Hostages of history

The prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is trying to prepare his country's political leadership and society to accept the compromise that has been achieved over the name dispute with Greece. It is difficult for anyone to predict how things will turn out. Here in the Balkans, nothing is simple and straightforward. The forces that undermine every effort at a compromise are always more powerful, because they move in the dark and appeal to public sensibilities. We are all still, for better and worse, hostages of history. A "no" invokes a much greater reaction than a "yes" - in Athens and in Skopje.

As for Greece, we are in complete confusion, as usual. The government has handled the issue in an unprecedented manner. As I recall from similar issues abroad, a government concludes an agreement through secret negotiations and then tries to pitch it to...