Greece Background Part II: What's in a Name?

I stayed up late last night to finish a work related task because I was on a roll (hey, old habits die hard) so I have some wiggle time during the day today and have high hopes of finishing up with everything I want to say about Greece.

Right now, Greece has an ongoing dispute with the Republic of Macedonia over its name. Macedonia is a small landlocked country that was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 1991. Greece worries that Macedonia is attempting to appropriate parts of its history by its name (which is also a region in Greece), and by claiming that it is the birth place of Alexander the Great. Macedonia's first flag after independence had the Vergina sun on it, a symbol of King Phillip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father. Tensions increased when Macedonia named their airport Alexander the Great airport. As a result, Macedonia is identified as FYROM (the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) in most official documents. Because NATO and EU secession is dependent upon the resolution of this dispute, it's become a very serious issue.

More and more countries (around 181 now) recognize FYROM as Macedonia, so it seems clear that Greece will have to cave eventually. The Greeks I met often delicately referred to the Macedonian journalists as "the young men from Skopje," the capital city of Macedonia.

The issue was a difficult one for me to understand as an outsider. I think I could understand a little better if the dispute was conveyed in economic terms-- Greece didn't want Macedonia the country to steal tourists from Macedonia the region--but the Greeks I spoke with were extremely emotional about the issue, arguing that Macedonia was an affront to their identity.

A young journalist from Israel was equally bewildered by the issue and Michelle told me that at a conference once the Jordanian and Israeli participants started laughing when the Macedonia issue came up. When she asked them to calm down, they explained they wished all they were fighting over was a name.

One "facet" of the problem is that Macedonia was a kingdom in ancient Greece inhabited by ancient Greeks whereas Macedonia the country is inhabited by Slavs. Some Greeks worry the modern Macedonians are trying to claim a Greek identity or conflate Slavic and Greek identities. (Although I think different responsible ethnic historians have argued both that the Greeks ARE Slavs and that the Macedonians aren't Slavs--it's kind of blurry.) The issue of the birthplace of Alexander the Great is also a sensitive one: everybody loves a conqueror. Greeks also worry that the name is a precursor to Macedonian territorial ambitions to spread into Greek Macedonia. (Maybe they should jump this hurdle once they get to it.)

This may seem like a long treatise in something of dubious international importance, but I do think it's a pretty unique conflict and underpinned a lot of the political conversations I had in Greece. If anyone "gets it" or can think of a parallel instance, I'd love to hear.