Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said that “the former Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, did not want to resolve the name dispute.”
The reaction from Kotzias follows information published by Wikileaks, that Macedonian authorities had accepted a name change back in 2008.
“It is well known that Gruevski did not want any solution to the name dispute. He ridiculed international players, saying he was being forced to compromise. Nobody trusted him except, if we recall, Mr. Mitsotakis,” said Kotzias.
“Kathimerini” published a confidential document from the US Embassy in Skopje titled “What Macedonians Need to Do to Address the Name Dispute,” written by the then US ambassador to Macedonia, Gillian Milovanovic.
It states that as early as 2008, Skopje officially agreed to change the constitutional name in “the Republic of North Macedonia”, provided that it included recognition of the Macedonian language and nationality.
The first part of the document mentions that Milovanovic presented her conclusions after talks with the then President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski and Nikola Gruevski, and states that the conditions were acceptable to the country.
“The US Embassy in Skopje estimates that the Macedonian Government is ready for the path to NATO and EU membership by agreeing on the name the Republic of North Macedonia by all international organizations,” reads the document from the US Embassy in Macedonia, which Wikileaks published.
