[ad_1]
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday welcomed the approval by the Macedonian parliament of a proposed change to the country's name, which is a decisive step towards the end of decades of discord between the two countries. two neighbors.
On October 20, 2018, Greek Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivered a speech at a ceremony at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Athens, Greece. REUTERS / Costas Baltas
The Macedonian parliament on Friday approved the proposed new name for the Republic of Macedonia North, after a referendum last month did not reach the minimum turnout.
The decision could unblock Macedonia's bid to join NATO and the European Union, long blocked by Greece, saying that "Macedonia" implied land claims to a Greek province of the same name.
The proposal still has to go through new approval stages, including the adoption of the Greek Parliament, despite the hostility of the Greek Defense Minister to be formally adopted.
"Today is a symbolic and historic day for our foreign policy after yesterday's decision in the Skopje parliament that paves the way for the implementation of a historic agreement," Tsipras said at a meeting today. of a ceremony to take over the portfolio of foreign affairs.
He added that the implementation of the agreement would also allow the small Balkan country to join international organizations, referring to the European Union and NATO.
Tsipras assumed the role of Foreign Minister after Nikos Kotzias, Greece's chief negotiator in the negotiations that led to the agreement, withdrew after a dispute with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Kammenos is the head of the independent Greek right-wing party, co-leader, who, with the left-wing party Tsrias Syriza, has a slim majority in the Greek parliament.
He described the Macedonia deal as a national liquidation and threatened to resign if it was submitted to the Greek parliament.
In a protracted dispute with its neighbor, Greece insisted on the change of name because it considers that the name of Macedonia implies a territorial claim on a Greek region of the north of the same name and an attempt to divert the ancient Greek civilization.
In announcing Kotzias' resignation Wednesday, Tsipras said he would no longer tolerate "double talk" among members of his cabinet, in a speech supposed to be directed towards Kammenos.
In a Friday publication on Twitter, Kammenos hinted that backhanders played a role in Macedonia's approval of the name change.
"Who would have thought that in Europe values and democracy, those who do not vote according to the instructions are imprisoned and those who comply there receive a bonus of 2 million euros in black money ", he tweeted after the vote of the Macedonian Parliament.
Macedonian government spokesman Mile Bosnjakovski tweeted in response that Kammenos' comment was a "false news" that the country's government had already denied.
Tsipras did not react.
Report by Michele Kambas and Angeliki Koutantou. Edited by Jane Merriman and Ros Russell
