Following the ratification of Macedonia’s NATO membership and the political decision to open EU accession talks, Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov, who is the signatory of the imposed Prespa treaty, said that it accomplishes “the twin goals set by our mothers and fathers”.

Among the many critical responses, reminding Dimitrov of the price and the natual humiliation Macedonia is being forced to endure to join these two institutions, is one from former Culture Minister Ganka Cvetanova.

Kindly speak only for your own parents. Don’t lump our parents in with yours, as we are not the sae. Not all had the same ideals. You, Nikola, betrayed the ideals o four parents, Cvetanova said.

Macedonians largely boycotted the referendum to rename the country fearing that it will lead to a loss of sovereignty, national identity and redefining the Macedonian nation state. In the 1990-ies, as Macedonia was first pressured by Greece to change its identity, Nikola Dimitrov’s own father Dimitar Dimitrov, famously cursed whoever gives away the name under Greek pressure – that his right hand may whither.