Greece shifts strategy on name dispute – report

16:08 Mon 07 Apr 2008 - Elena Koinova

The Greek government is busy drawing up a new strategy for its name dispute with Macedonia, Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia quoted government sources as saying on condition of anonymity on April 7.

The news comes days after Greece vetoed the invitation of its neighbour to Nato.

The government sources said the veto improved Greece's standing in the row because the international community realised that the conflict was not over despite that 120 countries had recognised the former Yugoslav state as the Republic of Macedonia.

What is more, the row between Athens and Skopje is no longer bilateral but international and as such it had to be solved under the aegis of the United Nations.

Finally, the Greek veto showed the Macedonian government that it should take steps to find a compromise with Athens and drop its position, the government sources said, as quoted by Eleftherotypia.

The same sources urged Athens to exercise caution during the forthcoming talks and to tailor its moves in a way that could keep negotiations alive so as to avert nationalist outbreaks in the former Yugoslav republic.

According to Imerisia newspaper, the unstable political situation in Macedonia makes it difficult for UN envoy Matthew Nimetz to offer Athens and Skopje a new draft resolution for the dispute.

At the same time, Athens fears the United States pressure on the name dispute. Greek diplomats were quoted by Imerisia as saying that the Greek veto at the Bucharest summit succeeded because it coincided with that of Germany and France on the membership action plans for Ukraine and Georgia.

Kathimerini newspaper, for its part, said that Greece saw Republic New Macedonia as the plausible option for both sides.

Comments

Comments by james gabriel - 19:03 03 May 2008
	PETER ,WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LANGUAGE,S THE GREEK LANGUAGE IS THE OLDEST ONE ! FRIEND ,MAN YOU ARE ONE SLAVE ON GREEK LANDS ! NOTHING WRONG TO BE WHAT YOU ARE! BUT TO BE MACEDONIAN,S IS TOO MUCH ! GOD BLESS YOU , JUST YOU NEED TO READ HISTORY ! HOW COME ALEXANDRE TALKING ABOUT HELLENIC CIVILIZATION CULTURE ? WHY? BECAUSE MACEDONIA WAS ONE GREEK STATE LIKE MANY OTHER ,YES THEY DID FOUGHT EACH OTHER BUT ALL WAS GREEKS ! SO MY SELF FIFTH , MACEDONIA GREEK GENERATION MY OTHER FRIEND IS FROM SPARTA THE OTHER FROM THESSALY SO ALL WE ARE GREEK,S ! GOOD BY AND GOOD LUCK ! JAMES , THE MACEDONIA,N GREEK !