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Origin and debates around the name

The name Macedonia is the Latin form ( Macedonia ) of an old Greek toponym (Μακεδονία) naming this part of the Balkans. The term of Macedonia returns to the kingdom of Philippe II of Macedonia and Alexandre in Antiquity. Under the Byzantine Empire it was used to indicate military and administrative divisions besides moving (“topics”), in an area where since the 6th century the Slavic ones had settled, while the Greeks remained grouped close to the coast. Included from 893 to 927 in the Bulgarian empire of Siméon (except its Salonique capital), Macedonia returns to the Byzantine Empire about 1015. The Serb Sovereign Stefan Milutin seizes some in his turn 1284. It will remain Serb until 1371 and the defeat of Vukašin Mrnjavčević at the time of the Bataille of Maritza. Initially Marko Kraljević will control it under the authority of Turkish, then the Othoman Turks only occupy it until 1912. For them, it is only Roumélie Western ( Rum-ili : the “country taken in Roumis”), Roumis being the Romans name of the Byzantine for the Turks, but on all the European charts, the name of Macedonia is preserved because until the 19th century, the scholars of Europe thought the geography of Balkans according to the designs of Ptolémée and Strabon. In 1913 Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, which asserted each one Macedonia (of which the population then was extremely variegated) drive out the Turks and divide the country. In Paris, a cook invents a mixed vegetable dish which he baptizes of the name of this area. After the First World War, Serbia is integrated into the new State having to join together the Slavic populations of the area: the Yugoslavia.

During the 20th century Yugoslavia becomes a federation, whose republic of Macedonia is a component independent of the Republic of Serbia.

With the end of Yugoslavia, in 1991, the leaders of the Republic of Macedonia which has just gained its independence, seek a strong local identity which avoids their absorption by Bulgaria (the slavon spoken in Macedonia east very close to Bulgarian) or by Albania (the district of Tetovo, in the North-West, is populated of Albanian). For that, not only they preserve the name Macedonia , but they adopt the emblems of ancient Macedonia (" Sun of Vergina" in the tomb of Philippe II). The Greece question this appropriation of a Greek past good former to Slavic, and this denomination. Various denominations are proposed: " Vardarie" (of the name of the principal river), " Macédoslavie" , " Macédoslavonie" or " Slavomacédoine" , but the leaders Macedonians refuse any name where the radical " would not appear; Macédo" and Greeks, any name where it appears.

In the absence of compromise, the majority of the international organizations and States foreign call officially this country by its constitutional name: Republic of Macedonia. Only Greece and its allies, in the official relations, call the country by the acronym the Old Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (''' ARYM '''). The English acronym is FYROM, Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia . It however is largely made use, by convenience, in the less official texts (official statements, bonds of navigation of the sites of the ministries for the Foreign affairs) of the terms Macedonia and République of Macedonia . 113 countries in the world use the constitutional name (“Republic of Macedonia”) and recognize officially the name " Macédoine". Among those: the Turkey, the the United States of America, the Russia, the Poland, the Slovenia and the China unilaterally recognized the name of “Republic of Macedonia”; the in November 2004 United States in thanks of the support granted to the war in Kosovo.

Greece fears that if the name “Republic of Macedonia” is used, Macedonia could nourish territorial claims with respect to the Greek province of Macedonia. However amendment 2 of the constitution Macedonian prohibited in the State Macedonian to invade other territories.

History

The Republic of Macedonia is resulting from the partition of old the Yugoslavia. To affirm its identity and its cohesion vis-a-vis the Bulgarian or Albanian irredentism, it chooses to preserve the name of " Macédoine" and the Yugoslav definition of its majority language (" macédonienne"); for national symbol, vis-a-vis the Bulgarian lion and with the Albanian eagle, it briefly adopted in 1992 a flag carrying star of Vergina, symbol associated with Alexandre Large the. Geographically, the republic represents 38% of the surface and 44% of the population of the geographical area and history known under the name of Macedonia, the remainder being divided between its Greek neighbors (a little more half of the total) and Bulgarian (less than one tenth). The choice of the denomination of " Macédoine" by a state with Slavic majority involved the vehement protests of the Greece, which considers that this denomination inherited Antiquity belongs to its history and not to that of the Slavic ones, the more so as the language of Alexandre the Large one was the Greek of the Koinè. It thus disputes with the new republic the right to use these references to Antiquity and obtained that it modifies its flag in 1995.

This is why UNO recognizes it only like “old Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (ARYM - in English FYROM for Former Yugoslav Republic off Macedonia and that the country adopted in 1995 a new flag with eight rays instead of the sixteen rays of old star of Vergina. After many proposals pushed back by the government of Skopje (" Vardarie" , " Vardaroslavonie" , etc) or by that of Athens (" Macédoslavie" , " Macedonia of Nord" , etc), a new proposal for “a name not to be translated” (like " Belarus" , " Moldova" or " Myanmar"): Republika Makedonija-Skopje , was advanced by the the United Nations and seems to be able to be accepted by the Greece.

The Republic of Macedonia remained of the nationalist violent ones conflicts who shook the old Yugoslav republics of Bosnia-Herzégovine and Croatia in 1991-1995, but the surge well off 360 000 Albanian refugees of the close Kosovo in 1999 failed to destabilize the republic. With the international assistance, it however safeguarded its cohesion, its independence and civil peace. This policy is rewarded by a fast development supported by a long common border with the European Union (Bulgaria and Greece).

Relations with the European Union

In spite of the steps quickly traversed in the years spent in direction of adhesion to the European Union, to the moment (2007) the arguments between Slavic Macedonians and the Albanians led to the paralysis of parlemente, with consequent stallo of the reforms. It appears improbable that the Country succeeds in starting the negotiations before 2009. Those already traversed stages:

April 9th 2001: signature of the Agreement of stabilization and association;
April 27th 2002: transmission near the General secretary of the European Union the means of ratifies Agreement of stabilization and association;
April 1st 1999: coming into effect of the Agreement of Stabilization and Association;
March 22nd 2004: presentation of the question of adhesion;
April 1st 2004: coming into effect the Agreement of Stabilization and Association;

Policy

See also: Political of the Republic of Macedonia

A short civil war took place in 2001, to which took share of the Albanian rebels of the west of the country, asserting the use of the Albanian language in the administration and teaching, and the police force… It ended in the intervention of a small force of NATO having to supervise the cease-fire.

Under the aegis of NATO and European Union, the representatives of the components albanophones and slavophones signed on August 13rd, 2001 the agreements of Ohrid envisaging of the wider rights for the Albanian minority. These rights reinforced for the minorities were concretized by voted constitutional amendments in November 2001.

Since 2002, the European Union took the changing of NATO in Macedonia and sign thus its first operation with means of Alliance.

Subdivisions

Macedonia is divided into 84 municipalities or opštini , distributed between 8 areas which does not have any administrative role.

Geography

Macedonia has some natural cavities

Economy

See also: Economy of the Republic of Macedonia

Demography

Culture

Codes

The Republic of Macedonia (old Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) has as codes:

FY, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-2,
FYR, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-3,
.mk, according to the List of Internet TLD (Signal level domain),
MK, according to the international Code list of the number plates,
MK, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-2,
MKD, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-3,
MKD, according to the Code list country of the CIO.

See too

References

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