“Macedonia” Naming Dispute Heads Towards Possible Resolution
The Balkan state of Macedonia has expressed its readiness to change its name and end a decades-long diplomatic dispute with its southern neighbor Greece. The announcement on Feb. 6, 2018, occurred as Macedonia renews a push toward membership with the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Macedonia declared its independence from the fracturing Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the formal name of “Republic of Macedonia” after an independence referendum, which was overwhelmingly supported by Macedonian voters in Sept. 1991. Greece, citing historical considerations and irredentist concerns, objected to the use of “Macedonia” as the name of the ex-Yugoslav republic and embarked on a campaign to diplomatically isolate the new country. These efforts successfully stymied Macedonian participation in international and regional organizations where Greece was a member. Ultimately, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly voted to admit Macedonia as a member of the UN in 1993 under the provisional name of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” pending “settlement of the difference that has arisen over the name of the State.”
Greece and Macedonia eventually signed the Interim Accord in Sept. 1995, normalizing relations between the two estranged neighbors. Under the Accord — which purposely avoided naming the two countries to bypass the issue of “Macedonia” — Macedonia expressly forfeited any claims to territory outside of its post-Yugoslav borders and removed disputed symbols (claimed by Athens as historically and culturally Greek) from its flag. Simultaneously, Greece agreed to not protest Macedonia’s membership in organizations provided the country was referred to as “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM). UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed American diplomat, Matthew Nimetz, as “Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Greece-FYROM talks” to coordinate dialogue between Athens and Skopje over the issue in 1999. This task was made exceptionally difficult throughout the following decades due to hostile public opinion and uncooperative governments on both sides.
While a nominal diplomatic relationship developed between the neighbors after the signing of the Interim Accord, successive Greek politicians expressed the intent to veto any Macedonian efforts to join the EU or NATO prior to a conclusive resolution of the naming controversy. The issue came to a head at the 2008 North Atlantic Council meeting in Bucharest, where Greece’s veto led to the Council noting “with regret that [mediation] talks have not produced a successful outcome” and “an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached.” Macedonia’s right-wing government proceeded to file a legal dispute case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) asserting that Greece had violated the Interim Accord, an assertion the ICJ concurred with in Dec. 2011.
Diplomatically, this issue was able to thaw after the current center-left Macedonian government headed by Prime Minister Zoran Zoev was voted into power in 2017, consequently ending a decade of right-wing rule. Prime Minister Zoev pledged to speed up the process of joining the EU and NATO and to establish a better relationship with Greece. After a flurry of Macedonian ambassadorial and ministerial visits to Athens throughout the latter half of 2017, both sides agreed to restart talks over the name issue in Jan. 2018.
Talks at UN Headquarters on Jan. 17 produced no concrete results; however, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stated in an interview published on Jan. 21 that “it’s totally groundless historically and absurd to seek the exclusivity of Macedonia” for Greece and indicated “it is not unreasonable to have the term ‘Macedonia’ included in a compound name, with either a geographical or chronological qualifier” to explicitly mark modern Macedonia’s forfeiture of historical claims to Alexander the Great and land claims not within its present borders. Such statements illustrate a departure from past Greek governments’ hardliner position to deny any mention of “Macedonia” in a name for their neighbor.
Protests erupted in the Greek city of Thessaloniki — located in the region of Greek Macedonia — upon the publication of the interview, with tens of thousands of people calling upon the Greek government to not compromise on the use of “Macedonia” in naming their northern neighbor.
Within a week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoev announced on Jan. 24 announced that Skopje’s Alexander the Great Airport (named by the previous right-wing government) and a highway under the same name would be renamed. This would drop the reference to the ancient Macedonian general Alexander the Great “to demonstrate, in practice, that we are committed to finding a solution.”
Greek Prime Minister Tsipras held talks with political leaders on Jan. 27 to coordinate negotiation strategy for an upcoming UN-mediated round; however, opposition parties refused to back Prime Minister Tsipras’s softer position on the presence of “Macedonia” in any proposed name, with the main opposition party leader stating “We will not divide Greeks to unite Skopje.” The Greek Prime Minister responded in televised comments that he was prepared to accept a “composite name…with a geographical or historical reference” that contains “Macedonia.” Such names include the prior proposed names of “Upper Macedonia” or “New Macedonia.” UN Envoy, Nimetz, in statements on Feb. 1, 2018, expressed his hopes for a solution “within weeks” and urged all parties to “move forward quickly, within days.”
However, a massive protest was held in Athens on Feb. 4 against any potential Greek compromise over “Macedonia,” signalling simmering discontent over the softer position of the current Greek government. Police estimated that there were 140,000 protesters who congregated in Syntagma Square while protest organizers put the attendance at 1.5 million. Skopje declined to comment on the protest, instead announcing to reporters on Feb. 6 the Macedonian government’s willingness to add a geographic qualifier to its name to solve the longstanding dispute.
While both governments seem poised to pursue reconciliation and even possible resolution over the issue of an agreeable name for Macedonia, it remains to be seen whether or not Skopje and Athens can produce and commit to a diplomatic solution palatable to the populations of both countries. The future of NATO and EU expansion into the Balkans rests on a rapid resolution of this naming dispute.