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Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

theguardian.com

21–30 of 136 posts

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#21

Isn't it ironic that things like Mickey Mouse are super copyrighted that even if you name your son that you will get in trouble. On the other hand things like historical references(Macedonia) are up for grabs by anyone and they even attract supporters of the type "self naming is a right"..

Disney hasn't had a "regime change", and the regime question was quite clear at the time Mickey was invented. Macedonia (Kingdom? Empire? Ancient ethnicity?/dialect?/polity?) had lots of regime changes. We can't even be sure that the Greeks, at the time of Philip & Alexander considered Macedonia to be "Greece." You could argue either way. You could also argue that half the world is the "real" Macedonia. Bagdad has a…

>> We can't even be sure that the Greeks, at the time of Philip & Alexander considered Macedonia to be "Greece."

This is plain wrong. There is absolutely no dispute what so ever among historians about the Greek origin of Macedonia. The new country of Northern Macedonia in no way disputes this either. Comments like yours are the prime proof that what happened is very very wrong.

This is a quote from Wikipedia about Alexander the great.

>> Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this >> authority to launch his father's pan-Hellenic project to lead >> the Greeks in the conquest of Persia.

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#24
post #15
post #9

So can Luxembourg claim the Belgian province of Luxembourg back then?

The conflict is about name, not area. Macedonia wants into EU, Greece doesn't agree as long as Macedonia is called Macedonia.

The conflict became about name after the aggressive irredentist rhetoric coming from newly-formed Makedonia in the 1990s. Remember that Greece had a civil war and Yugoslavia supported the communists in Northern Greece, so the subject is tricky.

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#25

Isn't it ironic that things like Mickey Mouse are super copyrighted that even if you name your son that you will get in trouble. On the other hand things like historical references(Macedonia) are up for grabs by anyone and they even attract supporters of the type "self naming is a right"..

Anything is up for grabs by anyone, as long as they bring an army along. (See: the Balkans for the past 500 years)

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#26
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That will: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42937889 And before you speak again about nationalists, etc read a bit about Mikis Theodorakis who was the main speaker addressing the crowd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikis_Theodorakis

So on both sides, the people that are unhappy would have wanted the other side to make more concessions?

That's exactly why I poked him. Only nationalists are displeased. source: I'm Greek and I think this is a great deal

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#27
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greece didn't claim the country for itself, it claimed the name for it's own northern province.

Greece didn't claim anything. Macedonia has been a Greek region for thousands of years. The so-called 'macdonia' state and the whole naming dispute emerged out of nowhere after WWII.

Macedonia is a broader geographic region which is shared by 4 states.

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#29
Greece has objected because they can; they have a veto on new EU members and have made this a red line. Other EU countries technically can tell Greece to accept Macedonia as it is (was) or no aid etc, but that's an extreme.

Considering that "Macedonia" extends also into Greece it's not unreasonable to differentiate, into Northern and the other part. Without wanting to start a war, today's "Macedonians" are mostly slavs, and Albanians make about 25-30%.

Re: Macedonia changes name, ending bitter dispute with Greece

#30
I really hope things change for the better. Being from the north of Greece I know first hand the difficulties with the name. I am very passionate about it but I understand we live in a different world. My feeling is that the Greek government and their NATO, EU allies pushed this forward now in order to stop the imperialistic plans of Erdogan in the region. I think with more Balkan countries in the EU, NATO influences start and stop with the West not the Russians, not the Erdoganites.
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