Athens on Thursday issued an official response to current statements by the prime minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, who indicated that Skopje doesn’t contemplate the identify dispute with Greece as resolved.
Mickoski, Greece’s International Ministry mentioned, is making an attempt to “carry a difficulty again to the fore that has, as everyone knows, been settled as soon as and for all.”
It was responding to feedback made by Mickoski at a gathering of fellow North Macedonians in New Jersey on Wednesday, throughout his go to to the US for the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
“We have to begin successful in Washington, Brussels, Berlin, London, Paris, Rome if we would like the Macedonian concern to lastly arrive at its conclusion. Our concern is just not settled. It’s been smoldering for hundreds of years and it nonetheless exists,” the prime minister of North Macedonia was quoted by the Republika newspaper as saying.
“Greece reminds that additional progress in its bilateral relations with North Macedonia and the sleek continuation of the neighboring nation’s European path require full respect for the Prespa Settlement and, after all, refraining from irredentist declarations and claims in opposition to neighboring nations,” the response from Athens added.
The assertion referred to the landmark settlement signed between Athens and Skopje in 2018 settling the decades-old identify dispute.
Since assuming workplace final summer season, Mickoski, a nationalist, has usually violated the phrases of the settlement by referring to his nation as “Macedonia” as an alternative of utilizing its constitutional identify, North Macedonia.
