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

Greek bailout is no success story, EU candidate Tsipras says

Thu May 15, 2014 8:04pm EDT

* Greek EU Commission candidate wants end to austerity

* Tsipras appears for first time in televised debates

* Opposes sanctions against Russia over Ukraine

By Harry Papachristou