Sunday, July 27, 2008

Macedonia: New Name for Thessaloniki Airport

Reports say there will be another round of talks on the Macedonia ‘name’ row in August, while Skopje has urged Greece to rename Thessaloniki’s airport as a sign of good will.

Macedonian media cite an interview that Matthew Nimetz gave for the Greek Net TV in which he calls on Greece and Macedonia to focus on resolving the name issue which has stalled Macedonia’s NATO accession.

Nimetz said that both sides so far have been constructive over many of his suggestions but noted that there is still much to be done to reach a solution that would satisfy both sides.

Meanwhile Macedonian daily Dnevnik cites unnamed Macedonian and Greek diplomats as saying that during the latest round of name talks in early July, Skopje asked Athens to bring back the old name to the Thessaloniki airport as a sign of good will.

Since 1992, a year after Macedonia declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia, the airport was renamed from “Micra” to “Macedonia.”

The sources explain that Skopje’s latest attempt to open side issues in the name talks is a reaction to a similar tendency by Athens. Greece strongly opposed the renaming of Skopje’s international airport from “Petrovec” to “Alexander the Great” in early 2007 and is still arguing that it represents a provocation.

“This is an attempt to motivate Greece to focus on the name issue which is the subject of the United Nations sponsored talks,” Macedonian government source says.

Relations between the two countries significantly worsened in April when Greece blocked Macedonia’s invitation to join NATO arguing that the country should change its name first.

Athens argues the name Macedonia implies Skopje's territorial claims over Greece's own northern province of the same name.

The UN sponsored talks have been ongoing for 15 years.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is Greece so afraid on the issue of Northern Greece [Macedonia} from the Republic of Macedonia? Greeces army consists of 240000 as opose to the Macedonias army of less then 8000? Greeces reason is not that Macedonia will overpower Greeces army,but Greece is afraid of recognition of its Macedonian minority.Those are the only reasons Greece does not recognize the Republic of Macedonia and used the Veto in Bucharest and threatening same for EU.Greece must learn to live in peace with its neigbours,Macedonia will not attack Greece.

Anonymous said...

Etymology (Greek word)

There are a number of theories regarding the etymology of the name "Macedonia". According to ancient Greek mythology, Makednos was a grandson of Deucalion and son to Aeolus(Hesiod) or a grandson of Hellen (Hellanicus). He gave his name to the tribes of the Macedonians, a group of tribes that occupied and settled parts of what is nowadays considered western, southern and central Macedonia and founded the kingdoms of Macedon.

Homer uses the adjective makednós, translated as "tall", to describe a poplar tree and which the grammarian Hesychius of Alexandria records as a Doric word meaning "large" or "heavenly". It has been suggested that both the Macedonians (Makedónes) and their Makednoí tribal ancestors were regarded as tall people, hence their name

According to Herodotus, the Makednoí were a Hellenic tribe that occupied and settled the country that they named Macedonia. Those Macedonians that still chose to migrate south and later invaded Peloponnesus were renamed to Dorians one of the principal ancient Greek tribes.