What's in a name? In Macedonia, this is no easy question.

In an interview, Macedonia's new president, Gjorge Ivanov, says he hopes to resolve a long-simmering name dispute with Greece.

By Chris Deliso | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 22, 2009 edition

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Skopje, Macedonia - At first glance, being Macedonia's president has never been better.

With the opening of a grand villa residence surrounded by shady pines, high on the slopes of Mt. Vodno overlooking Skopje, banished forever is the former ignominious reality of presidents sharing space in the antiquated parliament building downtown, almost 18 years since the small Balkan country declared independence from Yugoslavia on Sept. 8, 1991.

Despite the tranquility of his elevated quarters, however, the new residence's first occupant, who was inaugurated May 12, won't have time to relax.

Despite never having held public office, political science professor Gjorge Ivanov – once a student leader in the pro-democracy movement that helped topple communism in Eastern Europe – won in April as the candidate of the ruling center-right VMRO-DPMNE party.

Professor Ivanov campaigned under the slogan of "One for All." Indeed, considerable teamwork, consensus building, and foreign support – especially from the United States – will be essential for him to navigate through one of the most intractable, and certainly the strangest, of issues in the Balkans today: the dispute with Greece over Macedonia's right to its chosen name.

The name issue has been manipulated by politicians in both Athens and Skopje ever since Macedonia's independence. Greece immediately protested, claiming that the existence of its own, eponymous northern province, and issues of ancient historical heritage, precluded the possibility of a state named Macedonia.

In 1995, following a crippling Greek economic embargo, the "provisional" name of "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" was applied to allow the country to attain United Nations membership.

However, the Republic of Macedonia retains its constitutional name, and most countries (including the US) recognize it thus.

Nevertheless, Greece has used its political and economic might to block its smaller and weaker neighbor's international development – notably at last year's NATO summit in Bucharest, where Athens torpedoed Macedonia's anticipated NATO invitation. Despite personal pleas from then-President Bush, Greece held firm – no name change, no membership.

Since then, nationalism has hardened in both countries, and with it, foreign pressure to reach a compromise solution through UN-brokered talks.

In his visit to the region earlier this week, US Vice President Joseph Biden urged Balkan nations to integrate more with a unified Europe rather than focus on ethnic and national differences.

"When will this region tire of the sickening excessive nationalism that generates such carnage?" Mr. Biden asked, during a speech Thursday in neighboring Kosovo.

A changing of the guard

The chronic antagonism between President Ivanov's predecessor, Branko Crvenkovski, and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski stymied cooperation on reaching a unified negotiating position for tackling the name dispute; unhelpfully, both leaders publicly attacked each other's proposals.

Longtime chief of the rival Social Democratic Party of Macedonia (SDSM), Mr. Crvenkovski was politically opposed to the ruling party and its government. (Since stepping down upon President Ivanov's inauguration, Crvenkovski has returned to the SDSM, and intends to restore the once-powerful party's sagging fortunes).

After the VMRO-DPMNE won parliamentary elections in 2006 and again in 2008, the animosity between Gruevski and Crvenkovski became a comfortable excuse for not solving the name dispute.

However, with his nominating party controlling both government and parliament, Ivanov acknowledges that "now, there is no excuse for any of us to not solve the major problems facing the country" – including the name dispute.

Indeed, Mr. Gruevski, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki, and the president recently met to create a common strategy for future name-dispute negotiations.

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