Showing posts with label Macedonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macedonia. Show all posts

Monday, February 11, 2019

After years of stalling, Greece oks Macedonia in NATO

WORLD  NEWS FEBRUARY 8, 2019 / 10:24 PM / 2 DAYS AGO
Lefteris Papadimas, George Georgiopoulos
3 MIN READ

ATHENS (Reuters) - After holding up its admission for years, Greece became the first nation on Friday to ratify Macedonia’s membership of NATO after the two states resolved a decades-old name dispute last month.

NATO members signed the accord with Macedonia this week, days after the Greek parliament endorsed an agreement between Athens and Skopje that changes Macedonia’s name to North Macedonia.

Staring down strong domestic opposition from Greeks worried the Balkan neighbor was appropriating Greek heritage, the government of leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pushed the name change through parliament on Jan. 25

Monday, April 16, 2018

Tsipras Fights on All Fronts as Greece Back in the Spotlight

By Elena Chrepa
16 Απριλίου 2018, 8:00 π.μ. EEST Updated on 16 Απριλίου 2018, 3:20 μ.μ. EEST
Economy remains priority in the final race to bailout exit...
...But concerns rising on Turkey, Macedonia, looming election

Bloomberg

Consider what Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is up against.

As Greece prepares to free itself from an eight-year European bailout, its 43 year-old premier is confronting challenges at home and abroad. On the domestic front: preparations for post-bailout economic life and the first general election since the end of the program, including feuds with both allies and rivals. On the foreign-policy front: increased tensions with traditional rival Turkey and regional instability stemming from a dispute over a neighboring country’s name.

Tsipras’s ability to navigate through all this could determine just how stable the country and its region will be in coming years, experts say, and the European Union, the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are all watching with interest.

“The wo

Monday, February 5, 2018

Greeks rally in Athens to protest use of the name Macedonia

The Washington Post

By Elena Becatoros | AP February 4 at 2:02 PM
ATHENS, Greece — Well over 100,000 protesters from across Greece converged Sunday on Athens’ main square to protest a potential Greek compromise in a dispute with neighboring Macedonia over the former Yugoslav republic’s official name.

Hundreds of chartered buses brought protesters in from around the country to the Greek capital, while more people arrived on ferries from the islands. Traffic was blocked throughout the city center and three major subway stops were closed.

Chanting “Hands off Macedonia!” and “Macedonia belongs to Greece!” the protesters converged on Syntagma Square in front of parliament, many waving flags bearing the Star of Vergina, the emblem of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia.

Police officials estimated the attendance at 140,000. Organizers, who claimed 1.5 million were at the rally, used a crane to raise a massive Greek flag over the square.

Greeks rally in Athens over Macedonia name row

FEBRUARY 4, 2018 / 7:22 PM / UPDATED 15 HOURS AGO
Lefteris Papadimas, Vassilis Triandafyllou
4 MIN READ

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to protest against the use of the term Macedonia in any settlement the government pursues with the ex-Yugoslav Republic to end a decades-old name row.

The two countries have agreed to step up negotiations, mediated by the United Nations, this year to settle the dispute, which has frustrated the aspirations of Greece’s small northern neighbor to join NATO and the European Union.

Thoroughfares in central Athens turned into a sea of people waving blue and white Greek flags in what locals said was the largest gathering in decades, easily outdoing rallies against austerity foisted by lenders on the crisis-hit country.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The Greek Position on the naming issue of FYROM (and a critique from the other side).

The matter at hand is a controversial one. There are two sides. Most Greeks pick their side. 
Apart from the ownership of the name. 
Is there a real danger for Greece coming from this tiny country? Can a tiny country undermine and win territory from a stronger country?

Well, history says it can. That's how Greece freed most of what is our country today. Arguments of the type "how can you claim that this little country threat your territories?" just ignore the fact that Greece gained territory from the Ottoman Empire, when under any measure, Greece was tiny and the Ottoman Empire was great. 
So the answer to the matter at hand is that the size is one thing, the existence of a threat is quite another.
Are they threatening Greece? Well they say so... 

Does Greece have the right to defend its territory? Yes, Greece has this right, and the means are also a legitimate choice.

I think that the material below will enlighten both sides of the story.