02:24North Macedonia: Greek PM visits newly renamed country for first time
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited the Government of North Macedonia in Skopje on Tuesday, less than two months after the country officially changed its name from Macedonia, in a bid to solve a decades-long dispute between the two countries.
Though police emptied the streets surrounding the government headquarters, a group of protesters from the "All-Macedonian National Council 'Makedonium'" waved Macedonian flags featuring the Vergina Sun, in protest over the renaming of the country.
Since the then-named Republic of Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece has opposed the use of the name 'Macedonia' without a geographic qualifier, as much of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon was inside the Greek region also called Macedonia.
An agreement was found between the two countries in 2018, and the name of North Macedonia was officially adopted on February 12, 2019.
02:24Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited the Government of North Macedonia in Skopje on Tuesday, less than two months after the country officially changed its name from Macedonia, in a bid to solve a decades-long dispute between the two countries.
Though police emptied the streets surrounding the government headquarters, a group of protesters from the "All-Macedonian National Council 'Makedonium'" waved Macedonian flags featuring the Vergina Sun, in protest over the renaming of the country.
Since the then-named Republic of Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece has opposed the use of the name 'Macedonia' without a geographic qualifier, as much of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon was inside the Greek region also called Macedonia.
An agreement was found between the two countries in 2018, and the name of North Macedonia was officially adopted on February 12, 2019.