ATHENS: A million people could take to the streets in Athens on Sunday in a mass demonstration over Greek attempts to resolve a longstanding name row with Macedonia, organisers say.
Huge crowds are predicted to fill central Syntagma Square to protest a rumoured Greek government compromise to the 27-year dispute with its tiny northern neighbour.
When Macedonia declared independence in 1991 from the collapsing Yugoslav federation, Athens protested, claiming the name implied a territorial claim on the prominent Greek province of Macedonia.
But Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been considering a resolution to the name dispute, angering many in the opposition, but also among his nationalist coalition partners, the Independent Greeks.
"The square will be the meeting point of various heterogeneous groups guided by different sentiments, ranging from a profound concern about the name dispute to disaffection with government policies," Nikolaos Tzifakis, head of the political science department at Peloponnese University, told AFP.
Tsipras has already faced dozens of demonstrations while in power, but Sunday's mass protest —nominally about foreign policy — is expected to draw a motley crowd united by opposition to the prime minister, Tzifakis said.
Ironically, pundits expect the largest turnout since the 2015 anti-austerity referendum rally organised by Tsipras at the zenith of his popularity, rejecting cuts demanded by the country's EU-IMF creditors.
Angering many, the Greek government instead agreed to more austerity measures as the country faced being kicked out of the eurozone.
"Many people are now seeing this policy change (over Macedonia) through the prism of the economic crisis and qualify it as one concession too much," Tzifakis adds.

Opening space 'to radicals'

Organisers of the Macedonia march, headed by Greek diaspora groups, have insisted their protest is apolitical.
"We are all patriots. There are no parties, no colours," said Georgia Bitakou, one of the organisers.
But another large protest on Jan.21 in Thessaloniki, the northern Greek capital, over the Macedonia name dispute was attended by several lawmakers from the conservative main opposition New Democracy party and neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.
Whilst a far cry from a million-strong march on the issue over two decades ago, organisers said more than 400,000 attended the protest.
Police put the figure at closer to 90,000.
"Neither the government nor the opposition expected such a large number of participants. The Athens protest will therefore be quite closely watched by the political class," said Manolis Alexakis, a political scientist at Crete University.
Suspected neo-Nazis vandalised a Jewish memorial on the sidelines of the protest and an anarchist-occupied building was also burned down.
No arrests were made.