The leader of a group of influential Macedonians has filed a lawsuit against Greece’s foreign minister demanding he be tried for high treason.
In the lawsuit delivered to a Greek prosecutor in the northern city of Serres, Giorgos Tatsios accuses Nikos Kotzias of giving in to the demands of FYROM nationalists by handing over the name “Macedonia” to the neighboring state.
“We indigenous native Macedonians are forced to resort to justice in order to seek protection from those who surrender our name to the neighboring state of Slavs and Albanians,” reads a release from the Pan-Hellenic Macedonian Association.
“We are ashamed that Kotzias showed disrespect to the struggles of our ancestors, who worked hard to preserve the Hellenic identity of Macedonia,” the group continues.
The association accuses Kotzias of betrayal and of having a complete disregard for the wishes of thousands of “true Macedonians” who turned out in massive rallies in Thessaloniki and Athens earlier this year.
There been no reaction from the foreign ministry yet.
The association’s move comes a day after FYROM’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said his country and Greece were very close to a final agreement on the naming issue.
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