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The Macedonian government got just enough support from Parliament on Friday night to keep alive an agreement to change the name of the country, which could end a bitter and decades-old conflict with Greece and put the Balkan nation on on the path to NATO membership.
Parliament voted at the narrow margin to amend the constitution to rename the country to the Republic of Macedonia, giving a tenuous victory to the government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Western allies.
Eighty MPs voted in favor of this measure – barely a two-thirds majority required for constitutional changes – after a week of controversial talks that resulted in 12 hours of intense negotiations on Friday.
Parliament's decision was made even though a referendum last month failed to attract a sufficient turnout to approve the name change.
"Our path to a better future, to the US and NATO membership is just beginning," Zaev said after the vote, while acknowledging that much remained to be done.
Indeed, the way forward remains complicated and the end result is far from certain.
Legislators now have 30 days to prepare amendments to the Constitution, which must be passed before the agreement can be considered by the Greek Parliament, where significant opposition should be overcome. The Greek Foreign Minister resigned this week as members of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' fragile ruling coalition fought for the deal.
Greece refused to recognize the newly formed nation, considering its decision to call itself Macedonia as a thinly veiled claim on a territory in northern Greece, including the strategically important port of Thessaloniki.
Although Macedonia assured in the years of negotiations that it would make no claim on Greek lands, the question proved insoluble.
For many Greeks – who call the Balkan country Skopje, the name of the capital – any use of the name of Macedonia by their northern neighbors is an attempt to distort the story and make a false statement to the Greek culture.
According to this argument, ancient Macedonia was a Hellenistic society and the name is reserved for the Greeks.
At the same time, many Macedonians, whose internationally recognized name is the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, say that no country has the right to tell another country how it can be called.
The previous nationalist government in Macedonia has exploited the passions surrounding this issue. He stoked Greek anger by renaming Skopje airport after Alexander the Great and erect dozens of statues to the ancient Macedonian warrior.
Thus, when Zaev joined his Greek counterpart, Mr. Tsipras, on the shores of Lake Prespa in northern Greece in June to announce an agreement between the two countries, he was widely praised by the West. .
"This is our own rendezvous with history," said Tsipras at the time.
But it was a decision hailed by the demonstrations in both countries and it could still prove the loss of both governments.
The agreement caused political upheavals in Greece. The country's foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, resigned on Wednesday following reports of growing divergence between the ruling coalition and the disputed agreement.
Kotzias, who signed the name agreement in June, would be at odds with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, the young partner of Tsipras' coalition, who vigorously opposed to the agreement and proposed another plan during an official visit to Washington. .
Tsipras told reporters that he would take up the post of foreign minister to underline his commitment to selling the name. He said he would no longer tolerate any "duplicity" or "personal agenda" of his ministers that could jeopardize the country's recovery as soon as it leaves the international bailout.
In Macedonia, the main opposition party, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, called on lawmakers to vote against the continuation of the agreement.
Instead, he said his members should prevent the government from negotiating any constitutional changes. The party called for the establishment of "strategic partnerships" with the European Union and NATO, without becoming members of these alliances, until the issue of the name is resolved.
Western leaders have, however, made it clear in recent weeks that if Macedonia does not support the agreement now, another chance to join NATO may not be forthcoming for long.
The leaders of the United States and Europe applauded the agreement as an opportunity to bring stability to the historically unstable region.
At the same time, Moscow, long opposed to NATO enlargement, was trying to undermine the deal, according to US intelligence officials and Greek and Macedonian authorities.
As the Macedonian Parliament debated the issue, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a statement condemning what she said was the Western pressure on the opponents of the agreement.
"A flood of calls from overseas has literally hit opposition MPs," the ministry wrote. "The grossest intervention of the United States and the European Union continues unchecked. in the internal affairs of Skopje. "
While Moscow has said that Macedonia and Greece should resolve the issue without outside interference, Western authorities have accused Russia of using various means to undermine the deal.
US intelligence agencies acted aggressively to repel what they said was A campaign of Russian influence in Greece, going as far as to refer to the Greek government, intercepted communications that showed how a Greek-Russian billionaire, Ivan Savvidis, had allowed Moscow to sabotage the deal.
In last month's referendum, more than 90 percent of voters supported the agreement, but fewer than 36 percent of registered voters went to the polls. Low participation meant that the issue needed to be addressed in Parliament.
In Macedonia, before the referendum, Western officials have expressed concern that not enough has been done to counter the flood of false information flooding social media, largely led by Russia.
A campaign urging people to boycott the referendum has been successful for a number of reasons, not least because the name change of the nation has long been deeply unpopular in Macedonia.
Many who supported the name change did not because they liked the agreement, but because it gave them confidence that the country would then be admitted to NATO and on the way to membership of the European Union. It was a message conveyed by a parade of Western leaders who visited the country a few days before the vote.
Angela Merkel became the first German Chancellor to visit the country and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the decision as a "unique opportunity in a lifetime".
