Today marks the eight anniversary since Macedonia won its case against Greece before the International Court of Justice.

Macedonia sued Greece over the Greek veto for Macedonia’s NATO membership application at the 2008 Bucharest summit. The two countries had a signed Interim Accord from 1995, in which Greece obliged itself it will not block Macedonia’s membership in international organizations provided that the reference “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” is used. Despite the agreement, which was supposed to put an end to the name issue, at least as far as EU and NATO membership was concerned, Greece outright blocked Macedonia’s NATO application in 2008.

After several years of presenting arguments, the ICJ found nearly unanimously that Greece violated its obligation under international law. Still, NATO was unable to reverse Greece’s decision and its key members were unwilling to use the sentence to exert pressure on Greece. Quite the contrary, strong international pressure was applied on Macedonia, the sovereignist Nikola Gruevski led Government was toppled and the Zoran Zaev led Government signed a treaty with Greece in 2018 that goes far beyond anything previous Macedonian governments, both from the left and the right, were prepared to sign.

Greece counter-alleged that Macedonia also violated the Interim Accord. Its charges were thrown out 15 – 1, while Macedonia’s allegations against Greece were accepted in a 14 – 2 vote. The ICJ also found that the Macedonian Constiution does not contain articles that forment irredentism against Greece as the Greek side failed that it allows interference in its internal affairs. The renaming of the Skopje airport into Alexander the Great airport was found by the court to be a legitimate move by the Macedonian authorities.

All of these gains were reversed in the course of the Zaev regime – the Constitution was amended, the country renamed and the names of historic figures scrubbed from infrastructure facilities.

Former Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, who engineered the court challenge in the Hague, did not mince words when discussing the anniversary.

All the judges, those from Slovakia, Britain, France, Morocco, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany, China, were unanimously on our side, the only vote against us came from the Greek judge. But then two traitors came along, one eager for a fist full of silver and in need of protection from corruption charges, and the other who worked to ensure scholarships, a top Government post for a few years and was lied to that he will be the next President, and they gave up all that was earned by the Macedonian people with such difficulty, and betrayed centuries of our heritage, said Milososki, speaking about Zoran Zaev and Nikola Dimitrov, who are the signatories of the Prespa treaty with Greece.