ATHENS: Greece on Thursday reacted cautiously to an offer by Macedonia to rename its airport and main highway in a bid to end a long-running name row, with commentators warning that “deep divisions” remained between the countries.
Athens argues that its neighbor’s use of the name Macedonia suggests Skopje has territorial claims to Greece’s historic northern region of the same name going back to when Alexander the Great ruled in the fourth century BC.
However, there have been recent signs of a renewed effort to finally settle the 27-year-old dispute.
After a first ever meeting with Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras at Davos, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Wednesday that his country would rename Skopje’s Alexander the Great airport to show its “strong commitment” to ending the row.
Zaev added that the north-south Alexander the Great motorway ending at the Greek border will be renamed “Friendship Highway.”
Macedonian government spokesman Mile Bosnjakovski said the new airport name and date for the switch have “not yet been decided.”
A Greek government source hailed the “frank talks” but the opposition was more skeptical.
“Such moves can easily be rescinded by a future government in Skopje,” said shadow Foreign Minister Yiorgos Koumoutsakos of the main opposition conservative New Democracy party.
Stavros Theodorakis, head of the pro-EU To Potami party, said the name changes were “welcome and necessary” but similar moves were required in the Macedonian constitution‚— but Zaev’s Parliamentary majority is too small to ensure that.
Pro-government Ethnos daily said the two leaders were “ready to cut the Gordian Knot” — another reference to Alexander.
However, the critical Ta Nea newspaper said Tsipras had opened the “path to Europe...in return for a sign and two roads.”
Liberal daily Kathimerini noted the “goodwill gesture” but said “deep differences” remained, with Zaev reportedly admitting that a constitution change is “very difficult.”
Greece’s objections to its neighbor becoming independent in 1991 as Macedonia — the name the former Yugoslav province has used since the 1940s — have hampered the tiny nation’s bid to join the European Union and NATO.
Macedonia gained entry to the United Nations in 1993 only under the provisional name the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The UN said Wednesday that UN envoy Matthew Nimetz would travel to Greece and Macedonia next week to push for a solution.
Delegates from both nations first met in New York last week.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of people protested in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki against any deal allowing Macedonia to keep its constitutional name.
Greece mulls Macedonia gesture to solve name row
Greece mulls Macedonia gesture to solve name row
Hundreds rally in Paris to support Ukraine after four years of war
- Demonstrators chanted: “We support Ukraine against Putin, who is killing it“
- “Frozen Russian assets must be confiscated, they belong to Ukraine“
PARIS: Around one thousand took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to show their “massive support” for Ukraine, just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Demonstrators marching through the French capital chanted: “We support Ukraine against Putin, who is killing it,” and “Frozen Russian assets must be confiscated, they belong to Ukraine.”
“In public opinion, there is massive support for Ukraine that has not wavered since the first day of the full-scale invasion” by the Russian army on February 24, 2022, European Parliament member Raphael Glucksmann, told AFP.
“On the other hand, in the French political class, sounds of giving up are starting to emerge. On both the far left and the far right, voices of capitulation are getting louder and louder,” he added.
In the crowd, Irina Kryvosheia, a Ukrainian who arrived in France several years ago, “thanked with all her heart the people present.”
She said they reminded “everyone that what has been happening for four years is not normal, it is not right.”
Kryvosheia said she remains in daily contact with her parents in Kyiv, who told her how they were deprived “for several days” of heating, electricity and running water following intense bombardments by the Russian army.
Francois Grunewald, head of “Comite d’Aide Medicale Ukraine,” had just returned from a one-month mission in the country, where the humanitarian organization has delivered around forty generators since the beginning of the year.
Russia’s full-scale invasion sent shockwaves around the world and triggered the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in Europe since World War II.
The war has seen tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of military personnel killed on both sides. Millions of refugees have fled Ukraine, where vast areas have been devastated by fighting.
Russia occupies nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and its heavy attacks on the country’s energy sites have sparked a major energy crisis.
