Ohrid Hosts Mock Macedonia, Greece "Name" Talks

The two sides agreed that the resolution of the name spat is an urgent matter, and that the EU and the US must be fully engaged in the talks.

The mock negotiations, which were held in the Macedonian town of Ohrid and lasted nearly three hours,  were organised by the local A1 TV. They were aimed at addressing the heart of the nearly two decade long problem that has poisoned bilateral relations and has hampered Macedonia’s progress towards EU and NATO membership.

The former Greek ambassador to Skopje and Washington, Alexandros Mallias, and the influential Greek historians and university professors Evangelos Kofos and Tanos Forinis represented the Greek side at the talks.

Macedonia’s negotiating team was comprised of the constitutional law professor and ex-foreign minister Ljubomir Frckoski, the state legislator and former parliament speaker Stojan Andov.

Kosovo journalist and political analyst Veton Surroi, Brenda Pierson of the International Crisis Group and chairman of the British Bussiness Group in Macedonia Ray Power represented the international community. Macedonian journalist Borjan Jovanovski moderated the discussion.

“There is a positive urgency for a solution. This means that both sides should not be pushed towards a solution against their will,” Surroi noted when presenting the conclusions at the end of the talks.

“There needs to be an EU and US coordinated push,” he continued, noting that both sides also agreed that historical issues should not stand in the way of reaching a compromise.

The issue of identity should also be addressed, according to one of the conclusions presented by Surroi.

The mock negotiations began with explanations of history issues by both sides, after which the mediators focused the talks on the more urgent topic of discussing what is believed to be the latest proposed set of ideas for compromise.

The Macedonian side argued that it would accept a name with a geographic qualifier like “Republic of Northern Macedonia” only if the international community guarantees that this name will not jeopardize the national identity of the Macedonians.

Greek negotiators insisted that in addition to a mutually acceptable name, a different solution must be found on the issue of naming Macedonia’s language and culture so that the Greek Macedonians from the country's northern province of Macedonia won’t be confused with the Macedonians from across the border.

“We already have a solution to that as we use the suffix “es” as in “Makedones” and you use the suffix “ski” like in “Makedonski” when referring to the Macedonian identity,” Forinis noted.

He proposed that the term “Makedonski” written in the Latin alphabet without translation be formalized in the UN to distinguish the two different identities.

This solution would be complicated for translation in the UN, Macedonia’s Frckoski replied. ”We could use the term “Македонски/ Macedonian” [written in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabet] but always written together,” he suggested.

Both sides also failed to agree on the use of a potential compromise name. The Macedonian team accepted that it be used only for international use. They added that the countries that have already recognised Macedonia by its formal name could be left to decide whether they would change the way they address the state.

However, Greece’s Mallias insisted that a name “containing the term Macedonia” for all uses, which authorities in Athens have indicated is acceptable, represents a step forward and should be embraced from Skopje as well.

The Greek side suggested that additional constitutional changes by Skopje should be adopted which would mean use of that name at home as well.

“We solved the problem with constitutional changes that Greece demanded, back on January 6, 1992,” Andov replied, reminding his interlocutors that the country changed parts of its constitution at that time in response to Greek demands that it clearly state it has no territorial claims against its neighbour.

Andov insisted that both the UN resolutions on the Greek-Macedonian name spat and the Greek-Macedonian UN interim agreement do not suggest that Skopje make constitutional changes.

Also over the weekend, a Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski made a statement regarding the "Northern Macedonia" name proposal.

“If the question whether we accept the name Republic of Northern Macedonia for all uses were put to a referendum, I would vote against it,” Gruevski told Macedonian media on Sunday.

Macedonia and Greece have been locked in a dispute over the use of the name Macedonia for nearly two decades. Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims against its own territory. In 2008 it blocked Skopje’s NATO entry over the unresolved spat. Last autumn Athens used the same excuse to block its neighbour from getting a date for the start of its EU accession talks.

The UN sponsored name talks are expected to resume next month in the face of increased EU pressure to solve the spat by June.