Macedonian Congress

The Parliament of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has rejected a diaspora group's request for a second referendum on a deal to rename the country North Macedonia in exchange for NATO and potentially European Union membership.

Macedonia's Constitutional Court voted by seven to two on Wednesday against an initiative that called for a assessment of the constitutionality and legality of parliament's decision on July 30 to call for a referendum on the Greek-Macedonian "name" deal.

Several thousand Macedonians have taken to the streets in the capital, Skopje, to protest against a possible change of their country's name, as required by Greece to end a long-running dispute.

Several thousand protesters rallied in Skopje, the capital of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), late Tuesday for the government to call off talks with Greece aimed at settling a decades-long name dispute.

More than 100 people gathered in front of FYROM's (Macedonia's) parliament to protest against a draft law to extend the official use of Albanian language to the entire country, as lawmakers started debating the bill.

The September 13 protest in Skopje was organized by the nationalist organization Tvrdokorni (Hard-core), the World Macedonian Congress, and several other groups.

About 100 ethnic Albanians protested against the erection of a new tall cross in the Macedonian capital, spending Thursday night in tents set up at the site where the cross is to be built.

The protest was backed by the junior ruling party, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

The towering cross in the Aerodrom municipality of Skopje, which was sanctified this week, is a cultural artefact and not meant to cause religious or ethnic offence, said Todor Petrov, the head of the World Macedonian Congress, the NGO behind its construction.

“The cross is not erected to provoke and it is not an anti-Albanian or anti-Muslim symbol,” Petrov said.

The steel cross, which the authors say will be over 50 metres high, is being speedily assembled in the Skopje municipality of Aerodrom so that it can be opened by Orthodox Easter, celebrated on April 20.