FYROM President Branko Crvenkovski has again warned against an 'anti-Greek atmosphere' developing in his country.

The President has, since the lead up to the NATO summit in Bucharest during which Greece blocked the accession of FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), consistently called for his country's leaders to compromise in relation to the name issue with Greece.

"It is absolutely wrong to create an anti-Greek atmosphere in Macedonia. It is in our interest not to react with wrong policies to the wrong policies of Greece", declared Crvenkovski.

Crvenkovski is FYROM's head of state and regarded as a aheavyweight of the SDSM, the main opposition party today in the country. His comments are perceived as being yet another criticism of the Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski's approach toward the name issue with Greece. Vecer has reported Gruevski as saying that his party, the VMRO-DPMNE, will not accept any compromise over the name whatsoever.

Crvenkovski has expressed his desire to compromise as a result of the reality that no compromise means no NATO or EU accession for his country.

The rift between the two leaders is characteristic of the fragmentation of opinion in FYROM since the Bucharest summit.
Tito Petkovski, President of the Social Democratic Union which is part in the ruling coalition with Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE, has also found himself at odds with Gruevski for promoting settlement with Greece.

Greece rejects to FYROM's aspirations to be called the "Republic of Macedonia" due to the fact that FYROM, since its independence from Yugoslavia, has shown territorial aspirations towards Greece's own province of Macedonia. Greece considers the efforts to be named Macedonia on the part of its northern neighbour to be an attempt at monopolisation of the name. Greece has also said it considers the refusal to compromise to be a relic of the cold war given it was at the discretion of communist Yugoslavia that the constituent republic of Southern Yugoslavia be renamed as such.

The Greek press has mentioned "Republic of New Macedonia" as being a likely compromise in recent months.

 (SOURCES: ERT, IN.GR, B92, Sofia Echo)

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