71–80 of 136 posts
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both. Nationalist Greeks are angry and so do nationalist Makedonians. I would think both countries have more important things to protest about than name change, but then I don't live on Balkans.
Strange AFAIK the Greek-Macedonian border is not contested. Both countries acknowledge eachother sovereignty.
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What about the Persian Gulf naming "dispute"?
> What about the Persian Gulf naming "dispute"? Silly dispute, but much less stupid. The Persian/Arabian Gulf dispute is the product of an ongoing and relatively-new geopolitical tension. Both sides have military assets in the Gulf, and those assets threaten a major trading corridor. As a result, there is a genuine threat of one side seizing strategic ground from the other. Neither side is losing economic activity as…
At least the dispute of Macedonia has some kernel of truth to it (the Slavic peoples who moved into the Balkans during the Age of Migrations bear no relation to the Ancient Macedonians).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What about the Persian Gulf naming "dispute"? Silly dispute, but much less stupid. The Persian/Arabian Gulf dispute is the product of an ongoing and relatively-new geopolitical tension. Both sides have military assets in the Gulf, and those assets threaten a major trading corridor. As a result, there is a genuine threat of one side seizing strategic ground from the other. Neither side is losing economic activity as…
I bring up the "dispute" in quotes because it's something that was entirely manufactured for the purposes of manufacturing a dispute. The Persian Gulf is an appellation that is millennia old, and the Arabs decided to call the gulf something else because they didn't like the Iranians... and then pretended to make up the entire fact that it's called the Persian Gulf as some weird Iranian conspiracy. At least the disput…
This is a normal facet of disputes. It's silly. But it isn't stupid. Doing this in reverse, where a name dispute turns into a proper dispute, is stupid.
I personally do not care about the naming. Name each place / country whatever you want. What I care about is the political games that are being played behind it. People in this thread miss one point about FYROM, they want to use the name Makedonia with relations to the ancient Makedonas. Which in turns creates issues with the Greek nation. Now with the new "deal" they will take the name North Macedonia but they stric…
Oh really? We need to have an authority deciding if we can have a name or not. Why not just let people label themselves what they want.
I'm pretty sure if I name my island the "United States of America" people will not start paying their taxes to me anytime soon.
I personally do not care about the naming. Name each place / country whatever you want. What I care about is the political games that are being played behind it. People in this thread miss one point about FYROM, they want to use the name Makedonia with relations to the ancient Makedonas. Which in turns creates issues with the Greek nation. Now with the new "deal" they will take the name North Macedonia but they stric…
> Now with the new "deal" they will take the name North Macedonia but they strictly mention that they do not have any relation to the Ancient Makedonas. So at the end of the day, why didnt the two goverment or EU or UN take 20 historians and ask them, "guys do they bare the right to have that name?" Whatever the historians say should be the verdict. The name Macedonia expanded to cover the modern country of Macedonia…
I continue to regard this as the stupidest geopolitical dispute our reality can safely support.
This is exactly what is happening here. They want to be named after a geographical region which is way bigger than their borders.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now with the new "deal" they will take the name North Macedonia but they strictly mention that they do not have any relation to the Ancient Makedonas. So at the end of the day, why didnt the two goverment or EU or UN take 20 historians and ask them, "guys do they bare the right to have that name?" Whatever the historians say should be the verdict. The name Macedonia expanded to cover the modern country of Macedonia…
As you said the Macedonia region covers way more territory than the territory of the modern country. Add to this the fact the nationalists want the modern country to eventually gain all these territories. And before you claim, that these people are minority, having been there it seems that a lot of people share these feelings. For example you can see everywhere maps where the borders of the modern country are way mor…
Would never have guessed that.
I continue to regard this as the stupidest geopolitical dispute our reality can safely support.
What would it mean for Portugal if Spain decided to change its name to Iberia? This is exactly what is happening here. They want to be named after a geographical region which is way bigger than their borders.
Ancient Athens once controlled the Aegean and its borders. Does this mean Anatolians should require Athens be re-named?