Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris proposed to change the name of the airport in the city, and instead of “Macedonia” to be called a famous Greek athlete. The reason for the strange position of the mayor of Thessaloniki is that, according to him, the Greeks must also respond with a gesture to Skopje as an expression of desire for good neighborliness.
According to Yiannis Boutaris, the foreigners also confused this name with the airport of Thessaloniki.
“We now have a problem with the name of Thessaloniki airport. The foreigners, for whom Macedonia is the name of a neighboring state, when they go down to Thessaloniki airport, think they do not arrive in Greece but in the neighboring state”, explained to Yiannis Boutaris.
The speech by the mayor of Thessaloniki has provoked sharp reactions due to the strong opposition of part of the Greeks that the new name of the neighboring state includes the word Macedonia.
From the Conservatives’ Party, New Democracy, the Thessaloniki mayor has recommended that he “does not deal with diplomacy but deal with waste in the city”. A deputy from the nationalist party “Independent Greeks” in front of the television cameras called the position of the Thessaloniki mayor “sick humor” and predicted the end of his political career.
At the end of January, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev discussed Macedonia’s name dispute at the World Economic Forum in Davos. To show goodwill, Zaev has promised to renaming the international airport in Skopje, which is called Alexander the Great.
