17 June 2018•Update: 18 June 2018
By Furkan Naci Top
FLORINA, Greece
Greece and its northern neighbor on Sunday signed a historic accord on renaming Macedonia, which ended a long-standing dispute between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov inked the deal at a ceremony in Macedonian Psarades village at the Greece-Macedonia border.
The deal proposes changing Macedonia's name to the Republic of Northern Macedonia and will enable Greece to lift its veto on Macedonia's EU and NATO accession.
The signing ceremony saw the attendance of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn, and the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Matthew Nimetz.
Speaking at the ceremony, Tsipras described the deal as “historic”. He added that it was a “mutually-beneficial agreement" for both sides.
Zaev said: “Today, we have put an end to long-standing differences” between the two countries, which raises “walls and cast shadows on our neighborly relations”.
Greece, which is both a NATO and EU member, has long opposed the official name of its neighboring country, arguing it has a region by the same name in the north of its country.
The dispute has been one of the main obstacles to Macedonia’s ambition to join NATO and the EU due to the veto right of Greece.
Negotiations between Macedonia and Greece had recently stepped up, as the new government in Skopje sought progress in its bid to join NATO and the EU.
The deal still needs to be approved by Macedonia's parliament and confirmed in a Macedonian referendum.
Despite the dispute between Athens and Skopje, many countries, including Turkey recognize the country as Macedonia.
Later in the day, at least eight people were injured when Greek police used tear gas at protesters near the ceremony area, local media reported.
Around 4,000-strong protesters had been stopped by Greek police near the Psarades village. The protesters came to the region in 80 buses and chanted slogans against the deal, according to local media.
