Small Country Report: North Macedonia
A Country Stuck in History but Trying to Move Forward
Few people consider the magnitude of the difference between “America,” and the “United States of America.” Most, if not all, Americans use the two names interchangeably. For a long time, however, no such leniency existed for the small West Balkan country of North Macedonia.
For decades, a primary issue for North Macedonia was its name. Until recently, it was known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, often shortened to Macedonia. Tensions arose, however, because Greeks living in the northern Greek state of Macedonia took offense to the Former Yugoslav Republic’s inclusion of “Macedonia” in the name. Indeed, it remained a flashpoint between the two countries for years. Disregard for the nation of Macedonia was one of the few political issues Greeks could agree on. Due to historical disagreements, to call its northern neighbor by anything but its abbreviation FYROM was considered political suicide in Greece.
Macedonian nationals claimed their name was legitimate since the Hellenistic Empire, led by Macedonian Alexander the Great, covered their territory. Greeks argue the empire was centered in Greek territory, and therefore the Macedonians have no right to name their country as such. The feud became so intense that Macedonia employed anthropologists to find evidence to support their claim to the name and Greek citizens and politicians protested repeatedly against the name in Thessaloniki, the capital of the Greek state of Macedonia. Greece feared the Former Yugoslav Republic would use their name to lay claim to territories in the Greek state of Macedonia, despite numerous assurances from FYROM’s government that they had no territorial ambitions.
The name, though, was only a part of the heated animosity between the two countries. When North Macedonia was first founded, Greece also pressured the small country into changing its flag, claiming the star symbol in the center of the original Macedonian flag was a stolen Greek symbol. (Macedonia eventually conceded and changed their flag.) The historical dispute runs so deep that even a large statue in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje, considered to be a statue of Alexander the Great, is simply called “Warrior on a Horse,” and the capital’s airport’s name was changed from Alexander the Great Airport to Skopje International. And the implications of the naming dispute only increase in importance from there.
Greece, as the far more powerful country, leveraged its position in the EU and NATO to prevent North Macedonia from entering either — until 2018. Fear about Russia’s actions in the Balkans and a new left-leaning government in Skopje reconciled the two countries. Both countries made significant compromises in a new agreement, with Skopje agreeing to cede some of the contested histories to Greece and to add North to its name. In exchange, Greece agreed to let the country use “Macedonia” in its name and acknowledged the Macedonian language and identity. The agreement also allowed Macedonia to move forward toward accession into the EU and NATO. The newly named “North Macedonia” was accepted into NATO in early 2020, despite Russia’s stark opposition, signaling a new age for the small Balkan country. Entrance to the EU, though, has been more challenging.
Initially, it seemed North Macedonia, and its neighbor Albania, were bound to begin the process toward accession in the EU, but France blocked the move. Macron claimed he didn’t want the EU to expand, though many experts claim the move was more geared toward quelling anger among the nation’s far-right. The setback both hurt North Macedonia and took away leverage the EU may have had to influence the nation. Even so, another issue looms on the horizon for North Macedonia.
When Greece vetoed the EU opening accession talks with Macedonia in 2012, it had a co-conspirator, Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s tensions with North Macedonia also deal with the remembrance of history, though not as ancient as Macedonia’s issues with Greece. Bulgaria considers the language spoken in North Macedonia to be a dialect of Bulgarian, while North Macedonia considers it to be a separate language. The problem centers on the greater belief in Bulgaria that the Macedonians are a subgroup of Bulgarians, not a separate ethnicity. The languages are different, but citizens of both countries can understand each other without translators. Both countries feared the other’s stance on the language might lead them to make territorial claims on each other’s territory. Bulgaria feared North Macedonia might lay claim to parts of Southeastern Bulgaria, where the Macedonian language is spoken, and North Macedonia feared Bulgaria might lay claim to its territory if the language was considered Bulgarian. Though the two signed a resolution on the issue in 1999, the issue persists, as Bulgaria insists the language be known as the Official Language of Macedonia, not Macedonian.
Additionally, Bulgaria splits hairs with Macedonia over people considered national heroes by both countries. Both countries claim the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, an Ottoman-era revolutionary movement, to be part of their history. And with it, both countries lay claim to its leader, Gotse Delchev. Though a friendship treaty was signed in 2017 by the two countries, with one of the goals of the treaty being to align the histories of the two countries, there is still a rift between them. As long as it remains unsettled, along with the language dispute, Bulgaria may continue to impede North Macedonia’s entry process into the EU. As such, North Macedonia remains a country struggling to gain a foothold in the rest of Europe because of its unique history.
