When it comes to the bottom line, the so called Macedonian Problem is just a problem of definition ?!
Macedonia is the name of a geographical area of the Balkans as it is shown in the following map with the blue dashed line. Only a part of FYROM (the southern) is in Macedonia. The rest (northern) is part of ancient Dardania, with capital the town Scupoi (now Skopje), and the Dardanians were enemies of the ancient Macedonians:
Nowdays that area is divided among 3 countries:
Notice the relation of each part with the Aegean Sea, and you will realize who would like to gain access to the sea for several purposes!
The percentages mentionned above correspond to area of what was "Provincia Macedonia" in the Roman empire in 148BC, and that was the area of the kingdom of Macedonia just before the battle of Pydna in 168BC, when it was conquered by the Romans. That "Macedonia" is basically "Historical Macedonia" and "Paeonia". The, lets say, "true Macedonia" is what appears as kingdom of Macedonia in the days of Alexandros I, extended to the East to Nestos river.
Of course when Macedonia was divided, in the beginning of the 20th century, the state of FYROM didn't exist. The territories were previously under the rule of the Othoman empire (Turkey) and the first division was among Greece, Serbia (later Yugoslavia) and Bulgaria.
People that live in FYROM are slavophonic and claim that they are Macedonians, a nation that, according to them, doesn't have any relation with the Greeks, the Bulgarians, the Albanians or the Serbs.
Now, here is the problem. The name Macedonia is a totally Greek name, it is part of the Greek herritage and belongs to the Greeks. The name Macedonian has been used for many centuries to identify the person that lives in Macedonia and nothing more. The officials of FYROM use the word Macedonia to identify a nation. Because of the similarity of the name Macedonian (and nothing else!) with the name of the ancient Greek tribe of the Macedonians, they immidiately claim that they have something to do with those people, and they come up with completely ridiculus theories in order to support their claims. Of course, in that way, they create a lot of confusion, which is very convinient for any potential use in:
The truth is that all this, no matter how ridiculus it may seem, is part of a cleverly designed plan which is 120 years old, and aims to create an independent state in the Balkans with access to the Aegean Sea through the port of Thessaloniki.
Anyway this artificial confusion must somehow stop! Noone has the right to steal a part of the Greek, or any other, nation's history. The name Macedonia is part of the Greek history as the name of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia and that forbids any use of it to identify any other nation and to deliberately cause confusion. If the officials of FYROM justify the use of the name of Macedonia by the name of the area that they live, then why don't they use another geographical term, as:
or, something else?
Also, if that so called unique "Macedonian" nation was so unique, as the FYROMians claim, then does it need to use a Greek name that has already been used as an identifier?
The use of the name Macedonia is definitely wrong because
Updated 5 May 1998