An immense pressure is being put on Macedonia to resolve the name issue, while Greece is not pressurized by anyone, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said in Ohrid Friday. In his view, the problem has taken so long as a result of the political mistrust between the two countries.

“We are trying to create a climate for building mutual trust between the two nations starting from the lowest level,” Ivanov added.

In his view, Lisbon is knocking on the door and a solution to the name issue has to be found for that is the key to Macedonia’s accession to NATO. However, that solution has to be mutually acceptable and not have a consequence for Macedonia’s identity. Ivanov talked also about certain faults of the Macedonian politics concerning this issue, pointing out the information received from MEP Doris Pack, according to whom, Macedonia rebuffed the offer of the international community in 1995 for starting talks for membership of NATO and the EU under the provisional reference.

“Investigate, you are journalists, find out who did that,” President Ivanov told reporters.

He also asked what the guarantees from Greece would be that Greece would honor the agreement that would arise from the present talks considering that experience points at the opposite.