Jordan Trajkov: I use American oak. I use French oak, and I use Hungarian oak and also Macedonian oak.

Christopher Livesay: Winemaker Jordan Trajkov is facing an unusual challenge.

Christopher Livesay: So the label says Republic of Macedonia. 

Jordan Trajkov: Yes.

Christopher Livesay: He has to change the labels on all his bottles and it’s going to be expensive.

Christopher Livesay: 20,000 Euros just to change the labels?

Jordan Trajkov: Just to change the labels.  

Christopher Livesay: It’s part of the cost of doing business in this ambitious country that just last February took the extraordinary step of changing its name from the Republic of Macedonia  to North Macedonia, something the government says was necessary to make political peace with its neighbor, Greece. 

Jordan Trajkov: I have here scars in my face. This, this, this. It was fight.

Christopher Livesay: Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of North Macedonia, led the controversial name change campaign. It’s part of his plan to go all-out to align with the West. His country of about 2 million people is located just north of Greece. Ever since it gained independence from the former Yugoslavia, Zaev says, it’s had two parallel objectives.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: Since independence in 1991 the first prime goals for our country was membership of NATO because of security and participation of keeping peace all around the world and our membership in the European Union.  

Christopher Livesay: But those aspirations, being part of the NATO military alliance and the EU single market, were being blocked by Greece for a reason that may seem arcane. Greece has a province called Macedonia. The name dates back to ancient history, the 300s BCE, when Alexander the Great’s  Macedonian Kingdom spanned across the region and included what is today modern day Greece and North Macedonia. Jump to 1991. By claiming the name  “Republic of Macedonia” the new country angered Greece, which said the name threatened Greece’s cultural and territorial sovereignty.

Christopher Livesay: Were there ever any ambitions on the part of North Macedonia ….

Simonida Kacarska: No (laughs).

Christopher Livesay: to actually annex parts of Greece because of the name?

Simonida Kacarska: Discussions on territorial claims border science fiction. 

Christopher Livesay: Dr Simonida Kacarska is Director of a local pro-EU think tank called the European Policy Institute.

Simonida Kacarska: If we take a look back especially when these arguments were made in the early 1990s, Macedonia was a country without the army. So these claims in many ways have been also misused by policians both in Greece for nationalistic reasons and then later on in certain points in Macedonia as well having lead to an escalation of the conflict for the next 27 years.  

Prime Minister Bujar Osmani: Albania is a member of NATO. Greece.

Christopher Livesay: North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani says there was a natural desire for Macedonia to be part of both NATO and the EU.  

Prime Minister Bujar Osmani: We are surrounded by EU and NATO member states.

Christopher Livesay: And he says the United States, which was looking for a stable partner in the region  --- has been very involved...helping negotiate peace between its ethnic Albanian and Macedonian population and helping grow the country’s democratic institutions from scratch. 

Prime Minister Bujar Osmani: The United States through their USAID program has spent 1 billion dollars in the last 20 years in the country to build up the institutions, establishing the rule of law, maintaining the interethnic relations that will provide stability of the country.

Christopher Livesay: Although they are different entities the EU and NATO have similar requirements for membership, including that votes to allow new members must be unanimous. When the then Republic of Macedonia thought it was going to be admitted to  NATO in 2008. Greece vetoed it. And later made it clear it would block the country’s membership in the EU as well. 

Simonida Kacarska: Membership in NATO and also the European Union  in this part of the world is understood as a validation of your statehood. The citizens they overwhelmingly support NATO and EU membership, between 70 and 80 percent of the population. So if this is a shared goal and everyone has been working towards it then the disappointment that comes with it is also big. 

Christopher Livesay: After Greece’s veto, Macedonia’s then-right wing nationalist government was emboldened, and amped up tensions with Greece by launching a huge building project in the country’s capital, Skopje. It erected dozens of statues of what it claimed were “Macedonian” heroes like Alexander the Great, whom Greece claims as its own. Then in 2017 a new pro-western government was voted in led by Prime Minister Zaev. He held talks with then Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and signed an agreement which contained Zaev’s promise to dial back the nationalism and rename the country north Macedonia to distinguish itself from the Greek province. Headlines called it a breakthrough agreement. Zaev and Tsipras were both nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: I am very proud. For me it’s history. I am  proud, My children are proud. My friends are proud. Why? Because I helped by country finally after 28 years to be part of the modern western democratic world. 

Christopher Livesay: Besides changing the name, the country has renamed the highway leading to Greece “Friendship Highway.” Changed  the airport’s name from Alexander The Great to Skopje international. And is considering how best to publicly identify this statue and others to make it clear they are not “Macedonian” per se but part of ancient “Greek” history. But the name change has also proved deeply unpopular to many.

Vladimir Cetkar: I identify myself as Macedonian. My country is Macedonia. Republic of Macedonia.

Christopher Livesay: Vladimir Cetkar is a well-known Macedonian musician and outspoken name change critic. 

Vladimir Cetkar: It’s very unfortunate that we are put in a position  to be apologetic of who we are. To say I’m sorry I’m Macadonian. Oh, I’m sorry I said that. This is the feeling and I definitely think that nobody, no nation in the world should go through this. 

Christopher Livesay: But the government insists the change to the country’s name will pay off in the end. Already it says the work it’s done to meet EU standards has contributed to a better economy...a drop in unemployment and increased wages. Zaev says he also wants to do more to lure back the thousands of young people who have left the country looking for better opportunities. People like Martina Naumovska. 

Martina Naumovska: I have friends that left and I have also many friends that came back. Which is the good thing

Christopher Livesay: Naumovska studied and worked in the EU before deciding to return to help run and teach at a new IT startup in her home country.

Martina Naumovska: When I finish a class in Macedonia I feel like I  did something great, which is a feeling that, you know, only probably you can have when you do something in a country that you were raised and where your roots are.

Christopher Livesay: France has expressed skepticism about allowing any new EU members. North Macedonia’s former chief special prosecutor has been arrested in an extortion scandal, raising EU concerns about corruption. And the country has a reputation for lawlessness to overcome. It was from here the small town of Velez that some clever unemployed teenagers managed to create one of the world’s most effective  so-called fake news factories back in 2016 reporting on their homemade websites a plethora of made-up stories and headlines that reached across the ocean and ostensibly influenced the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The country claims it has cracked down on that sort of thing. 

Christopher Livesay: Are you optimistic that North Macedonia is going to join NATO

Simonida Kacarska: Yes. The ratification process of our NATO accession protocol is going well. 

Christopher Livesay: Are you optimistic that North Macedonia is going to join European Union?

Simonida Kacarska: To a certain level, less than on the case of NATO and it is going to be a much more uphill battle and a much longer battle. We’ve learned from our history there are no guarantees.

Christopher Livesay: But Kacarska warns rejection or delay by the EU at this stage could undo the progress North Macedonia has made and send a message to reformists here and in other states in the region that their efforts are not worth it. 

Simonida Kacarska: The aspiration for membership supports much of the domestic reform that’s happening here. If you don’t have EU membership in sight you don’t have a driver to reform. 

Christopher Livesay: You have the EU flag up here.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: Yes. The next step the European Union must make decision. We make it from our side.

Christopher Livesay: Prime Minister Zaev has a more personal concern. That delay could lead to a backlash that will undermine his coalition in Parliament and cause his government to fall.  

Christopher Livesay: They will destroy your government?

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: Yes, completely. The majority will be dismissed.  

Christopher Livesay: So the stakes are high?

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: Yes. Very high.

##