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Two months ago at Lake Prespa, on the northern Greek border, Macedonian prime minister Zoran Zaev emerged from talks with Greece and announced an agreement to change his country's name to "North Macedonia." National name changes are rare, but this was the second one to hit headlines in just a couple of months. And that little added "North" looks innocent enough, but this name change is more fraught than most.
Greece is very protective of Alexander the Great's brand.
The nation of Macedonia was the "Socialist Republic of Macedonia," the southernmost of the six constituent republics of Yugoslavia, from 1945 to 1991. Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito may have chosen the name to antagonize Greece, which takes a very proprietary attitude to the name "Macedonia." To Greeks, you see, Macedonia is a historical region in northern Greece, the ancient home of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great.
Macedonia is being blackballed over its name.
Ancient Macedon did indeed extend north into what is today the southern third of the Kingdom of Macedonia. But Greece viewed Macedonia's name as cultural appropriation, especially when right-wingers in Macedonia renamed the Skopje airport after Alexander the Great. Greece insisted that the United Nations officially refer to Macedonia as the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," or FYROM, and has vetoed their neighbors' entrance into NATO and the EU for the past decade.
The "North" name change could still go south.
Greece and Macedonia have been quietly negotiating the name squabble for years, discussing options like "Upper Macedonia," "New Macedonia," and "Ilinden Macedonia" (named for a 1903 uprising against the Ottomans). As an olive branch, Skopje even took the aforementioned "Alexander the Great" signage off its airport earlier this year. But the "North Macedonia" compromise that finally got hammered out is still controversial in both nations. Angry nationalists protested it in Greece ("Macedonia is Greek!" marchers shouted) and the name must still be approved by voters in Macedonia.
All is quiet on the "Western" front.
Polls show that Macedonia is likely to vote in favor of the new name on September 30, which would officially put North Macedonia on the roll call of nations. It will join other directional countries like East Timor, South Africa, and South Sudan. (Strictly speaking, North and South Korea don't count here, since their official names are "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" and "Republic of Korea," respectively.) But West Germany went away in 1990, Western Samoa changed its name to "Samoa" in 1997, and Western Sahara's independence is disputed—so until Kanye West becomes a sovereign state, "West" is the one compass direction missing from the world map.
Explore the world's oddities every week with Ken Jennings, and check out his book Maphead for more geography trivia.
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