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fYRoM PM proposes int’l treaty on ‘name issue’, rather than constitutional change

The prime minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), Zoran Zaev, on Tuesday proposed the signing and ratification of an international treaty for a possible “name issue” resolution, rather than a change in his country’s constitution.

The Zaev government in Skopje appears lukewarm to any prospect of changing the one-time Yugoslav constituent state’s constitution, whereas the Greek side wants a constitutional revision to expunge what it claims are irredentist passages.  

In comments to reporters, Zaev said that “any change in ‘Macedonia’s’ legal system is not a permanent guarantee for Greece, because whatever is changed can be restored,” he said, in using the country’s constitutional name.

Greece recognizes its neighbor with the provisional, and cumbersome, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia name.