20 June 2018•Update: 20 June 2018
By Admir Fazlagikj and Dzihat Aliju
SKOPJE
The Macedonian parliament ratified on Wednesday an agreement signed with Greece over solving a name dispute between the two countries.
Sixty-nine out of 120 lawmakers voted in favor of the agreement.
Speaking at the parliament before the voting, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said NATO has unanimously called on Wednesday to make an invitation to Macedonia to the alliance during the its summit meeting on July 11-12 in Brussels.
Greece and its northern neighbor on Sunday signed a historic accord on renaming Macedonia, which ended a long-standing dispute between the two countries.
The deal proposes changing Macedonia's name to the Republic of North Macedonia and will enable Greece to lift its veto on Macedonia's EU and NATO accession.
After being ratified by the Macedonian parliament, the agreement will be brought to President Gyorge Ivanov and the president will have seven days to approve it.
In his previous statements, Ivanov has said that he will not sign the agreement.
Greece is also supposed to inform the EU and NATO that it supports membership negotiations of its northern neighbor, as the deal is ratified by the Macedonian parliament.
The agreement will come into force once the two countries completed all domestic ratification processes.
Macedonian Prime Minister Zaev has said a referendum would be held in September or October regarding the agreement that ended the name dispute.
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.
Despite the dispute between Athens and Skopje, many countries, including Turkey recognize the country as Macedonia.
* Fatih Hafiz Mehmet contributed to this report from Ankara.
