UN envoy Nimetz says name issue is essence of Greek-Macedonian dispute

14/08/2008

NEW YORK, United States -- The name issue is the essence of the problem between Greece and Macedonia and should be the focus of talks, UN envoy Matthew Nimetz said on Wednesday (August 13th) after separate meetings in New York with representatives of the two countries. Nimetz said that talks with Macedonia's Nikola Dimitrov and Greece's Adamantios Vassilakis were hard and concrete and involved new ideas as well as variations of those discussed earlier. "I have always believed that the name issue is solvable and that if we reach an agreement on the name, it will open the way to solving many other issues," Nimetz said. Most recently, Skopje asked that Athens recognise the Macedonian Orthodox Church. On Wednesday, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos described that as "ridiculous". (Makfax, Dnevnik, Nafthemporiki, Eleftheros Typos, Kathimerini - 14/08/08; Netpress, Eleftherotypia - 13/08/08)