by Emmanuel Bouhalakis
The name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) seems to be coming to an end in the next few months.
If the two parties reach an agreement, then the northern neighbor of Greece will have the opportunity to join NATO and possibly the E.U., thus putting the cornerstone of its national security.
A number of political analysts have suggested that any further delay in the dispute with Greece could jeopardize FYROM's existence as the different nationalities within the country and the intervention of Russia could alter the current status quo and spark uncontrollable hostilities resulting in a new war in the Balkans.
However, the objections of Greece are not without merit. In the early 1990's with the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, the newly formed states sought to develop their own national identity and gain independence from the destiny imposed to them by Marshal Josip Tito and the Soviet Union.
Although the nations comprising Yugoslavia were able to achieve their self-determination even through bitter civil war, at least there were certain national identities at stake. Serbs were not the same as Croatians, Bosnians or Slovenians. Each of them had considerable differences from each other.
The so-called Macedonians of Yugoslavia, however, did not share anything with the ancient Macedonia.
The ancient Macedonians, according to solid historical research, came from Argos, Greece, and their leaders formed what is known as "The Argead dynasty". They were speaking a form of ancient Greek. Even the name "Makedon" means "tall" and is used by Homer to denote the tall poplar trees. Herodotus claims that the ancient Macedonians were a Doric tribe. During the Macedonian era, there were mostly Paionians, Thracians and Illyrians in the north of what today we call the northern borders of Greece.
Alexander the Great was born in the city of Pella, in northern Greece. His teachers were Greeks (the great Aristotle among them) and received the finest education that was available to selected Greeks. He went to the oracle of Delphi to seek approval for his plans to subdue the neighboring tribes. Then, he proceeded to attack the Persian Empire keeping in memory that the Persians had first invaded the land we call modern Greece. Alexander considered the campaign against the Persians as a kind of national cause for all Greeks.
Alexander's army formations all had Greek names and Greek nobles or simple citizens in their ranks (Hetairoi, Pezetairoi, etc).
On the very contrary, the Slavic tribe which now dwells in the northernmost part of ancient Macedonia does not speak Greek at all. Their language, names and origin are all Slavic, as even the first FYROM President Kiro Gligorov admitted in 1992.
To make things worse, the early FYROM governments used the "Sun of Vergina", the ancient Macedonian symbol, in their first flag, they named their airport "Alexander the Great", and erected huge statues of Alexander in their capital, Skopje.
After massive demonstrations in Greece, they changed their flag but never sought to abandon the forging of history and the paradoxical claims that they were the ones who expressed the Macedonian identity.
Finally, after many years of fruitless negotiations with Greece, FYROM decided to implement some realpolitik sensing the possibility of the rise of Albanian nationalism in their own country and listening to the advice of EU and US officials who underlined to them that they had better join the West or face the potential of civil war and disintegration.
The airport in Skopje will no longer be called "Alexander the Great" and the grotesque statues of Alexander that decorated their capital are being dismantled and tucked away.
The Greek government, in return, has suggested that it is willing to accept a composite name for FYROM that would denote a geographical definition such as "Gorna (upper) Makedonija". Although these alternatives do not solve the real problem of the usurping of Greek history, they pave the road for a better common future between the two countries.
Greece has also indicated that certain changes in the constitution of FYROM ought to take place in order that any hint of irredentism to be eliminated.
After those changes materialize, there can be a more positive outlook for the further discussions concerning the clarification of what Macedonian identity and language constitute in the face of historical accuracy.
Moreover, a new potential source of instability in the Balkans will have been neutralized.
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