In a provocative statement after his visit to the White House, Skopje's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said, "There is only one Macedonia in the world and it is ours."
In an interview he gave to FYROM’s state-run MIA news agency, he also added, "At last our country is being recognised all over the world, that Macedonians live in Macedonia, our country, and our identity will finally be confirmed and recognised as will the "Macedonian" language."
"I understand the concern of our Diaspora about the addition of "Northern" to our name as it is not easy to accept but there is no other Macedonia in the world except our own. The northern part of Greece is Greece, the western part of Bulgaria is Bulgaria. But this is our own Macedonia and there can be no other in the world, " Zaev went on to say, “And knowing the prospect and the future, we have to do this for the next generation, for our children. And that is why I believe that there is a good reason to unite.”
After a huge outcry from Athens, the state-run MIA news agency changed the comments made by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and revised the quote to read: “We all know that today a part of the geopolitical region of Macedonia is in Greece, a part is in Bulgaria, and the northern part is in our country. And no one will ever try to deny our Macedonia. The adjective ‘North’ makes a distinction and we reaffirm that there are regions in Bulgaria and in Greece which are called Macedonia.”