In yet another effort to put opposition New Democracy on the spot over its position on the FYROM naming issue – given the statements of sympathy from conservative cadres for the huge Thessaloniki protest opposing Greek acquiescence for the use of the name Macedonia by Skopje – Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ office has distributed a 2008 video of then foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, in which she defends the name New Macedonia as a possible solution.

But Mrs. Bakoyannis went a step further in the video, in which she was hosting bloggers at her office.

In a very broad linguistic interpretation, she said the word “new” in New Macedonia can be, “in part”, viewed as a geographic marker, because old Macedonia was the whole of Macedonia, whereas “New Macedonia” is only part of the entire geographic region.

The PM’s office issued a statement asking New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis whether he agrees with the view expressed in 2008 by Bakoyannis, who is his elder sister.

Mitsotakis has come out in favour of the line forged by the Karamanlis government in 2008, which was supposed to be a composite name with a geographic marker attached to the name Macedonia.

The composite name with a geographic marker was supposed to have been Athens’ last line of defense.

Mr. Karamanlis recently commented, however, that he never had said that he accepted the use of the name Macedonia by Skopje.

in.gr

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