Name violation

North Macedonia's conservative prime minister, Hristijan Mickoski, has reacted angrily to allegations from the far-left nationalist opposition claiming he had shifted his position on the Prespa Agreement.

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Mickoski reiterated that he exclusively refers to the country as "Macedonia" and its people as "Macedonians."

Athens has criticized North Macedonia's leadership for not using the official constitutional name, which includes a geographic qualifier, as mandated by the 2018 accord which resolved the long-standing name dispute between the two countries.

"Nowhere in the Prespa Agreement is the use of 'Macedonian' or 'Macedonia' prohibited," Mickoski argued, citing Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the accord. "We, too, have the right to use the adjective 'Macedonian,' just as the Greeks have that same right."

In an ironic...