Expert: Irulan Serena - 1/9/2007

Question
I am trying to critally examine Greek Nationalism in relation to its northern neighbour, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. To what extent do you think this state has its roots in ancient Macedonia?

Thank you

Answer

The lands governed by the Republic of Macedonia were previously the southernmost part of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia. Its current borders were fixed shortly after World War II when the government of the then People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia established the People's Republic of Macedonia, recognizing the Macedonian ethnicity, and the region as a separate nation within Yugoslavia.
In the past, these lands came under a number of ancient states and former empires; Paionia, the kingdom of ancient Macedon (which gave its name to the whole Macedonian region). It must be noted though, that the ancient kingdom of Macedon was centred in what is today Greek Macedonia and its boundaries did not span north of the modern town of Bitola until after 323 BC, a date by which most of the world then known to the Greeks was already under Macedonian rule.[2] Later, in 146 BC, the area became part of the Roman and Byzantine empires, becoming Christian in the 3rd and 4th century.
In the late 6th century AD Byzantine control over the area disintegrated, and the region was conquered by pagan Slavic tribes from the north, assimilating the preexisting Greek, Latin, Illyrian and Thracian-speaking inhabitants [3]. In the 9th century the territory converted to Christianity through the evangelizing work of the Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples. In the same century the First Bulgarian Empire assumed control of most of the area.
The Byzantines reassumed full control of the Balkans by the early 11th century, but by the late 12th century Byzantine decline brought about the birth of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The empire met with political difficulties early, and the wider geographical Macedonia region fell once again under Byzantine control, and in the 14th century it became part of the Serbian Empire, only to pass a few decades later into Ottoman hands, under whose rule it was to remain for five centuries.
Several movements whose goals where the establishment of an independent Macedonian state encompassing the entire region of Macedonia began to arise in the mid and late 1800s, the most famous of these the IMRO. In 1903 IMRO organised the Ilinden Uprising against the Ottomans, which after the initial successes including the forming of the Krushevo Republic, was crushed with much loss of life. The uprising and the forming of the Krushevo Republic are considered the corner-stone and precursors to the eventual establishment of the Republic of Macedonia.
Following the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the wider region of Macedonia was divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia was then named Južna Srbija, "Southern Serbia". After the First World War Serbia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the kingdom was officially renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and divided into provinces called banovinas. So called "Southern Serbia" (Vardar Macedonia), including all of what is now the Republic of Macedonia, became known as the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis Powers and the Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Italian-occupied Albania. Harsh rule by the occupying forces encouraged many Macedonians to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito. After the end of the Second World War, when Tito became Yugoslavia's president, the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established. The People's Republic of Macedonia became one of the six republics of the Yugoslav federation. Following the federation's renaming as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, the People's Republic of Macedonia was likewise renamed, becoming the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. It dropped the "Socialist" from its name in 1991 when it peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia. A few very minor changes to its border with Serbia were agreed upon to resolve problems with the demarcation line between the two countries.
The country officially celebrates 8 September 1991 as Independence day (Ден на независноста), with regard to the referendum, endorsing independence from Yugoslavia, albeit legalizing participation in future union of the former states of Yugoslavia. The anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising (St. Elijah's Day) on the 2 August is also widely celebrated on an official level. The Republic of Macedonia remained at peace through the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s but was destabilized by the Kosovo War in 1999, when an estimated 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo took refuge in the country. Although they departed shortly after the war, soon after, Albanian radicals on both sides of the border took up arms in pursuit of autonomy or independence for the Albanian-populated areas of the Republic. A short conflict was fought between government and ethnic Albanian rebels, mostly in the north and west of the country, in March–June 2001. This war ended with the intervention of a NATO ceasefire monitoring force. In the Ohrid Agreement, the government agreed to devolve greater political power and cultural recognition to the Albanian minority. The Albanian side agreed to give up any separatist demands and to fully recognise all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this accord the NLA was to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force. In 2005, the country was officially recognized, under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as a European Union candidate state.

To what extend depends on variables such as history government, etc.

Irulan