TransConflict is pleased to announce that, every Friday, it will be presenting extracts from ‘Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars’ Initiative (Second Edition)’. Charles Ingrao, the Initiative’s director, explains its aims and approach.
The Macedonian side should seek clarification and dismissal of the Greek insistence upon erga omnes – ‘towards all’ – since it is invoked without being related to the context and content of the name issue, and is not grounded in any existing framework.
Macedonia’s future Euro-Atlantic prospects depend heavily on resolving the challenges that arise from the precedent, paradox and pronunciation of the name dispute with Greece.
With the International Court of Justice ruling in December 2011 that Greece had violated the Interim Accord by blocking Macedonia’s bid to join NATO in 2008 in Bucharest, will the same scenario be repeated at the forthcoming NATO Summit in Chicago?
Despite the ICJ ruling that Greece had breached its obligation under the 1995 Interim Accord, the dispute is back to square one, with few signs of genuine interest to find a lasting resolution.
Whilst imploring aspiring members to embrace its own system and values, the EU’s selectiveimplementation of standards – depending on the case and context – means that countries of the region, particularly the Republic of Macedonia, should be cautious about accession.
With incumbent prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, having secured his third consecutive election, thereby confirming his and his party’s hegemony over Macedonia’s politics, it is now time to contemplate how a genuine system of coexistence can be built.
Greece’s continued violation of bilateral and international agreements with respect to Macedonia calls into question its commitment, and that of the international community, to good-neighbourly relations in the Western Balkans.
Facilitating a compromise between the respective parties to the name issue requires a better understanding of the multi-layered character of the dispute, the historically conditioned perspectives of the parties, and the main actors and their perceived interests.
A Greek veto at the upcoming EU council meeting threatens to further fuel growing animosity in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia