FYROM PM Zoran Zaev will visit Berlin next Wednesday and meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The official agenda of talks released might speak of matters pertaining to “bilateral relations” but it is almost certain that the name issue will be touched upon, as there is international pressure for the resolution of the matter before the NATO Summit in summer.
Meanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias continued his contacts with his counterpart from FYROM, Nikola Dimitrov in Sofia Bulgaria. The two foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the informal meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union in Sofia.
Nikos Kotzias, however, in his interview to journalist Antonis Schroeder for current affairs TV programme “Autopsy” on Alpha TV once again reiterated the term “Macedonian” would be included in the name of FYROM. The names that he used as an example of the proposals that were put on the table were indicative of the course of talks. “It is Upper Macedonia, it is Northern Macedonia, it is Macedonia of Vardari, it is Macedonia Vardaski. There is a debate there. The name will be Latin, will be in English, let’s say, and then potentially translated into all languages. This is what I think the Skopje would like. My wish is a bit more complex. I would like a name that would visually and audibly be something that everyone would understand that there was another Macedonia, a geographic entity, not a historical, a legacy, from Greek Macedonia.”