In the Balkan region of southeastern Europe, exists a country that can be controversial
to talk about, simply by mentioning it by name.
This small, landlocked country has a population of about 2 million, its capital city is Skopje,
and has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005.
However, the country is most well known for its incredibly long name - the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia.
So have you ever wondered why this country has such a long name, and why it’s never
shorted to simply “Macedonia” in any kind of official context?
Well, constitutionally, the country’s name is simply the “Republic of Macedonia”.
However, due to a dispute with Greece, was admitted to the UN in 1993 under the provisional
name of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, and a quarter of a century later,
the dispute over the country’s name continues.
So why is there a dispute with Greece?
What’s their problem with the name?
Well, Greece has a region called “Macedonia”, which comprises the northern part of Greece
and the entirety of the border with their northern neighbour.
Greece claims that the name of the country, which became independent in 1991, implies
territorial aspirations over the Greek region of the same name, and that the country is
appropriating their history.
So to fully understand the situation, we need to look at where the name Macedonia comes
from.
And for this, we need to go back to ancient times, and the Kingdom of Macedonia, or Macedon.
Geographically, the ancient kingdom corresponds roughly to the modern-day Greek region of
Macedonia.
The ancient Macedonians were a Greek tribe that would ultimately unite all of the Greek
city states through conquer and diplomacy, forming the League of Corinth under Philip
II, and later succeeded by Alexander the Great, who would go on to conquer most of the ancient
world, spreading the Greek language and culture.
Fast-forward to the Roman conquest of Greece, after the last king of Macedon was defeated,
the Romans established a province called “Macedonia”.
However, this encompassed much more land than the Kingdom of Macedonia ever did.
The Roman Empire (and their successor the Byzantine Empire) ruled the entire region
for centuries.
In the late 6th century AD, Slavic peoples settled the Balkans, dramatically changing
the demographics of the region.
This migration of the Slavs saw the rise of several kingdoms and principalities that fought
for control of the region against the Byzantine Empire.
The next few centuries saw control of the Balkans shift between Byzantium, Serbia, and
Bulgaria, as well as some other short-lived nations.
The entirety of the Balkans was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire in late 14th
century.
In the 19th century, Greece, and later Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Montenegro, all gained
their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottomans still had control of large
parts of the region.
Just a few decades later though, in the Balkans Wars, the newly formed alliance known as the
Balkan League consisting of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, declared won on the
Ottomans, and took control of all of their European controlled land.
However, Bulgaria, not being satisfied with their share of the spoils of the war, invaded
their former allies and neighbours, Greece and Serbia.
Both attacks were resisted and both countries counter-attacked.
The Romanians and the Ottomans also joined in on the war and Bulgaria found itself under
attack by all 4 of its neighbours simultaneously.
Bulgaria ended up losing land to all of these neighbours in the following peace treaties.
The cause of the initial invasions by Bulgaria, was that in the Balkan League agreement, Bulgaria
were promised most of Macedonia, however, before the end of the war, Serbia and Greece
made plans to hold onto lands that their forces had occupied.
Fast-forward to 1918 and the end of World War 1 and the establishment of the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia.
The southern region which would later become the Republic of Macedonia, was at the time
known as the Vardar Banovina, named after the Vardar River.
After being occupied by the Axis powers in World War 2, Yugoslavia was re-established,
this time as a Socialist Federation made up of 6 six constituent countries, one of which
was named the People’s Republic of Macedonia, and later the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.
During the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Macedonia declared itself an independent
country in 1991, and became the only country to break away from Yugoslavia peacefully,
avoiding the Yugoslav wars in the other constituent countries.
So this marks the beginning of the dispute with Greece, with their declaration of independence.
Now at the time, it wasn’t just the name that Greece took issue with, but also the
newly independent country’s flag, which featured the Vergina Sun, which was a symbol
used by the Argead dynasty of Macedon, and found in ancient Greek artifacts.
The Greek Parliament passed a resolution declaring the Vergina Star an official national symbol,
and even trademarked the symbol as well.
In 1993, the Republic of Macedonia joined the United Nations, but was designated the
temporary term the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, due to Greek objections.
The new member’s flag was not raised at the UN headquarters.
In 1994, Greece imposed sanctions upon their northern neighbor, which was economically
crippling for them.
In 1995, the two sought to normalise relations despite their differences in an Interim Accord
under UN mediation, in which neither country was specifically mentioned by name.
The Republic of Macedonia agreed to remove the Vergina Sun from their flag, and made
some changes to their constitution which Greece considered to be irredentist in nature.
In return, Greece agreed not to hinder them from joining any international organisations,
so long as they use the UN designated term the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Over the next two decades, the countries had negotiations, with a UN mediator, to try to
solve the naming dispute.
Through various governments throughout the years, there have been dozens of solutions
proposed, but the two sides have still yet to be able to reach a compromise.
In the beginning, Greece was completely unwilling to accept any name that featured the word
“Macedonia”, suggesting names such as the Vardar Republic or the Republic of Skopje,
however have since come around to a more reasonable position that a compound name featuring Macedonia
with a geographical or historical qualifier would be acceptable.
In 2008, a NATO invitation to the Republic of Macedonia was vetoed by Greece due to the
ongoing dispute.
In response to this, Macedonia took legal action against Greece for violating their
Interim Accord agreement of 1995.
