Half Macedonians Oppose Deal on Country's Name

According to the poll, 45.3 per cent of respondents opposed any change to the country's name to please Greece, which objects to the phrase "Republic of Macedonia".

The survey by the Skopje-based Institute for Democracy and the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation, an NGO, showed another 40 per cent think that a compromise with Greece that does not compromise Macedonia's identity would be acceptable if it ends the logjam over the country’s European and NATO membership bids.

If the country held a referendum on a possible name change, 58 per cent would vote against it, the survey showed.

Asked to choose between six options regarding the name dispute, respondents among the ethnic Macedonian majority were most opposed to a change of name. Some 57 per cent of those opted for “no change at all” and only 4.8 per cent opted for a new name that would be used both internationally and domestically, as Greece wants.

The figures are different among country’s ethnic Albanians who make up about a quarter of the population of 2.1 million. Just under 20 per cent of Albanian respondents chose “no change at all”, while 12 per cent opted for a new name for all uses.

Some 28 per cent of Albanian respondents said a good compromise would be for Macedonia and Greece to agree on a name to be used only in international organizations. Only 15 per cent of ethnic Macedonians supported this option.

The poll was carried out this September on a representative sample of 1,090 people.

Macedonia and Greece are locked in an longstanding dispute over the country's name. Greece has been blocking Macedonia’s NATO and EU membership bids, arguing that Macedonia’s name implies a territorial claim to its own northern province that is also called Macedonia.