Macedonia expects to choose dispute over name with Greece on June 9th

After failing the conversation warned by Zaev for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of last week, this time without correcting, Zaev says it is a matter of days when phone conversations will end the multi-year conflict. Unofficially, however, it is claimed that the US has asked Zaev until 9 June to give consent to the text of the agreement.

So at least Zaev was quoted by the media in Macedonia.

I believe we're really on our own. I'll be careful, so the end is successful, happy ending. I would not comment on details, from the simple reason that the circumstances for phone conversations are still developing. I believe there are days when phone conversations occur and once it happens as well as its contents I will inform citizens. These days I want to be days of successful completion of the” process, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said, Alsat M reports. Zaev is said not to have confirmed but also exposed information about proposals at the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kocias was quoted as saying final words, stressing that negotiators should have patience and restraint and not be influenced by the media and opposition for domestic political games.

It's time to say Yes or no big deal and then you understand the difficulties. I have the impression that now that we have to end up with this job, the leadership in Skopje has understood the huge difficulties that exist for its implementation and has played a role in wanting to reflect and discuss the clarifications of the agreement. I am convinced that the difficulties will soon be exceeded”, said Greece's Foreign Minister Nikos Kocias.

Kocias also said that there are proposals for definitions such as Macedonia: <x0-North>”, “E Top” and “E Re” According to him, if agreement is reached, the coming weeks it will be in the Skopje Assembly, while in autumn there will be a referendum, after all constitutional changes.

Kocias asked the Greek Church to stay away from this political-diplomatic issue. He stressed that the current government has drafted a draft twenty-page agreement, while drafts of the preliminary governments did not exceed even two pages. The Greek chief diplomat said they did not hold criticisms of opposition New Democracy, because when this party was in power, Macedonia-Skopje had accepted the proposal. While the Macedonian language was recorded well before the dispute arose. This prompted immediate reaction. “In Bucharest, the Greek Government of Karamanlis; Foreign Minister Bakoyanni and Defence Minister Meimarakis had rejected a bad compromise. Kocias did something very bad yesterday. He has adopted Skopje's view of the Macedonian language instead of the Greek position, which has never accepted “, said Giorgos Koumoutsikos, from New Democracy to Greece.

On Wednesday, dozens of cities in Greece will protest against using the term “Macedonia” in the country's next evental name. Over 100,000 Greeks participated in similar protests in February of this year. /Alsat M/