Greeks maintain their northern neighbour’s name implies a territorial claim to Greece’s adjoining province of Macedonia — home of Alexander the Great, one of the most famous ancient Greek rulers. Officially called the Republic of Macedonia when it peacefully gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the country was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional name of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because of the dispute with Greece. As a NATO member, Greece has blocked Macedonia’s bid to join the alliance because of the name dispute. “We’ll see what results he can achieve over this round,” Haq added. “There are grounds for cautious optimism based on the willingness by the parties to work with each other, and let’s see where we go with that.”

Source: National Post January 30, 2018 00:33 UTC