Macedonia – North Macedonia History

Macedonia – North Macedonia is located at the center of Southern Balkan, the northern part of ancient Hellas (Greece), west of Thrace, and east of Illyria. Macedonia -North Macedonia is one of the oldest names retained in the Europe continent. The people of Macedonia – North Macedonia have distinct linguistics, ethnic, and culturally unique compared to their neighboring countries.

As federal Yugoslavia was disintegrating at the beginning of the 1990s, on September 8, 1991, in a referendum, 95% of eligible voters approved the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Macedonia – North Macedonia. Kiro Gligorov was elected the first president of independent Macedonia. The new constitution determined the Republic of Macedonia is a sovereign, independent, civil, and democratic state, and it recognized the complete equality of the Macedonians and the ethnic minorities. It read “…Macedonia is constituted as a national country of the Macedonian people which guarantees complete civil equality and permanent mutual living of the Macedonian people with the Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma and the other nationalities living in the Republic of Macedonia.”

Although the European Community acknowledged that Macedonia had fulfilled the requirements for official recognition, due to the opposition of Greece, which was already a member of the community, the EC decided to postpone the recognition. Greece, afraid that Macedonia might put forward a historical, cultural, and linguistic, claim over Aegean Macedonia, insisted that the new nation has no right to use of the name “Macedonia” and use the emblem of ancient Macedonia on its flag. In July of 1992 there were demonstrations by 100,000 Macedonians in the capital Skopje over the failure to receive recognition. But despite Greek objections, Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations under the temporary reference (not an official name) “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in 1993. Full diplomatic relations with a number of EC nations followed, while Russia, China, Turkey, Bulgaria, and most nations, ignored Greece’s objections and recognized Macedonia under its constitutional name “Republic of Macedonia”. However, recently Macedonia’s official name was adjusted to NORTH MACEDONIA.

During the World War II, Yugoslavia granted Macedonia the federal status of “People Republic of Macedonia”.

After the World War I, the Macedonian Slavs of Serbia became southern Serbs and spoke the dialect of the Serbians.

In the year 1912 to 1914, the First Balkan war resulted for Macedonia to be conquered by Serbia.

Macedonia was captured and conquered by the Ottoman Empire for approximately 500 years.

Between 13th and 14th century, Byzantines ruling was ended by the Serbian and Bulgarian rule.

Just as the 10th century is about to end, the Republic of Macedonia was recognized to be the center of political and cultural activities of the First Bulgarian Empire under the ruler Tsar Samuil.

In the 7th century, Justinian II captured nearly 110,100 Macedonian Slavs and transferred to Asia and forced to recognize the power of the Byzantine emperor as its leader.

The country of Macedonia was once included in the kingdom of Paeonia. The country was once populated by Paeonians. In the year 336 BC, Philip II of Macedon conquered Upper Macedonia, including the Southern and Northern part of Paeonia. Alexander the Great, successor and Phillip II’s son, conquered the rest of Macedonia, reaching to the north of Danube, and add it to its empire.