„Denn nur der Name ist mein Feind” – Alternative Szenarien zur Lösung der griechisch-mazedonischen Namensfrage
“ It's only your name that's my enemy” – Alternative Scenarios for a Solution of the Greek-Macedonian Name Dispute

Summary/Abstract: Like Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the Greek-Macedonian name dispute belongs to the classics on the stage of politics. But in contrast to the well-known end of these two narrative characters, it is up to the decision-making of the real political actors in Greece and Macedonia to avoid such a kind of tragedy in the name dispute. Referring to the Macedonian position in this issue, a recent change has to be noticed: Since July 2006, a new conservative government rules the Western Balkans state. Using this change of administration as a starting point, the following article discusses several scenarios for the solution of the Greek-Macedonian name dispute. Reflecting the European integration process of Macedonia, three possibilities will be analyzed: The name dispute will be solved before the start of the EU negotiation talks, a solution will be found during these talks or the dispute will be solved after the entry of Macedonia into the European Union. Before the chances of realization of these three scenarios will be evaluated, the background of the Greek-Macedonian name dispute will be presented, the up-to-now approaches of the dispute will be described and the new positioning of Prime Minister Gruevski’s administration will be discussed.

• Details
• Contents