I recall this debate back in the post-Yugoslavia break-up days, but had no idea it was still festering. It all boils down to the question of who “owns” a national name, how such names can (or cannot) be duplicated, how fluid borders and history scramble such discussions, and why ethnic nationalism always makes things more difficult than they should be.
In short: the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has had efforts to actually call themselves Macedonia continuously blocked in the international and European communities by Greek nationalists who say that name belongs to Greeks, as reflected in their own (neighboring) district called Macedonia. That many (though by no means all) of these folk in FYROM are ethnically Slavic makes this stickier; that folk in FYROM believe the name and cultural heritage belongs to them, and won’t hear about changing it, makes this even stickier.
Why Macedonia still has a second name – The Economist explains
Macedonia gained independence over 25 years ago. Its name has still not been resolved
With due and sincere respect to the Greeks, I just call it Macedonia. FYROM is a nonsense for bureaucrats.
+Travis Bird Well, it sounds like something very bureaucratic, but the power exercised by Greek nationalists in this issue is hardly white-collar-paper-pushing.
For that matter, I call it Macedonia, too, nor do I particularly care who wants to erect statues to Philip or Alexander.