MANU President Ljupco Kocarev says in his column for “Nova Makedonija” that Zaev’s claims that the Prespa Agreement guarantees the Macedonian identity are not true.

On the contrary, says the academician, this agreement erases the Macedonian identity.

Article 7 not only does not guarantee but, in fact, erases the Macedonian identity. Namely, this article determines the spatial framework for the use of the terms “Macedonia” and “Macedonian” or, in other words, in the northern region of the state of Greece there are no Slavic Macedonians, because the term Macedonia in the state of Greece is already reserved not only for the area and the people in the northern region of Greece but also for their features, including the Hellenic civilization, history, culture and heritage of that region from antiquity to the present day. Thus, contrary to the historical facts, this agreement claims that in the region of Macedonia in the state of Greece from antiquity until today lived only Hellenic, but not Slavic Macedonians. Starting from the fact that the action of the Slavic Macedonians in the state of Greece is part of the Macedonian identity, it appears that the Prespa Agreement, as I pointed out earlier, erases, and does not guarantee, the Macedonian identity, notes Kocarev.