The nationalistic government of Skopje under Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski back in 2008 appeared ready to accept an agreement with Greece under the name “Republic of North Macedonia” or “Republic of Northern Macedonia”, a previously classified cable of the US embassy in Skopje, released by Wikileaks.
The classified cable, titled “What the Macedonians need to resolve the name dispute”, is dated July 29, 2008 and was compiled by the then US Ambassador to the neighboring country, Gillian Milovanovic.
The full Wikileaks file can be found here.
New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated his pledge on Monday not to ratify the deal reached between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the latter’s name back in June, following the release by WikiLeaks of a cable which showed Skopje would have accepted the name “North Macedonia” in 2008 provided it included the recognition of the “Macedonian” language and nationality.
In response to Mitsotakis’s remarks, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias issued a statement later saying it was known that FYROM’s prime minister at the time, Nikola Gruevski, did not want any solution to the name dispute.
“In order to mock the international players, [Gruevski] pretended to be forced to accept a compromise. No one believed him, except, in retrospect, Mr Mitsotakis,” Kotzias said in a press release.
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