In this instance, he is far closer to reality than any other Greek I have met online.

[QUOTE=Amphipolis;172805]Well, he's correctly not described as a "Greek journalist", but as a "journalist based in Athens", the kind of leftist who will even become pro-NATO and "pro-imperialism" when it is to speak against Greece.[/QUOTE]

Really Amphipolis? Is that the excuse you come up with?
Your reasoning is both skewered and pathetic.
The reality of it is, as Risto stated above, is that this journalist is very rational.

With a name like Zenakos, he is not just a journalist based in Athens...

[url]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-macedonia-opposition/greek-opposition-wont-back-deal-on-name-unless-skopje-changes-constitution-idUSKBN1HJ1SJ[/url]

[B]Greek opposition won't back deal on name unless Skopje changes constitution[/B]

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s conservative political opposition will not back a deal to settle a decades-old row with Macedonia over its name unless the ex-Yugoslav republic changes its constitution, its leader said on Thursday.

Athens and Skopje are negotiating to settle a dispute that has kept Macedonia from joining NATO and the European Union. Greece believes the name “Macedonia” implies a territorial claim over its northern region, which uses the same name.

“We will express our strong disagreement in parliament if and when such an accord comes,” New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose party leads the country’s leftist-led government in opinion polls, told the foreign press association.

“A constitutional review (by Skopje) is a necessary precondition for an accord,” he said.

[U]The changes New Democracy wants would affect passages in the Macedonian constitution that refer to nationality, language and other articles. Macedonia so far has refused to consider any such changes. And in any case the Greek government can pass any agreement without the help of New Democracy. [/U]

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied in the northern city of Thessaloniki and in Athens earlier this year to protest against the use of the name “Macedonia” in any solution to the row.

Mitsotakis accused the government of conducting “secret diplomacy” and then briefing political parties in the opposition, saying its tactics are dividing Greeks.

Talks between the two states have been inconclusive since 1991, when Macedonia withdrew from former Yugoslavia. It was admitted into the United Nations in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, sometimes referred to as FYROM.

[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DagctcUWsAMVxde.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Niko777;172854][IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DagctcUWsAMVxde.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

I would love to know how the Macedonian 'negotiators' deal with the outrageous claim from the greek side that our name is a threat to them...clearly only a very minor section of the greek lunatic fringe consider us a threat and yet the greek side has used this red herring quite successfully as the cornerstone of their argument against Macedonia's recognition.

It is time that the Macedonian leadership called out the real issue that has created this ridiculous stalemate...which is the annexation of Macedonian lands and the plethora of human rights abuses against the indigenous Macedonian population that have followed ever since...this is what the greeks are trying to conceal, the many ethnic skeletons that exist in the so called 'homogenous greek' closet.

From the website of today's EU summit in Sofia

[IMG]https://fokus.mk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jazikot-3676ton7zh5j75kg1hf5s0-696x383.jpg[/IMG]

What an interesting collection of different languages:

Bosnian:
Mi, lideri Evropske unije (EU) i njenih zemalja članica, uz konsultacije sa našim partnerima sa Zapadnog Balkana, i u prisustvu relevantnih zainteresovanih strana iz regiona, danas zaključujemo sljedeće:

Montenegrin:
Mi, lideri Evropske unije (EU) i njenih zemalja članica, uz konsultacije sa našim partnerima sa Zapadnog Balkana, i u prisustvu relevantnih zainteresovanih strana iz regiona, danas zaključujemo sljedeće:

Serbian:
Ми, лидери Европске уније (ЕУ) и њених држава чланица, у консултацији са партнерима са Западног Балкана и у присуству релевантних регионалних актера, данас смо закључили следеће

[QUOTE=Niko777;173348]From the website of today's EU summit in Sofia

[IMG]https://fokus.mk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jazikot-3676ton7zh5j75kg1hf5s0-696x383.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Ahhhh that Bulgarian friendship agreement... the Tartars will say our countries have never been closer

[url]https://www.wsj.com/articles/macedonia-greece-close-to-ending-decades-old-dispute-over-name-1526579523[/url]

[B]Macedonia, Greece Close to Ending Decades-Old Dispute Over Name [/B]

Greece has long blocked Balkan neighbor’s EU membership due to dispute over its name

SOFIA, Bulgaria—Greece and its neighbor, Macedonia, are close to resolving a decades-old dispute that has prevented the small Balkan country from joining the European Union, creating a rare bright spot in a region where hopes of joining the bloc remain largely on hold.

Greece has long blocked Macedonia’s EU membership because of its long-running objections the country’s name. The former part of Yugoslavia, then known as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, adopted the shortened version Macedonia when it became independent 27 years ago.

That triggered a dispute with neighboring Greece, which contains a neighboring region called Macedonia—named, like the country to its north, after the ancient kingdom of Alexander the Great. Athens has used its veto power to keep the newcomer out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and to block EU accession talks. As a result, the provisional name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Fyrom, is used by international organizations and countries that don’t recognize the state, although about 140 countries recognize its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart, Zoran Zaev, agreed in Sofia on nearly all the parameters of an international deal, according to several officials. [B][U]It is most likely that the the Balkan nation will go by the new name “Upper Macedonia,” officials from both countries said. [/U][/B]

If they manage to iron out the last details, the two countries could strike a final deal before the next summit of EU leaders in late June, when the European Commission could vote to start accession talks with Macedonia.

The two countries have been keen to come to an agreement before the next NATO summit on July 11.

Any accord would require approval by parliaments in both countries. Macedonia’s fragile government would also have to revise the country’s constitution to reflect the changes.

Meanwhile, doubts among EU members about the pace of the bloc’s enlargement and conditions for admitting new countries are spelling a long wait for Macedonia’s Balkan neighbors.

Pressed by concerns about Russian, Chinese and Turkish influence in the Balkans, the EU’s executive earlier this year set 2025 as a target date for enlarging the bloc to at least the most advanced of the nonmember Balkan countries, namely Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia, aside from Macedonia.

However, at a meeting of EU and Balkan leaders in the Bulgarian capital on Thursday, the obstacles to enlargement were again on display. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose country faces its own secession issues with Catalonia and is one of five EU members not to recognize the former Serbian province of Kosovo as an independent country, left the meeting early.

French President Emmanuel Macron said previous enlargements had contributed to a weakening of the EU over the past 15 years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she preferred to focus on the speed of economic, judicial and political reforms in the aspirant members, not target dates.

"Opening up a time horizon I think isn’t so important,” she said in a press conference.

After the wars that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the EU lost focus on the region as the bloc was consumed by its own internal crises. Nonetheless, Bulgaria and Romania became members in 2007 and Croatia joined in 2013. Brussels currently sees Serbia and Montenegro as the Balkan countries best placed to join.