Skip to content
Support Us

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Statue of Alexander the Great, who is claimed by both Greece and Macedonia. ebrkut via Flickr/Creative Commons

Macedonia urges Greece to solve 20-year row over name

The two countries have been locked in a contentious dispute since 1991 over who gets to use the name Macedonia.

MACEDONIAN PRIME MINISTER Nikola Gruevski said today he expected Greece’s new government to focus on solving a 20-year-old dispute over which country has the right to the name Macedonia.

“I expect the new government of Greece to be devoted to finding a solution to the name row,” Gruevski said. “I hope it will find a fast and effective solution that would please both sides and the citizens of Macedonia.”

Since Skopje proclaimed its independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece has alleged that use of the name Macedonia suggests a territorial claim to the northern Greek province of the same name.

Greece blocked Macedonia’s invitation to join NATO in 2008, and a year later prevented the European Union from starting accession talks with Skopje despite recommendations from the European Commission.

Gruevski said he hoped the cabinet of newly elected Greek premier Antonis Samaras would not use Greece’s economic crisis “as an alibi to avoid making efforts to find a solution for the problem that has bothered relations of two states for 21 years.”

Macedonia maintains that changing its name would be a denial of its own national identity and language.

At the United Nations it is recognised as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Almost two decades of UN-led negotiations over the name dispute have so far been fruitless.

- © AFP, 2012

Eight things Ireland can thank Greece for >

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

View 21 comments
Close
21 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán Ó Briain
    Favourite Seán Ó Briain
    Report
    Jul 15th 2012, 3:56 PM

    “Gunmen opened fire on a five-year-old girl in front of her home in Muqdadiyah. She died immediately.”

    What sort of sick and twisted person do you have to be to decide upon seeing a 5 year old girl – “Hey, let’s riddle her with bullets!”. I know because it’s not in our back garden, the general population is generally detached from the mindless slaughter in the middle east – But this is just horrific. Every single day people are being killed for the most absurd of reasons. The worst thing is, we are ultimately powerless to do anything to stop it. It’s tribal to it’s very core.

    Bunch of savages who do not respect life, and the ordinary Iraqi civilian has to pay for it.

    Let’s take a moment out of our day to at least acknowledge the death of this girl.

    99
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David o Mahony
    Favourite David o Mahony
    Report
    Jul 15th 2012, 3:51 PM

    Sick

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AdeleM
    Favourite AdeleM
    Report
    Jul 15th 2012, 5:21 PM

    Nothing short of animals, those who could do something like that! Poor child!

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Itchy mcscratch
    Favourite Itchy mcscratch
    Report
    Jul 15th 2012, 11:34 PM

    Animals wouldn’t do anything like that. Barbarian monsters is what they are

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall
    Favourite Niall
    Report
    Jul 15th 2012, 9:01 PM

    What’s most tragic, is that this is just one story we’re told. The very tip of a treacherous ice berg!

    12
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.