The letter urged UN mediator in the dispute between Greece and FYROM over the name Macedonia, Matthew Nimetz, to include the subject of the recognition of the 'Macedonian' Orthodox Church in the negotiation process. Crvenkosvki said Gruevski's demand "counter-productive" and "damaging" to hopes for an agreement being reached between the two countries.

Gruevski in the past month has sent a number of letters to European heads of government as well as NATO and EU heads urging them to pressure Greece to recognise what he proposes to be a "Macedonian" minority in Greece. The letters were rebuffed and criticised as unhelpful by NATO, the EU and the governments of Greece, Germany and the U.S.

The latest letter, addressed to the UN and mediator Nimetz, has insisted that the issue of the 'Macedonian' Orthodox Church be included in negotiations over the name of the former Yugoslav republic. The 'Macedonian' Orthodox Church was created in 1967 and separated from the Serbian Church, by a decree from the then communist government of Yugoslavia. No other Orthodox jurisdictions currently recognises the church which is considered by the Serbian and Greek churches to be an artificial and politically-motivated creation of the communist government.

Following a prompt reply from Nimetz that the issue of the unrecognised church would not be included in the negotiations over the name, Crvenkovski questioned Gruevski's wisdom in sending the letter in the first place. Crvenkovski said, “By constantly raising new issues, we are giving Greece an excuse to criticize us, which it is doing,”.

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