Skopje

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras landed in the North Macedonia capital of Skopje on Tuesday for a what is the first visit by a Greek premier to the Balkan nation since its independence in 1991.

Defined as a "historic" occasion by his office, Tsipras's visit is expected to bolster ties between the two neighbors who recently resolved a decades-old name dispute.

I first visited Skopje in 1997 to attend a peace concert by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It had all the elements to become a charming city with a strong modernist identity, expanding on the reconstruction that was carried out with the help of Greek architect Constantinos Doxiadis after the devastating earthquake in 1963.

The head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Giorgos Pitsilis, has issued clear guidelines to all Greek customs offices over how they should deal with transactions between Greece and North Macedonia from now on.

A public row has broken out between Greek Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba and the artist who created the glass sculpture of the "Runner" over an alleged proposal to donate the 12-meter tall piece to North Macedonia as part of friendship building measures between the two countries in the wake of the Prespes name accord.

At that moment, the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Trade Cooperation between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia begins in Skopje. Among the topics discussed are transport and energy connectivity and economic relations.

The government has approved a draft contract between the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Northern Macedonia for the organization of a joint exhibition "100 years Trebenishte", which will take place in Skopje.

The Macedonian government has decided to oblige all institutions to change their public names in the name of the state, in line with amendments to the Constitution, the Constitutional Law on the Implementation of Amendments and the Law on the Use of Languages, reported the Bulgarian National Television. 

Greece's Ambassador to the UK, Dimitris Karamitsos-Tziras, send a letter of complaint to the BBC on Monday, following a report which spoke of the existence of a "Macedonian minority" in the country.

Public opinion in North Macedonia is divided over the Prespes agreement with Greece, according to a recent survey in the neighboring country.

More specifically, the poll, conducted on behalf of the Sitel TV channel, showed that 44.6 percent said they felt positively about the accord against 45.6 percent who said they had negative feelings about it.

Where in the political spectrum do you place a politician who dreams of tanks when he thinks about foreign policy?

In which political family would you say that someone who boasts of Skopje being "a 20-minute job" for a platoon of tanks belongs?