SKOPJE — The Macedonian parliament ratified on Wednesday a historic accord with Greece to rename the small Balkan nation the Republic of North Macedonia in a bid to end a 27-year row between the two neighbors.

“We have a deal that clearly defines our identity, our Macedonian language for ever,” Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told lawmakers ahead of the vote, urging them to back the agreement.

A total of 69 MPs in the 120-seat assembly supported the accord, while the nationalist opposition deputies were not present during the vote.

The agreement’s adoption by parliament clears the way for a referendum to be held at a later date.

If the public back the name change, the government will then have to change the constitution — a key Greek demand before its own parliament is asked to ratify the deal.

The nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE, the main Macedonian opposition, has repeatedly said it will not support the change of “Macedonia’s constitutional name”, arguing it erodes the country’s identity.

The preliminary agreement was signed on Sunday by the two sides at Lake Prespa on Greece’s northern border.

In exchange for the deal, Skopje hopes to secure a date to begin European Union accession talks at a summit in late June and an invitation to join NATO in mid-July.

Zaev said on Wednesday that NATO’s top political decision-making body has informed Skopje that the invitation to Macedonia for membership in the military alliance would figure on the agenda of its mid-July summit.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned at the weekend that Macedonia has to change its constitution — which requires a two-thirds majority — otherwise its plans to join the EU and NATO would be blocked again.

Since 1991, Athens has objected to its neighbor being called Macedonia because it has its own northern province of the same name, which in ancient times was the cradle of Alexander the Great’s empire — a source of intense pride for modern-day Greeks.

Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional name of the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. — AFP