Monday, January 21, 2019

What is in a name?

A lot if you are a Greek or Macedonian nationalist.

Previously known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the country has re-named itself  the Republic of North Macedonia, its language will be Macedonian and its people known as Macedonians. In Macedonian, the name is Severna Makedonija.

Greek nationalists believe it erodes their identity. 

60,000 demonstrators in Athens on Sunday say it implies a claim on the Greek province of the same name and chanted, "Macedonia is Greek" and waved Greek flags. 

Present-day Macedonia and northern Greece were part of a Roman province called Macedonia. And both claim the heritage of Alexander the Great two millennia earlier.

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