By Stavros Lygeros

For decades, Greece’s official state policy has been that there is no Macedonia issue. Adopting the same myopic policy, Athens now refuses to discuss the identity (i.e. ethnicity/language) of its northwestern neighbors. Greece has taken refuge behind a UN Security Council resolution that negotiations concern the state’s name only. But the policy runs against Greece’s national and political interests.

On a national level, one has to understand that the core of the problem is Skopje’s bid to lay exclusive claim to Macedonian identity. Even if it agrees to the name “Upper Macedonia,” its expansionist claims will continue. The only way to bury these ambitions is by also altering the name of the predominant ethnic group/language. The name “Macedonian” refers to the entire region and is therefore unacceptable. A proper description should rather contain references to the ethnic group as well as geography (such as Slav-Macedonian).

In fact, FYROM’s raising of the issue makes things easier for Greece. The Slav-Macedonians did so in order to copyright the name “Macedonia” for their identity. Greece should have taken the opportunity to also impose a name change on this level. But instead Greece has refused to negotiate on identity issues.

The ineffectiveness of Greece’s tactics has been demonstrated in the latest proposal by Matthew Nimetz, which clearly states that the ethnicity/language of the state in question will be “Macedonian.” His move took Athens officials by surprise but they should have known better. Given Athens’s refusal to negotiate, it was natural that Nimetz would meet Skopje’s demand on the nationality/language issue, so as to get some kind of compromise on the name issue in compensation.

Greece was right to reject the proposal, but every rejection comes with a price – especially when Greece has not specified any red lines to indicate what is negotiable and what isn’t. So long as it fails to do so, it will be at the mercy of the US-guided mediator.