Macedonia and the Macedonian Question: Identity Politics from the Historical Perspective

The ongoing debate concerning the name of Macedonia dates back to 1991. Back then, the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia proclaimed independence under the name of the Republic of Macedonia. The year also marked a beginning of the turbulent Greco-Macedonian bilateral conflict which took place in the continent undergoing a transition from the cold war to united Europe. Since 1991 the new Macedonian state has changed its flag, erased the name of “Alexander of Macedon” from important buildings or places and faced the economic embargo imposed by Greece. The domestic and foreign Macedonian policy was dominated by the dispute concerning the existence of the Macedonian identity. This situation led to the few unsuccessful attempts to change the name of the country and the new acronym FYROM proposed by Greece and used by several states. In fact, the dispute on the Macedonian (national, ethnic or regional) identity dates back to the 19th century when the concept of Great Macedonia appeared. Since then, the so-called “Macedonian Question” was raised many times: starting from the Balkan wars, in both World Wars and the Greek Civil War, in the proclamation of the Yugoslavian republic but also contemporarily, when the name dispute has eventually been resolved. In each of those cases the influential actors were not only Macedonians but also foreign governments competing for influence in the Balkans. Against that background, the paper aims at analyzing the contemporary Greco-Macedonian name dispute in the broader historical and political framework of the “Macedonian Question”. The analysis discusses the development from the 19th century until today in order to demonstrate how historical narratives influence the current Macedonian discourses.