Macedonia Passes Name Change, Opposition Charges 'Treason'

On Friday, the parliament of Macedonia passed a bill to officially change the name of the country to end a longstanding dispute with Greece.

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The name change will "open the doors to the future, Macedonia's European future," specifically, steps closer to joining the North Atlantic alliance, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stated in an address to members of parliament.

Macedonian lawmakers voted 81 out of 120 in favor of a move to honor the Prespa Agreement - which was signed in June 2018 - to adopt a new name, Republic of North Macedonia.

However, the decision has been met with mixed reactions with several hundreds of people launching days-long protests, outside the Macedonian parliament, against the deal. 

Additionally, conservative opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski also remarked that the vote to change the name of the country, to appease Greece, was "an act of treason."

The new edict will bring to an end to an almost three-decade feud with neighbor Greece over a conflict regarding a region of the latter which shares a similar name.

The name change will only officially take place after Greece ratifies the decision and smooth over the relationship between the two countries that has been tumultuous since the newly named Republic of Macedonia broke away from Yugoslavia, in 1991.

On changing the name of the country, the nation moves closer to being granted North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership. Greece has blocked the Republic of Macedonia's entry into both NATO and the European Union.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted support for the agreement, stating that it is "an important contribution to a stable and prosperous region."

The Republic of Macedonia was previously referred to as Skopje (after the country’s capital) or FYROM (the short form of former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).