What’s in a Name? The Macedonian Issue

By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

As I tell students in political geography courses, to name is to claim.

Hence, Constantinople became Istanbul, New Amsterdam became New York, Salisbury became Harare, and so on.

This has roiled relations between Greece and its northern neighbor, Macedonia, which has been forced to be known internationally -- thanks to Greek objections -- as the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” ever since the breakup of Yugoslavia almost three decades ago.

The term is used by international organizations such as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and NATO, as well as the United Nations.

Greece argued that its northern neighbour’s name implied irredentist territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name, including the strategically important port of Thessaloniki, and perhaps even portions of Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia.

Many Greeks remain opposed to Skopje’s use of the name Macedonia at all, as they say it appropriates Greek history and fails to distinguish itself from the Greek region with the same name.

The historic region of Macedonia was the birthplace of Alexander the Great, whose conquests stretched from Greece to India.

Greeks consider his Hellenic empire part of heir national heritage and claim the inhabitants of today’s northern Macedonian state are historically unrelated to that history. They arrived 1,000 years later and lack any relation to ancient Macedonia, so the name is for Greeks alone to claim.

Greece slapped a trade embargo on the fledgling nation in the 1990s and blocked Macedonia’s entrance into a host of international organizations, including a 2008 veto of Macedonia’s bid to join NATO.

When Zoran Zaev, head of the of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), became prime minister in May 2017, he made rapprochement with Greece his top priority.

But a deal continued to face vociferous opposition from a sizeable portion of the population on both sides of the border, with detractors saying their respective governments conceded too much to the other side and damaged national interests and identity.

Last February, during ongoing negotiations between the two countries, tens of thousands of Greeks marched to the parliament in Athens, waving flags and chanting, “Macedonia is Greece.” 

Behind the protests were the conservative Greek Orthodox Church and ultranationalists including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. 

But after years of acrimony, on June 17 Macedonia and Greece signed the Prespa Agreement, which would see the Balkan country change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. In turn, Greece would drop its objections to the country joining the EU and NATO.

A referendum on the deal was held in Macedonia on Sept 30. It won overwhelming support, with 91.4 per cent of voters voicing their approval, but the low voter turnout of just 36.5 per cent highlighted the hurdles that remained.

Opponents to the name change included the country’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, and Hristijan Mickoski, head of the nationalist opposition Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity(VMRO-DPMNE). The latter had suggested a boycott of the vote.

Mickoski called the deal with Greece “the crime of those who are in power” while Ivanov referred to it as “national suicide.” Their supporters celebrated in the streets when turnout figures were announced.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Zaev declared the vote a success and decided to secure the required two-thirds majority of Macedonia’s 120-seat parliament for the necessary constitutional changes.

On Oct. 18, 80 deputies in the Macedonian parliament voted in favour of renaming the country the Republic of North Macedonia, just reaching the two-thirds majority needed to enact constitutional changes.

“Our journey toward a better future, toward EU and NATO membership has just begun,” Zaev remarked after the vote.

The agreement faces more hurdles before it can be finalized, as Greece will also need to ratify it, which may not be easy. The main Greek opposition party, New Democacy, is opposed.