In Greece, postponement of the vote on an agreement with Macedonia



[ad_1]

On January 25, the Greek parliament postponed the vote on the ratification of a treaty with neighboring Macedonia in order to change the name of that state to North Macedonia.

The reason for this was the need to give time to speeches delivered to a large number of Members of Parliament in the Speaker's debate. At first, a vote after a four-day parliamentary debate was scheduled for the evening of 24 January.

In both countries, the agreement has many opponents who accuse the governments of their countries of selling too much on the other side and organize protests from time to time; the last, January 20 in Athens, ended with clashes with the police. Now another demonstration of this type has begun to gather near the Greek Parliament building. And before January 24, the Greek Communist Party posed huge posters with the words "No agreement between Tsipras and Zayev" on the walls of the historic Acropolis of Athens.

The governments of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zayev signed an agreement in June 2018. The document plans to change the name of Macedonia to North Macedonia in order for Athens to unlock the country. entry of Skopje into NATO and the EU

The Macedonian Parliament, after lengthy debates, approved the amendments to the country's Constitution under its new name on 11 January, with 81 votes in total, a total of 120 votes. For the agreement to enter into force, it still needs to be ratified by the Greek parliament. In this document, for this reason, a fairly simple majority of 300 deputies. However, the Cypriot party "Siriza" has 145 deputies since the recent loss of its partner in the coalition and the prime minister will need opposition votes.

Since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the emergence of an independent Macedonia in 1991, Greece has opposed this name from a neighboring country , that this name constitutes a territorial claim in its regard. The same name, they say in Athens, has a traditional region in northern Greece, covering two and a half modern provinces, and the same name was not an ancient kingdom that existed mainly in the northern territory of the modern Greek state and who played an important role in the history of ancient Greece, and the world is known for its conquering king, Alexander Macedonian.

As a result of this controversy and the position of Greece, the modern state of Macedonians-Slavs has been recognized by a number of intergovernmental and international organizations under the temporary title "L & # 39; former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ". Athens said that it would block the entry of Skopje into NATO and the European Union until it changed the name of its state.

[ad_2]
Source link