Macedonia and Greece appear close to settling 27-year name dispute

Macedonia is poised to dispatch its foreign minister to Greece as speculation mounts that the two countries are moving towards settlement of the name dispute that has kept them at loggerheads for the past 27 years.

Greece, a member of both the EU and NATO – world’s biggest trading bloc and the military alliance – has thwarted Macedonia membership drives into both organisations since 2008 over the name “Macedonia.”

Greece once completely opposed the use of the word in its neighbor’s name but, since 2007, has accepted the possibility including a qualifier right before it.

Signalling that a compromise is in the offing, Zoran Zaev, the Balkan state’s new Social Democrat leader, used his first official trip to Brussels on Monday to announce that a solution was possible.

“I know that if we have friendly relations and a good approach then a solution is feasible,” he told reporters before talks between Macedonia’s foreign minister, Nikola Dimitrov, and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, in Athens on Wednesday.

Though Dimitrov said on Tuesday they won’t discuss the “Macedonia” issue, relations have brightened since the Socialist Prime Minister Zoran Zaev ousted Gruevski, who drew fire from the European Union for backsliding on democracy.

Zaev, whose investiture two weeks ago followed prolonged political turmoil in the former Yugoslav republic, said he wanted the small but strategic nation to join Nato and the EU “in the shortest possible time”. Macedonia, he suggested, could participate in both under the provisional name it currently uses at the UN – FYROM or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. “We will try all possible measures to move Macedonia to membership,” said the pro-European prime minister standing alongside Nato’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg.

“I expect support from the people of Greece through the government and the opposition to solve this problem,” Zaev said Monday at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the capital, Skopje. “All alternatives are open, and it very much depends on our southern neighbor as well.”

The quest comes amid accusations of Russian interference across the Balkan region. The Macedonian government claims the meddling has made membership more vital. Stoltenberg underscored that position, saying NATO’s mission was to support all aspiring countries. “We want to see your country as part of a stable, democratic and prosperous region,” he said.

The long-running name row has been the single biggest impediment to Macedonia’s integration with the west. Greece, which vetoed the country joining NATO in 2008, has argued vehemently that its northern neighbour’s nomenclature conceals territorial ambitions over the eponymous Greek province that lies directly to the republic’s south.

Any potential name change in Macedonia would be put to public plebiscite for approval. Mooted name changes have included adding geographic qualifiers such as “upper”, “new” or “northern” Macedonia.