Tsipras urged Merkel for change of Constitution

German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, the day before the visit of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, spoke with Greek leader Alexis Tsipras on the name dispute.

“The two leaders discussed the course of talks on the name issue of the FYROM, Turkey’s provocative aviation activity in the Aegean Sea and Euro-Turkish relations,” Tsipras’ cabinet said in a statement.

Although Merkel is in the midst of political problems over the formation of the government, and the head of diplomacy Sigmar Gabriel in his party leads the political battle, Berlin is one of the shadow centers behind the settlement of the dispute between Macedonia and Greece. Greek television “Sky” reported that Merkel’s Tsipras stressed the need for a final solution to the dispute, changing the constitutional name of the neighboring country. According to the same sources, the Greek Prime Minister and the German Chancellor agreed to meet Friday in Brussels at an informal meeting of EU leaders.

The optimism of the Macedonian Prime Minister on the name dispute by July and the statement that identity is not one of the seven points that are being negotiated did not remain unnoticed by the Greek media. “Zaev’s Bomb” and “Zaev revealed that identity is not negotiable” are the main comments in the texts of journalists in Greece after the Macedonian Prime Minister’s interview for the Austrian radio ORF.
“If Greece does not really raise the issue of citizenship, then negotiations are likely to be more advanced than they were being evaluated and aimed at finding a mutually acceptable name. In the scenarios that are heard, the geographical determinant, probably “Upper Macedonia”, writes “Ta Nea”.

The news portal “Newspost” commented that despite the optimism of Zaev for a solution by July, however, from the meetings of Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov, “white smoke” has not yet come out.

– It seems that “Upper Macedonia” is the name that prevails, but the Albanian community in the FYROM expresses reservations regarding the use of a Slavic benchmark. Shortcuts and acronyms are related to the issue of the Constitution, while the issue of commercial use seems to be one of those issues that have been resolved, “the news portal” Newsstand “writes, analyzing the three points that Prime Minister Zaev said have been removed.

Regarding Athens’s demands for a change in the Constitution, it is stated that according to recent information, estimates are that the Gordian knot could be broken by an international treaty ratified by the UN Security Council, which from the moment it is signed, at the level of international legal order, exceeds the power of the constitutional order of any country.
This scenario has been mentioned by the Greek media for a certain period, as a possible variant for overcoming the different positions of the two countries regarding a possible change of the Constitution. Greek journalists in their texts emphasize the meetings of President Gjorge Ivanov in Ankara and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Berlin. The online edition of the Proto Topic commented that Merkel-Zaev officially announced the meeting, there is no doubt that Berlin is part of the strong Western players who not only want a solution but also push in that direction.

The solution should be accepted by the entire international community and from those countries that use the name Macedonia, said Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis in an interview with Sky News.

“We want a solution that will be accepted by the international community as a whole. This is the goal because at this moment the international community calls the country Macedonia. We want a solution that will bind the international community and change the decision on bilateral recognition and call them by name that will not be irredentistically or with demands from our history, our identity or our culture, “Bakoyannis says.

Regarding what the solution should be, she reiterates New Democracy’s position that in no case should there be a solution in stages, but a package deal.