NATO refused The Former Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) an invitation to join the alliance on Thursday, raising concerns over new tensions in the troubled Balkans, after Greece vetoed the decision in a row over the ex-Yugoslav state’s name.
The jilted Macedonian delegation walked out of a NATO summit which opened the military alliance’s doors to Skopje’s Adriatic partners, Croatia and Albania.
A defiant Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said before leading his delegation home: “I want to send a message to Greece. We will survive and the Macedonian people will overcome this misfortune.”
NATO and the European Union had sought an urgent solution to the long-running dispute between Macedonia and Greece, fearing a rejection could destabilise the region, already riled by Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in February.
Macedonian officials acknowledged such concerns but pledged that Skopje would remain on a reform track.
“This is a huge disapointment,” government spokesman Nikola Dimitrov told Reuters. “It is a decision which goes against stability in the Balkans. It encourages all the radical forces.”
Allied leaders meeting in Bucharest authorised their ambassadors to issue the invitation as soon as the name dispute, which has festered for 17 years, is resolved.
“We have agreed that an invitation to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be issued as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.
A dozen Macedonian journalists stormed out of his news conference with raised clenched fists after the announcement.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki raised uncertainty over future talks with Athens. Asked if Skopje would resume negotiations, he said: “The goverment will have to reconsider this issue”.
“Republic of Macedonia is the name of a real, exisiting country. It is the cornerstone of the national identity.”
QUESTIONS OVER STABILITY
Political analysts say Macedonia faces an uncertain future because the loss of its immediate prospects of joining NATO and possibly the European Union, where Greece holds a veto, could cause its fragile ethnic power-sharing arrangement to unravel.
Macedonia went to the brink of civil war in 2001 between the Slav Macedonian majority and an Albanian minority before an accord brokered by the EU and NATO pulled it back.
“Macedonia remains in a turbulent position, considering its ethnic make-up,” said Andjelko Milardovic of Croatia’s Centre for Political Research.
“But Albania’s invitation is a good sign that there will be no serious attempts to create a ‘Greater Albania’,” he said.
Macedonia, which broke from Yugoslavia in 1991, has the same name as Greece’s most northerly province. Athens insists Skopje must use a compound name such as “New” or “Upper” Macedonia.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said Athens believed a negotiated solution to the name issue was necessary.
“We cannot just cover it up or put it under the carpet … and we don’t believe there is any risk for the stability of the country,” she told a news conference.
Using tortuous circumlocution to avoid the name, de Hoop Scheffer referred to “the nation for which an invitation is not yet possible” and “the nation that has not yet been invited”.
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