National Post (National Edition)
FYROM TO GET A NEW NAME − AT LAST
Joyous news arrives from the Balkans, as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, famous for having to be called that over-literal name by international diplomats for the better part of 30 years, has reached a tentative agreement with Greece on a new official name that does not make it sound like the country was Prince defying his record label. The prime minister of the independent state often abbreviated in international-relations-speak as “FYROM” has consented that his homeland shall bear the indignity of calling itself “North Macedonia.”
This is the obvious solution to an international crisis that has lasted a generation. Naturally, it set off immediate riots in both FYROM and Greece. In that part of the world, you can re-draw the map as often as you like, but the people will never stop acting as if — well, as if some S.O.B. was always re-drawing their maps. That’s sort of the generic, enduring Balkan problem.
The naming deal has to pass the legislatures of both countries concerned, and win a referendum in the FYROM. Greece’s Prime Minister Tsipras has, somewhat encouragingly, already survived a confidence vote in the Greek Parliament. The bargain may not ultimately pass this time — Macedonia’s president is squawking in alarm about what his prime minister has done — but the mere personal acceptance of it by heads of government in the countries concerned sets a promising example. It creates the possibility of peaceful coexistence between two countries that do a whopping volume of business when they are not busy arguing about who or what is entitled to be called Macedonia.
The ostensible reason this word carries such high stakes is, of course, the legacy of Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC), the “world-conquering” Macedonian king whose name is still given to children from Glasgow to Baghdad. People from the present-day republic of “Macedonia” have referred to themselves by the ethnonym “Macedonian” since the flowering of nationalism in the early 19th century. (Specifically, to give it a FYROM-LIKE name, it might be called The Flowering of Nationalism Among Various European Peoples Who Were Tired of Being Pushed Around By Enormous Empires.)
It is, like the term “Ukrainian,” a surprisingly late historical invention that maps imperfectly onto the real world of ethnicity, language, religion and political allegiance. At the time of Alexander, the Kingdom of Macedonia covered, more or less, the current FYROM and the northern part of modern Greece. (Alexander’s birthplace, the Macedonian capital of Pella, is on the Greek side.) The ethnic Macedonians have no special genetic connection to the bodyguard of Alexander: modern Macedonians are a Slavic people who arrived much later, who are genetically indistinguishable from Slavic neighbours, and who have always spoken a Slavic language while observing the Orthodox variety of the Christian faith.
Before it split from old Communist Yugoslavia, the current FYROM was rarely referred to, even as an administrative unit, by the name “Macedonia.” At various times the Macedonians seem to have been regarded as a sub-variety of Bulgarians, or of the Serbs: the Ottomans referred to them as the people of the Vardar, a large river that bisects the country.
But “Macedonia” is the name Macedonians would like to use, because it is not some other people’s name for them. It is a token of political independence — and if it also encodes a claim to special historic standing, so much the better. The old empires that started falling apart in the 19th century based their hereditary dominance on just such mythopoetic considerations, as any Czech can tell you.
Unfortunately, the modern Greeks, who don’t have any more to do with Alexander the Great genetically than the Macedonians do, regard the use of the name “Macedonia” as being a token of expansionary, threatening ambitions on the part of ethnic Macedonians. Macedonians have encouraged this view by occasionally displaying impolite maps depicting a voluminous “Greater Macedonia”: one of their consuls was summoned home angrily from Toronto last fall after appearing in front of one. And FYROM’S government has engaged in a long-term program of what internet denizens can only refer to as trolling of Greece, erecting more statues of Alexander than you can shake a stick at (note: do not attempt this with an actual stick).
This behaviour is why Greece has, until now, been blackballing Macedonia’s entry into NATO and the European Union. It does go deeper than a name. The entire post-yugoslav settlement of the Balkan peninsula is at stake. But so is the welfare of the Macedonians in FYROM, which was approved as an EU candidate state in 2005. The Macedonians in Macedonia are mighty poor, and you have all heard of the (admittedly improving) Greek fiscal situation. These are countries that could really, really use a permanent boost to economic growth.
“North Macedonia,” as a formula, implicitly concedes the existence of a “South Macedonia” held by Greece. But the agreement between the PMS explicitly acknowledges that North Macedonian nationals are entitled to the “Macedonian” ethnonym. This, in a perfect world, would help discourage Macedonian expatriates in places like Canada from making trouble over the draft agreement. They do have enough influence to do that. But, as a general principle, if you personally possess a map of “Greater” anything, you may wish to keep it hidden.
NATURALLY, IT SET OFF ... RIOTS IN BOTH FYROM AND GREECE.