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Breaking! Greek Parliament Approves Macedonia’s New Name

Published

5 years ago

January 25, 2019

Peter Dredd

Greek Parliament Approves Macedonia’s New Name

After decades of claims, counterclaims and, at times, ugly politics, Athens and Skopje have resolved one of Europe’s most intractable conflicts.

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A lengthy, stormy debate in Greece’s 300-seat parliament concluded on Friday with a majority of 153 legislators voting in favour of a deal seeking to end the two neighbours’ long-running dispute by renaming the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the Republic of North Macedonia. A total of 146 lawmakers voted against the deal and one abstained.

“Today is a historic day. Greece protects an important part of its history, the heritage of ancient Greek Macedonia,” said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Twitter at the end of a bruising process which saw his ruling coalition ally quit earlier this month.

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Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev congratulated Tsipras and hailed the outcome as a “historical victory”.

Congratulations my friend @tsipras_eu, together with our peoples we reached a historical victory. Long live the Prespa Agreement! For eternal peace and progress of the Balkans and in Europe! pic.twitter.com/f9aIpMa4Xz

— Зоран Заев (@Zoran_Zaev) January 25, 2019

According to the contentious Prespes Agreement, signed in June last year, the small Balkan country will now be internationally recognised as North Macedonia in exchange for Greece unblocking its path towards NATO and European Union membership. Its language will be recognised as “Macedonian” and its citizens as “Macedonian/Citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia”.

Source : Aljazeera News

Related Topics:Foreign news