Organizers Expect Hundreds of Thousands at 'Macedonia Is Greece' Thessaloniki Rally on Sat

ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2018) A rally dubbed "Macedonia is Greece," organized to protest the agreement on renaming the former Yugoslav Republic, is planned to be held on September 8 in the Greek city of Thessaloniki and expected to gather hundreds of thousands of people, a representative of the coordinating committee of the rally told RIA Novosti on Friday.

According to the organizers, a similar rally in January gathered between 300,000 and 500,000 people. Earlier information from the organizers suggested that over 800,000 took to the streets during that demonstration.

"The rally will be held on September 8. Police did not ban it [for security reasons], but are taking steps to ensure security. cars are forbidden to stop and park there, so one has to walk. In Thessaloniki, there is now a lot of police .

.. We expect hundreds of thousands, as in January. We hope that now it will be as big, if the people are not afraid of the government's measures to limit the rally," Mihalis Patsikas said.

He added that people from the whole of northern Greece and Athens were expected to come. The rally is timed to the opening of the Thessaloniki International Fair on Saturday, where the United States is set to be the Honorary Country.

On June 17, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov signed an agreement on a new name of the former Yugoslav Republic, agreeing to rename the country to the Republic of North Macedonia. The deal resolved the decades-long dispute between Athens and Skopje over the use of "Macedonia," which is also the name of a region in Greece.