In an interview for the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov talks about the future of Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and the prospects for resolving the name dispute with Greece. The President said in the interview that Greece deliberately postpones the settlement of the name issue and also that the incumbent Greek government currently has not set this issue high on its political agenda.

”In circumstances dealing with the economic crisis, Greece is not preoccupied with resolving the outstanding issues. We have a problem, Greece has no problem. We have wasted 20 years because Athens has been blocking the start of negotiations with the EU. We have met all the criteria for NATO membership, however, in 2008, Athens put a veto. The Greek conduct has negative consequences for the whole region. Greece is blocking us, and is not recognizing Kosovo. They apply the same approach to us as they apply in the case with Cyprus. And yet, they do this from the position of an EU member state. It is the logic of delays. It is becoming more and more obvious that as Greece deals with the economy, Greece deals in the same way with the politics”, President Ivanov said.

The President explained that by blocking the Republic of Macedonia’s accession to NATO, Greece has violated the Interim Accord, and therefore, Macedonia was forced to initiate a process at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

“The court ruled that Greece has violated the agreement and we expect NATO to accept this judgment”, the Macedonian President said.

President Ivanov referred to the recent visit of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Athens, when the Greeks as a gift gave him a replica of the sword of Alexander the Great and added that maybe the symbolism of the message in this case is clear that he should cut the Gordian knot.

The Macedonian public, according to the President, understands the situation and the fact that we do everything in our capacity to resolve this issue. He also noted that the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and Greece have no problems among themselves.

"Many Macedonians traditionally spend their vacation in Greece; many Greek businessmen invest in Macedonia. Many Greek citizens commute to Macedonia daily and use the services which are cheaper here. Both societies have no problem in communication, that problem was created by the Greek political elite. Greek politicians profit by endorsing such policy towards Macedonia", President Ivanov said in the interview with Austrian Die Presse.