Greece and its Slavic neighbours have agreed on a compromise in the eternal dispute about the term “Macedonia”. What is actually in this conflict?
Name of Macedonia, A dispute with deep roots in history.
Anyone who wants to understand in Europe, probably the only one armed, one must go far back in history: In the ancient Region of Macedonia, Alexander the Great had come to the world. He was a pupil of Aristotle, who-along with Socrates and Plato as the founder of Greek philosophy. But he was also a daring war Lord who defeated the ancient Greek tribes and led to later successful campaigns against the Persians and India. Many people in Hellas worship Alexander today as “the greatest Greeks of all times”. After his death in 323 BC, the world-Kingdom fell, however, and the traces of a Greek past have been blurred in many regions, especially in Asia, fast.
For at least 400 years, Macedonia is defined as a geographical region in the Southeast of Europe, which has long stood under the Ottoman rule. After the First world war the largest part of this Region coincided with its multi-ethnic capital, Thessaloniki, Greece. After the Second world war, the Communists founded the Yugoslavian Federation, which had a common border with Greece. The most southern province of the “Republic of Macedonia”. With this name they proclaimed their independence after the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Alexander the Great: The greatest Greek and the greatest Macedonian of all time?
In the capital Skopje, it is said Alexander the Great to the greatest Macedonian of all time. Due to the unstable situation in the Region, from the Greek point of view, the decisive Moment for the confrontation, explains political scientist Jorgos was Tzogopoulos. “It is only in this context, after the end of the Cold war, begins the real dispute,” said Tzogopoulos, compared to the DW. “Greece believes that the term Macedonia in breach of its economic interests, and also a future territorial claims suggests, especially since the geographical Region of Macedonia extends over three States: the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Greece and, not least, Bulgaria.”
The “errors” of the Greek side
The Northern neighbors actually make claims against Greece? At the beginning of the 20th century. Century, there were in Skopje is quite aspirations of the nationalist movement VMRO, to unite the “whole of Macedonia”, including the city of Thessaloniki. At this time, the nationalism prevalent in the Region, already strong on all sides. According to the
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Declaration of independence in 1991, the first President of the young state Kiro Gligorov clarified, however, expressly to soothe that in his country of the Slavs of life that have to do with the Greek neighbors of the little an attempt of the sceptics on the other side of the border.
It almost worked: Under the mediation of the EU Gligorov and the then conservative Prime Minister of Greece Constantine Mitsotakis, in 1992, seemed to agree on the compromise name “New Macedonia”. But at the last Moment hesitated Mitsotakis – probably out of fear that his own party would not support the compromise. In order to prevent worse, agreed Athens and Skopje, in 1995, under UN mediation, on the provisional name “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM) for the young state.
In Hellas, the term is part of everyday life, but everywhere else in the world, the simple designation “Republic of Macedonia” became established. A political scientist says Tzogopoulos, it was the fault of the Greek side, that they could not take any Initiative to compromise or wanted to. “As a result, were initiated in the course of time, more and more countries, the neighboring country to recognise it under its constitutional name,” says the Analyst. A crucial factor is the recognition of the “Republic of Macedonia” by the United States in the year 2004.
A precondition for the NATO and EU accession
A negotiating trump the Greeks had to continue in the Hand: you could block the accession of the neighbouring country to NATO or to the EU by a Veto. On obvious pressure Athens back warned a NATO summit in 2008, was the solution to the name dispute “requirement” for joining. The government in Skopje, complained of a from their point of view, the illegal Greek blockade. A new ice age was announced.
Zoran Zaev (l) and Alexis Tsipras (r) in Prespa: An historical agreement
But it came differently: In Athens, the ruling Conservatives accepted for the first time that the term “Macedonia” should happen in the name of the young state. And in Skopje, the resistance against the authoritarian head of government Nikola Gruevski formed. After a change of government in both countries, the right Moment had come for a rapprochement. 2018 in Greece, the left Premier Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev signed a compromise agreement. Accordingly, the Northern neighbor is renamed Greece in “Northern Macedonia”.
A political scientist believes Tzogopoulos, the agreement opens up completely new possibilities for the relations between the two countries, especially in tourism. “An example of this is that the Greek airline Aegean Airlines has been offering since a few weeks direct flights from Athens to Skopje, there was never, in the past,” he explains. In any case, the relations between the two peoples are very friendly. “Until the name dispute, we had no problems with each other. And the Greek companies are active locally and are one of the largest investors and trading partners in the neighboring country.”