The Prespes Agreement is a historical opportunity we can not afford to lose

The settlement of our country’s relations with FYROM is becoming a pivotal matter, not so much for the essence of the “difference” settled with the Prespes Agreement per se, but for the political capital invested in the matter for decades, which reasonably makes the confrontation a major political issue.

The entire opposition has focused its efforts on the “Macedonian” or “Skopje” issue in order to cause the fall of the government. They have instrumentalised a national matter in order to serve party interests, without regard to or ignoring the repercussions for the country’s international position, as well as the fact that it has been burdened for decades with an unresolved issue which has had a negative impact on Hellenic interests.

In order to serve those political interests, they have engaged in political distortion, which has a toxic effect on people’s minds and the country’s politics. Based on the pure patriotism of large parts of Greek society and exploiting its emotion, filling them with lies, fanaticism, and hatred, almost the entire opposition attempts to obtain temporary political gains, changing even the fixed positions of the political – party spaces they represent.

This is the case not only for New Democracy, who made its turn to the far right a long time ago, but also for the other parties. Especially those that belong to the left – progressive space, who seem indifferent to the fact that, through this process, they promote nationalism and let its poison seep into parts of society that would otherwise not be affected. The responsibility for the above is great and is divided between KINAL, whose leadership copies the political choices of New Democracy, as well as KKE, who believes that the country’s problems can be resolved only after leaving NATO and the EU.

The entire political debate on the Prespes Agreement has been aggravated by a lot of lies, distortion, and poison. None of the arguments put forward by its critics stands, especially after the latest verbal note by our neighbours, which expressly clarifies that the Agreement does not refer to ethnicity and that their language belongs to the South Slavic languages.

I will not say more about the much-discussed matters of name, language, and nationality. The Prespes Agreement text clearly protects Hellenic national interests in an exemplary manner that is rare in international history. We should not ignore the fact that our neighbour amended its Constitution according to the provisions of the Prespes Agreement and that the Hellenic Parliament will have the final say on its implementation.

In particular, article 3 (par. 2 and 4) states: “[…] Neither Party shall support any actions of any third party directed against the sovereignty, the territorial integrity or the political independence of the other Party”. “[…] Neither Party shall allow its territory to be used against the other Party by any third country”. In other words, our country establishes, by International Agreement, that the territory of North Macedonia will not be used against Greece by any third country.

A special chapter on Defence Cooperation (article 17) reads:

“The Parties shall reinforce and expand their cooperation in the area of defence, including through frequent visits and contacts between the political and military leadership of their armed forces, the appropriate transfer of know-how and capacity-building, the cooperation in the areas of production, information and joint military exercises. Special emphasis shall be placed in personnel training which the Parties could provide to each other”.

The above show that the two countries become allies, without this relationship being connected to the entry of North Macedonia into NATO. Given the threats against our country from the East and the instability in the broader region, this agreement secures our northern border; not that there is a threat against our territorial integrity from that direction, but in the sense that any destabilisation could aggravate the management of our problems with Turkey or even further deteriorated by it.

Despite the, unfortunately, widespread misinformation in the country for the past 30 years, Greece will have many gains from the settlement, normalisation, readjustment, and enhancement of its relations with this relatively new country on our northern border. It should be noted that the Greek people never engaged in fighting with the people of this country. The Prespes Agreement is an opportunity, achieved under unique conditions and circumstances, we can not afford to lose.