Christopher Hill - I know Macedonians will not give their name up

 Former American Ambassador to Macedonia Christopher Hill says he knows Macedonia will never give up its name, and that the subject of talks with Greece should be to find a solution that will open the road to European Union membership without giving up the constitutional name.



“I think that the solution should be a package that would be acceptable to all, but would keep the constitutional name. Macedonia will not change its constitutional name, but there needs to be some compromise, understanding that the constitutional name stays and the package includes European Union membership. Can someone solve this issue now? I don’t think so. I know that Macedonians will not change their name. For them, and for the United States of America, the name is Republic of Macedonia. I also know that there needs to be a process that will also deliver something for the Greeks, but I can’t tell what that would be”, Hill told the Macedonian Television, during an event in the John’s Hopkins University in Wahington.



Hill acknowledged that this is a difficult issue, given that it has remained unsolved for over 20 years. He was the first American Ambassador to Macedonia, and was actively involved in reaching the 1995 Interim Accord between Macedonia and Greece that introduced a temporary reference name for Macedonia, stopped the Greek embargo and committed Greece that it will not block Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Greece violated this obligation when it stopped Macedonian NATO membership in 2008.

Speaking for Voice of America in Macedonian, Hill added that he sees polarization in Macedonia today, not in inter-ethnic but in political relations. hill said that Macedonia has internal issues that need to be resolved with regard not only about the majority that won the elections, but of the minority that lost them. “All need to feel they are part of the system. But, despite that there are many complaints and nobody is fully satisfied, I still think that Macedonia is a permanent part of the European map and all should be proud of that”, Hill told Voice of America.

He currently serves as Dean at the University in Denver, and is promoting his memoirs about the time he served as US Ambassador to Macedonia, Poland, South Korea and Iraq.

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