  Police had cordoned off all approaches to Psarades to prevent protesters from reaching the site, so more than 5,000 Greek nationalists gathered near Pissoderi, a village 40km away.

  About 500 had tried to approach the signature ceremony, but after they began throwing rocks at nearby a police blockade, police responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

  A woman was hit on the head by a rock, and a man was being treated for breathing trouble, health officials said.

  Macedonian nationalists who also object to the agreement rallied in the city of Bitola, near the Greek border, in the afternoon.

  Since Macedonia seceded from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece had objected to its use of the name “Macedonia” because it claimed that implied territorial designs on its own northern province of Macedonia.

  Greek objections delayed UN recognition of Macedonia until April 1993 and then only as The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In 1995, the two countries signed an interim agreement after Macedonia agreed to modify its flag.

  The document signed yesterday is to be submitted to the parliament in Skopje tomorrow. It is to be submitted to lawmakers in Athens after the Skopje government changes its constitution this year.

  Additional reporting by AFP and Bloomberg
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