International Court of Justice finds both Greece and FYROM breached the Interim Accord

Today the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its verdict regarding an application by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to establish that Greece breached the Interim Accord of 13 September 1995, in response to which Greece cross-claimed that FYROM had previously breached the Interim Accord. 

An ICJ press release regarding the judgment can be found at the..

following link:

http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/142/16841.pdf

The text of the judgment itself can be found at this link: 

http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/142/16827.pdf 

The ICJ, composed of 16 judges, found that Greece had breached the Interim Accord by objecting to FYROM’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) at the Bucharest Summit in April 2008. It also found that FYROM breached the Interim Accord by using the Vergina Sun in an official capacity in 2004. 

It also noted that Greece failed to establish its objection to FYROM’s NATO accession was in response to the 2004 breach. The ICJ stated that the only remedy it would grant was a declaration that Greece had in fact breached the Interim Accord. The ICJ rejected FYROM’s request that it compel Greece to not exercise any objection to its NATO candidacy in the future. 

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) considers that a number of other breaches of the Interim Accord on the part of FYROM which the ICJ failed to identify. These include: 

1) The renaming of Skopje Airport to “Alexander the Great Airport” 

2) Various other uses of the Vergina Sun in an official capacity 

3) The featuring of maps of “Greater Macedonia” encompassing Greek territory in state school books and official state ceremonies 

4) The featuring of the White Tower of Thessaloniki on official banknotes (although discontinued) 

5) The renaming of the main sporting arena in Skopje to “Phillip II Stadium” 

6) The renaming of the main highway in FYROM to “Phillip of Macedon Highway” 

7) The erection of statues of Alexander the Great and Phillip II in different cities in FYROM 

AMAC does not consider that the ICJ judgment will have any significant impact on the name negotiations and FYROM’s prospects of acceding to NATO or the EU. NATO members, both individually and collectively have repeatedly declared that FYROM will only be able to join the organisation upon resolution of the naming dispute with Greece under the auspices of UNbrokered negotiations.