The first president of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov in his 2001 book “Macedonia is all we have” spoke about how Ljubomir Frckoski through Greek mediators tried to bribe him with a million dollars if he gave up the country’s constitutional name.

Glirorov wrote that he listened to them but that he rejected them.

There was, I will say it for the first time, a really unimaginable attempt through the Greek intelligence services to influence me, and in an extremely rude way, to accept the Greek solution, to do something to give up the name Macedonia…. One day the Minister of Interior, Frckoski, suggested that I hire some associates from the Service to inform me personally about something from their work. I received them, and they told me that they had a meeting with their “colleagues” from Greece, that they officially told them to convey to me personally that if I gave in over the name, they were ready to transfer me a million dollars to whichever bank I wanted in the world, wrote Gligorov.

Then the president asked them how they ever think a head of state to receive a million dollars and give up the name Macedonia.

Please, how could you even think that? How can anyone think of that at all? It is an absurd thing, if anyone think of it at all, then I am not for this place, Gligorov wrote in his book.