Over 140,000 Greeks gathered in the Greek capital of Athens on Sunday to defend their right to the name “Macedonia.” This is part of the decades-old dispute caused by the inclusion of the word “Macedonia” in the name of the former Yugoslav republic.
Hundreds of thousands rallied near the parliament in Athens. Both parties have agreed to negotiate for the name, and this negotiation has been mediated by the United Nations. This dispute has frustrated the aspirations of Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union.
“Here are the borders. This is Macedonia … Macedonia is Greek, no one can take this name, no one can use it,” said Rania Mainou, a protester, while pointing on a map.
A 25-year old dispute over a name
According to the authorities, the rally in Athens was bigger than most of the numerous demonstration organized in the country since it signed the first international bailout program, back in 2010. Though there were a lot of people, it was significantly less than the million people the organizers of the rally expected. During the demonstration, people waved blue and white Greek flags, and they sang the national anthem. They also held banners reading “Hand off Macedonia.”
Greek claims that the use of the name “Macedonia” by its neighbor suggests a territorial claim to the Greek northern region which has that name and whose capital is Thessaloniki. Many protests have taken place in this city to manifest the disagreement.
“I‘m here for Macedonia. Macedonia is ours, it’s part of Greece. We won’t let them take it from us,” said 72-year old Persefoni Platsouri clutching a Greek flag.
This dispute is essential for the crisis-hit country since they give a high value to their history and heritage. They say that they consider Macedonia, the ancient kingdom ruled by Alexander the Great, to be a fundamental element of their homeland.
Among the speakers of today’s rally, there was the famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who said that even their economic crisis couldn’t make Greeks forget their history. The 93-year-old composer was a symbol of resistance against the military junta that ruled between 1967 and 1974.
“If we give in, we are leaving the doors wide open for a tragic historical lie to come through and stay forever,” said the leftist composer.
A negotiated solution between the States
Last month, Greece and the ex-Yugoslav nation of Macedonia started talks assisted by the United Nations. However, the disputes back to 1991, when the former Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated.
If the dispute is not solved, Macedonia won’t be able to enter organizations such as the EU and NATO. It was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 with the provisional name of “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” because of Greece’s objection. Most countries refer to this state as merely Macedonia. Last week, Greece’s foreign minister Nikos Kotzias said that Greece is preparing proposals to achieve a settlement with the neighboring country.
This dispute has degraded the relations between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party and his small coalition ally, a right-wing party. Tsipras’ coalition controls 154 seats in the 300-seat parliament.
The opposition, which includes Greece’s conservative party has criticized the prime minister for the negotiating tactics.
Source: Reuters
There will be zero tolerance with FYROM. If Zaev wanted to mend relations with Greece he would have announced the demolition of the grotesque Italian made Hellenic reproduction statues that litter the FYROM landscape, the renaming of the airport in Skopje, the renaming of the highway, the renaming of the football stadium, the removal of the repulsive Baroque Hellenic style facades, the correcting of school carriculum, the removal of the Hellenic symbol on the national flag, the removal of all greater Macedonia maps from government institutions and a heartfelt apology to the nation of Greece for his nation being vile for the last two and a half decades. Cultural theft cannot be forgiven easily. Actions speak louder than words. Greeks do not want to hear politicians trying new age diplomacy that they learnt in their political science classes. Dimitrov, Šekerinska, Zaevand all the Slavic Fyromians currently running FYROM are just as dogmatic about an exclusivity of the name as the Gruevski ultra nationalists. There is no scope for negotiation with these antiques. Greece is the victim here. Our history has been hijacked by Fyromian Slavs. Leave our history alone. It’s not a good fit for you. You cannot pronounce nor read the Ancient inscriptions for they are in Greek. If FYROM wants exclusivity to the name Macedonia they will have to change their official language to Greek for this corresponds with the Ancient Macedonian language. We Greeks embrace everyone as a Hellene as long as they speak Greek. You cannot have Bulgarian speaking Slavs of FYROM claiming they are Antiques. It’s ridiculous.
Sekerinska can sit around bagging the VMRO for their crimes but she is just as bad. She claims she is a Slav and a non Antique and in the same breath attacks Greece for not recognizing FYROM. I thought that her hair incident would have knocked some sense into her. Dimitrov has also had a go at it. The fool was part of the negotiation team under Gruevski. He failed miserably because he too will never give up the name. These Slavs are like a dog with a bone but in their case the bone is plastic and has zero marrow.
They know what they have to do and it will never happen. The constitutional name will not change because the antiquated population of FYROM will never vote for it. They have had way too many history lessons from Milenko Nedelkovski. The vile sneaky tactics of attempting to be admitted to NATO and the EU under their provisional FYROM name won’t work either. They are fruitless attempts at diplomacy that not only waste time but also soak up tax payers efforts. Think twice FYROM before attempting negotiations with the Greeks on their history. The Albanian, Roma and Turkish birth rate is twice that of the Slavs. While you lot are busy fixating about exclusivity of your name and your antique culture the non Slavic population of FYROM will become a majority group within their ancient wonderland. The last census was in 2001, these so called minority groups were are 35% collectively. I would hate to think what they are at now. 16 years of fertile breeding has to be worrying for the new government. Back off our history you deluded farm animals.