Macedonia: Name Support Concert to Be Held

The event will be held just over one week before the start of the European Council summit in Brussels, at which Skopje hopes to get the much desired start date for its EU accession talks.

This move has been so far delayed because of Greece's refusal to let its neighbor begin accession negotiations under Skopje's official name, Republic of Macedonia. Local observers say without a name deal between Athens and Skopje it is uncertain that anything will change at the coming summit.

A group of prominent singers, dancers and poets will take part in today's concert.

Opera singers Boris Trajanov and Slavica Galic-Petrovska, poet Eftim Kletnikov, last year’s Macedonian Eurovision contestant Next Time, musician Dragan Dautovski and folk dance ensembles “Koco Racin” and “Orce Nikolov” are some of the artists that will take the stage.

Trajanov told media that “the thesis that Macedonians are skeptical about entering the EU just because they opt to preserve their country's name is absurd”.

According to him, if Skopje accepts to change its name this could strip the Macedonians from their identity which he says is an “indecent proposal”.

“Artists who by the nature of their work are concerned with issues of identity agreed to lend their spiritual energy and to show that we exist and will continue existing under the original name which we have the right to keep and protect,” Kletnikov told local media.

Thus far no local politician has openly supported or denounced the event.

Athens and Skopje are locked in an 18 year long row over the use of the name Macedonia. Greece insists that Macedonia's official name implies territorial claims against Greece's own northern province, which is also called Macedonia.

In 2008 Athens blocked Skopje from getting an invitation to join NATO over the spat, and Skopje didn't receive a start date for its EU accession talks in 2009 despite a recommendation for the European Commission because of the name dispute.

The long lasting UN led bilateral negotiations aimed at finding a compromise name have so far failed to produce visible results.