U.N. envoy to mull Greek-Macedonian issue

ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Greece's government minister is to meet with a U.N. mediator regarding a Greek-Macedonian issue over the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Greek Kathimerini daily's English edition said U.N. mediator Matthew Nimitz and Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis are to meet to consider the Macedonia name question that has been hurting relations between Athens and Skopje.

Bakoyannis is likely to express "deep displeasure" over Skopje's decision to name its international airport after Alexander the Great.

But, Bakoyannis is to reiterate Greece's support for the accession of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or the FYROM, to the European Union and NATO, as long as Athens and Skopje reach agreement on the name dispute, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos told Kathimerini.

Macedonia is the name of a northern Greece region and the Athens government fiercely opposes its northern neighbor is called "Macedonia," and instead demands it uses the name of the FYROM under which it joined the United Nations after the former Yugoslav federation disintegrated in the 1990s.