The International Court of Justice issued a judgement stating that Greece did indeed
violate the agreement.
Macedonia has also been a candidate for EU membership since 2005 but accession talks
have still yet to begin.
In 2011, the situation was exacerbated when the Republic of Macedonia erected a 22m tall
statue of Alexander the Great in their capital city, Skopje.
The EU enlargement commissioner called the statue a “provocation”.
And this was just one of many similar actions around the Republic’s capital city to try
and bolster their claim to the name “Macedonia”, including the re-naming of their main airport
“Alexander the Great Airport”, re-naming the main highway to Greece as “Alexander
of Macedon”, re-naming the city’s largest stadium “Philip II Area”, and one of Skopje’s
main squares was re-named “Pella Square”, after the capital city of the Kingdom of Macedon,
despite the fact that Pella was located in what is now modern-day Greece, as was the
vast majority of the Ancient Kingdom.
These actions, which have been referred to as “antiquisation”, were met with almost
universal disapproval by the international community and by many within the country itself.
This was all part of a project called Skopje 2014, by the ruling government at the time
and sometimes controversial Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries was at an all-time low.
Despite this though, talks to solve the dispute did continue, although reached extreme levels
of pettiness when the two parties came very close to an agreement, but ultimately failed
due to simple word order.
The most recent round of negotiations took place in January 2018, with both sides seeming
optimistic that the dispute can be solved this year.
Now at this point, you might be thinking to yourself… isn’t this all very petty?
It’s just a name afterall.
Well, on the one hand...
yes, absolutely.
Two nations arguing about the name of a country for a quarter of a century, is very petty,
and should have been solved many years ago.
On the other hand, there are actually a lot of underlying serious issues as well.
So let’s try to understand why it’s so important for Macedonia to keep their name,
and why Greece is so adamant that they change it.
The Republic of Macedonia is made up of about 65% of people who identify as Macedonian.
These people are ethnically Slavic, primarily of Bulgarian and Serbian descent.
The Macedonian identity is a fairly modern one, having emerged within the last century
or so, initially seeking autonomy for Macedonia with the Ottoman Empire.
In 1893, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was founded to fight for the
Macedonian cause.
The name “Macedonia” was chosen for the constituent country of Yugoslavia as a way
of distancing the population from their neighbour, Bulgaria, who are both ethnically and linguistically
very similar.
This may have also been a tactic by Tito to lay future claims upon Greek Macedonia, and
access the Mediterranean Sea, although this never came to fruition.
Today, the Macedonians of the former Yugoslav republic, are overwhelmingly against any change
to the country’s name.
A poll showed more than 80% of Macedonians did not want to the country to change its
name, even if a name change would help their entry into the EU and NATO.
From the Macedonian perspective, it could be argued that they have every right to use
the name Macedonia, given that the country is entirely within the geographical region
known as Macedonia.
Even though the modern-day country has no connection to the Ancient Kingdom of Macedon,
the wider geographical region has been known as Macedonia since the Roman times.
On top of this, the country doesn’t claim any kind of exclusivity over the name, ie
- they have no problem with Greece also using the name.
Also, Greece claiming that the country’s name implies territorial ambitions upon its
region of the same name... is an over exaggeration.
In the past, the idea of a United Macedonia was a very real thing, but today, such an
idea is something that only exists in the minds of a very minor group of ultra-nationalists.
And anyway, Greece is a member of NATO, an invasion by their northern neighbour is not
something Greece has to worry about.
All that being said, the country only inhabits the northern part of the region of Macedonia,
so names like Upper or Northern Macedonia are arguably more accurate names, and it’s
only a minor change.
Or a name like New Macedonia, which again is accurate since the country has only been
independent since 1991, and this also distinguishes it from ancient Macedonia.
Now from the Greek perspective, it certainly is understandable that they take issue with
the name, and especially the country’s original flag, and the 22m tall statue of Alexander
the Great… and the airport, and the highway, and the public square, and the stadium…
etc. etc.
Still, it is a little unreasonable to claim that Greece is the ONLY country that has the
right to use the name Macedonia.
The majority of Macedonian Greeks however, are against the former Yugoslav republic using
the name Macedonia in any context.
Some kind of composite name which makes a clear distinction from the Greek region of
Macedonia seems like a reasonable compromise to many, including the current government
of Greece.
Now, of the two parties, the Republic of Macedonia is the one that stands to benefit from resolving
the naming dispute.
So a good case could be made that the onus is on them to change their name, as it will
allow them to join the European Union and NATO.
Of course a counter argument could be made that Greece is the one blocking them from
joining these organisations and therefore they should be the ones to back down.
Over 130 countries have recognised the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name.
A name is a term used for identification, and for the Republic of Macedonia, that name
has hindered their development as a nation since independence.
However, many Macedonians consider the country’s name an incredibly important part of their
national identity and are completely against changing the name, even if this means sacrificing
the country’s economic and political future.
The naming dispute between these two countries is surely one of the most bizarre international
disputes of all time, that has already gone on for far too long.
The two nations have stated their optimism and eagerness to solve the dispute, but this
certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard that.
For sake of the the country whose name I’ve already said far too many times, and for the
region of the Balkans as a whole, let’s hope this dispute can once and for all be
put to rest and resolved, and that a disagreement over a country’s name doesn’t continue
for another quarter century.
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