What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re Macedonia.
ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis said today that his country will block Macedonia’s entrance into the EU and NATO if the country does not change its name. Macedonia expects an invite to NATO at the organization’s summit in April and could possibly start EU negotiations this fall. So what’s wrong with “Macedonia”? ...
ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis said today that his country will block
So what’s wrong with “
Speaking between rounds of negotiations between Skopje and
I want to be very clear on this. The intransigence of our neighbor is dashing its ambitions to join NATO and the European Union. If there is no settlement, the neighboring country cannot aspire to join NATO. Our position ‘no solution-no invite’ is clear.”
On Tuesday, U.N. envoy Matthew Nimetz proposed five name alternatives: Constitutional Republic of Macedonia, Democratic Republic of Macedonia, Independent Republic of Macedonia, New Republic of Macedonia and
Clearly, these choices were not satisfactory to Macedonians because riots broke out on Wednesday over the prospect of tampering with the country’s constitutional name. With Greece still hung up on a name from the third century B.C., Serbia’s 1389 claim to Kosovo suddenly seems more reasonable.
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