What’s in name …

According to Nina Gatzoulis, Vice President of the Pan-Macedonian Association, “there are plenty of names the people of FYROM can choose from because when the Slavs settled in the Balkans at the end of the 6th century AD, there were about 11 tribes. Up to 1945, when the Communist dictator Tito named this southern part of Yugoslavia “Macedonia,” the area in which they are settled now was called Vardarska Banovina (Province of Vardar). The following historical review will shed further light on the issue.

Excerpt from the Pan-Macedonian Association Document, “What’s in a Name?”

“…Before 1944 the area that later comprised the former Yugoslavia’s southern republic was not called Macedonia but was called Vardarska Banovina (Province -of the river- Vardar). It was in 1944 that (Joseph Broz) Marshal Tito, the Communist dictator ruling Yugoslavia at that time, created Yugoslavia’s southern republic and called it “Socialist Republic of Macedonia”. However, “Macedonia” was already the name of one of Greece’s northern provinces. In ancient times, the land that Macedonia covered included this northern province of Greece, a small part of Bulgaria, a small part of Albania, and a small part of the region that Tito named the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. ….
Through their control of mass media and education, the government of “People’s Republic of Macedonia” then introduced this language and claimed that it is the language that was spoken by the ancient Macedonians. However, this language is grammatically nearly identical to Bulgarian and, due to continuous government interventions, its vocabulary tends to include more Serbo-Croatian words that have replaced the Bulgarian words. They clearly overlooked the unquestionable fact that the inhabitants of ancient Macedonia were Greeks and spoke the Greek language. Numerous excavations in all of the ancient Macedonia area have consistently unearthed relics clearly with Greek writings, and depictions of rulers clearly designated with Greek names.

In September of 1991 this republic declared independence from Yugoslavia and it named itself “Republic of Macedonia” as a new independent country. They designed a new flag with the Sun of Vergina at its center and printed new currency with the White Tower of Thessaloniki, symbols clearly from the northern province of Greece. Because of these actions and also because of certain articles in their constitution which implied that their country had territorial rights to all of the ancient Macedonian area, Greece imposed a trade embargo and prevented any trade commerce through Greece’s northern border. Greece reluctantly lifted the trade embargo when The FYROM redesigned and accepted a new flag, stopped the issuance of the new currency with the depiction of the White Tower of Thessaloniki, and passed amended articles to their constitution implying that they have no territorial rights outside their present boundaries. Greece, however, continued to object to their use of the name Macedonia. Because of this objection, the United Nations accepted this nation as a new member with the temporary name of “The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (The FYROM)” (UN Resolutions #817 of April 7 and #845 of June 18 of 1993) until a permanent solution to the name is found. To this date no solution has been found and the UN deadline of September 13, 2002 has passed by with the two countries only agreeing to extend discussions on this matter for one more year.