Macedonia name agreement

This item appears on page 4 of the August 2018 issue.

The countries of Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have agreed to end their 27-year impasse over the latter country’s name, compromising on Republic of Northern Macedonia, or, in Macedonian, Severna Makedonija.

Greece has prevented its neighbor from using solely the name Macedonia internationally due to the perceived confusion between it and the northern Greek province of Macedonia that was home to Alexander the Great. The newly christened Northern Macedonia was known as the Republic of Macedonia while a part of Yugoslavia. When it became independent upon the collapse of Yugoslavia, it kept the name.