In Macedonia, the citizens will vote on Sunday on a possible accession to the EU and NATO, and a new name for your country. Experts explain why Western and Russian interests collide.
Never before have so many leading Western politicians have visited the Macedonian capital of Skopje, as in this September. They all came to the government before the Referendum on 30. To support September. The citizens should be asked whether they want to join the EU and NATO in your country and whether you agree with the renaming of their land in Northern Macedonia.
In June 2018, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev at the Prespa lakes on the border between Greece and Macedonia announced that they had agreed on the state name to Northern Macedonia. Between Athens and Skopje dispute about the use of the Name had raged since 1991, Macedonia or Macedonia. At that time, the former Yugoslav Republic became independent and took the name of Macedonia. Greece claims Skopje’s feared on the ancient cultural heritage of the historic Region of Macedonia, but also in today’s homonymous Greek Region of Macedonia. Therefore, Athens blocked all EU and NATO aspirations of Skopje’s. The citizens should approve the new state name would be for the country in the way in the EU and NATO.
Agreement between the heads of government of Zoran Zaev and Alexis Tsipras
Accusations against Moscow
U.S. Secretary of defense James Mattis, was in September in Skopje, in front of his own, the outcome of the referendum will affect. For him, there is no doubt that Moscow had provided the funds for a “broad campaign to influence” on the inhabitants of the country. Moscow has no interest in bringing Macedonia closer to the EU and NATO, rejected this. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that representatives of Western countries would interfere in the internal Affairs of Macedonia, by promoting the Prespa agreement.
In the summer, even the accusations against Moscow were also from Greece and Macedonia, according to the. Prime Zaev accused the Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis, to Finance in Macedonia political movements to influence in order to organize the Referendum acts of violence and unrest with the aim of the public opinion. The allegation to the agreement between Greece and Macedonia, prevent, and was also the reason for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Greece in July 2018.
In Greece, controversial: protests against the compromise in Thessaloniki
Concern about turnout
According to surveys, the supporters of the accession of Macedonia to EU and NATO, until recently, with 57 percent at the front. But just a week before the vote, the country’s President Gjorge Ivanov spoke out against the referendum. Also politicians of the opposition parties are calling for a Boycott. According to Western diplomats, up to 40 pages, to which the Macedonians are asked not to appear in Facebook a day to go to Referendum; that the “New York Times” reported. The diplomats, the newspaper said, would the Kremlin suspects, to Finance the campaign.
Dušan Reljić, expert of the Berlin Foundation for science and politics (SWP), told Deutsche Welle, the proponents of the referendum would have to get quite Worried. “It must have 50 percent of the ballots against voters for the Referendum, which are 900.000 people” so Reljić. Macedonia has a population of around two million, of whom but a part of you lives abroad. “That’s why it will be the biggest obstacle for Zaev to achieve the necessary participation in the Referendum”, said the expert.
What does Moscow have a Problem?
Reljić, according to the EU, primarily Germany, with a share of 80 per cent of the Macedonian foreign trade. German companies have invested in Macedonia, especially in the automotive supplier industry. Most of the oil Refineries and steel works would include British and Greek companies. “The Region is economically, politically and in all other respects deeply with the EU integrated and economically very little to do with Russia,” the expert said. The real Problem for Russia, NATO, Moscow will see the Region politically displaced.
Support from Washington: US Secretary of defense Mattis and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Skopje
Also the Director of the Russian Institute of regional problems, Dmitry Schurawljow says, in contrast to EU accession Skopje’s was a possible NATO accession of Macedonia to Russia is a real Problem, because Moscow had “no Alliance”. “The attempt to expand NATO, is perceived as an attempt to disturb the balance,” says the expert.
NATO membership and the prospect of EU accession are, however, Dušan Reljić, from a Western point of view is important. “Macedonia is ethnically divided – in a large Albanian minority, at least a third, and in a Slav-Macedonian majority.” The Albanian minority living on the border with Kosovo and Albania, two countries where Albanians lived. “The creation of a greater Albanian state in the Region,” would lead, Reljić, to a destabilization not only of Macedonia, but of the Region as a whole. “With the accession to NATO, the West hoped, that the Region is becoming permanently more stability.”