What does Greece’s non-paper contain?


The non-paper published by the Greek media contains an assessment of the successes achieved by Athens through the agreement with Macedonia. In general, Athens praised the agreement in line with the national red line for a compound name with a geographical qualifier for erga omnes use, which has been the same for the past 20 years. These are the other benefits, as interpreted by Greece.

1. The acceptance of erga omnes is a major diplomatic success for Greece, since it was not accepted in the past. This means that our neighbors will not only use the agreed name in their international relations, international organizations, international fora and international documents, but also within the country.

2. The name “Republic of North Macedonia”, which in our country will be recognized as “Severna Makedonija (without English translation)”, puts an end to irredentism in the name “Republic of Macedonia”, which is the contitutional name of the neighboring country and which is recognized by more than 140 countries in bilateral ties, including the US, Russia and China.
3. The Government not only managed to make Skopje accept the erga omnes, but also obligated the neighbor to a direct constitutional review.

4. The constitutional review is a huge victory for Greece, because it was part of our red lines, which we had in the past 20 years, and was followed by all parties and governments, but it was the red line of the current government, and Skopje had never agreed before to change its constitution with an international agreement.

5. The agreement provides for Greece to ratify the agreement only after the constitutional review in the neighboring country is completed. The invitation to NATO and the opening of EU funds will be implemented after ratification by the Macedonian Parliament of the agreement, but its accession to the two organizations will be made after the constitutional review, because the invitation explicitly states that it is invalid if the contract is not fulfilled.
6. With this agreement, we take back our history, symbols and tradition, because the agreement with the neighboring country accepts the difference between the Greek Macedonians, their ancient Greek culture, their language and the region in which the people of that country live with their own history, linguistic and cultural characteristics (see Article 7 below).
7. The name will be written in the Macedonian Constitution after the review. At the same time, more than 140 countries that recognize the country today with the term Macedonia will recognize it as North Macedonia.
8. The name completely separates this country from Greek Macedonia and its three regions (East, Central, West).
9. The end of irresponsibility is confirmed in many formal ways, because the guarantees are given in the most explicit and unambiguous way, which eliminates, prevents and suppresses all kinds of irrational rhetoric and actions, whether coming from public or private entities.
10. It is agreed that all irrational references be deleted from the neighbor’s constitution. For example, a) the copying of the corresponding chapter in the Greek Constitution will be removed. In this context, the members for the protection of “Macedonian minorities” in the neighboring countries will be removed; b) the article on border protection is replaced by deleting all problematic references; c) removal all even implicit historical references to irredentist attitudes in the Preamble of the Constitution.
11. The agreement provides that citizenship in North Macedonia shall be Macedonian / national of the Republic of North Macedonia. This unified term replaces the “Macedonian” term currently on the travel documents, so this is a clear improvement.
12. Greece will recognize citizenship / citizenship as “citizens of North Macedonia”.
13. It is noted that the term “nationality” is different from ethnicity. As a result, the agreement does not recognize nationality / nation, but the right to self-identification of the citizens of the neighbor. Article 7 of the agreement states that our citizens can continue to identify our neighbors with any term they use. (see Article 7 below)
14. Our neighbors have already changed the name of the airport, their highway and their stadium. There will be exchange of monuments with the Municipality of Thessaloniki or if the exchange does not take place, the agreement stipulates that the neighboring country will have plaques of statues and monuments to make it clear that they are symbols of Greek culture (for example, Skopje Square will have an inscription that it behaves of the Hellenistic period and will be marked as a symbol of the friendship between Greece and Macedonia).

15. Although the “Macedonian language” was recognized by Greece within the UN since 1977, the agreement contains an additional clear formulation that it belongs to the family of Slavic languages, as well as the explicit record that this language is separated from the ancient Greek culture and the Greek-Macedonian linguistic heritage.

16. All aggressive determinations of government and public institutions, as well as state / state-funded organizations will be defined by the term “North Macedonia”, while the definition “Macedonia” will be abolished.

  1. A Working Group of Experts will be established, which will have to deal with trademark issues from 2019 within 3 years.
  2. Macedonian language traded for antiquisation?

Article 7 of the agreement states:

  1. Both parties recognize that the terms “Macedonia” and “Macedonian /Macedonian citizen” refer to different historical contexts and cultural heritage
  1. To the first party (Greece n.) these terms mean not only the area and population of its northern region and their characteristics, but also the Greek culture, history, culture and heritage of this region from antiquity to the present.
  2. According to the Second Party (the so-called Macedonia), those terms refer to the territory, language, population and characteristics of its history, culture and heritage which differ from those in Article 7 (2).
  3. The second party mentions that its official language, Macedonian language, belongs to the group of Slavic languages. Both sides note that the official language and other features of the Second Party are not related to the ancient Greek culture, history, culture and heritage of the northern area of ​​the First Party.