At the entrance of Skopje’s Old Bazaar, just outside St. Dimitrija’s Church, which recently hit world’s newswires for its reportedly miraculous self-cleaning icons, stands a recently erected 29 meters-high statue, simply called “Warrior”. The warrior faces south, where across the Stone Bridge, on Macedonia capital’s main square stands an even taller statue, the “Warrior on a horse”.

The names of these warriors from both sides of Vardar river, who mysteriously resemble two worldwide famous ancient Macedonian kings – father and son, and of course, that of the horse, are known to anyone who’s ever read any European history at all, including the Macedonians.

But, they don’t reveal the names, for the sake of good neighborly relations. With Greece. Why would they irritate the neighbor, with whom they have this name dispute, whose solving would open the doors to NATO and the EU widely? And that is precisely where the new “architects” of Macedonia, the new statues included, want to take the country. At least so they tell its citizens.

As soon as you leave Macedonia and enter Greece, there is a big sign saying: “Welcome to Macedonia”. The noun is included in naming northern Greece’s three administrative units since 1987, when it became clear that Yugoslavia is falling apart, and that Greeks might find Socialist Republic of Macedonia, their neighbor born during World War II, and host of the Greek Embassy in the Yugoslav Federation, become an independent state.

As of then, Greece denies its good neighbor the right to use this name internationally, and its majority ethnic group to call themselves and their language Macedonian. Greeks consider this name, which it is identical to the name of a neighborly kingdom who was ancient Greeks’ greatest enemy, to be part of their historical heritage.

So, Greeks seem to think that they can reach a compromise, where Macedonians will choose another name, and erase this name from their laws, documents, passports, IDs, and their collective memory.

That’s how good neighborly relations flourish in the Balkans adversity today. Its absurd, but it works.