North Macedonia - About the Country


North Macedonia is a small country between Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia. The country contains about 40% of the area and 45% of the population of the geographical region known as Macedonia. About 50% of this region belongs to Greece and 10% to Bulgaria. Between 1945 and 1991, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was one of the six constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1991, Yugoslav Macedonia seceded peacefully from the Yugoslav federation, declaring its independence as the Republic of Macedonia. But although the country did not take part in the Yugoslav war of the early 1990s, it was destabilized by some 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from the neighbouring Kosovo and an armed conflict in March 2001. So it is still difficult to visit the country.

The country was from 1992 formally known as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which was a sort of compromise. The neighbouring state of Greece is also called Macedonia, and the Greek believe, that they are historically the true Macedonians. They insisted that the name of the Republic of Macedonia must be changed. However, as said before, the geographic region of Macedonia is split into three parts by the political borders. After a lot of Greek grouching, the UN officially accepted the new name in an "ok, you're right, and now go out and play with the other kids" manner. The name dispute was a matter of honour for the Greek, while the rest of the world was astonished by the fuss they made about a bagatelle. So be careful not to use the name Republic of Macedonia, while travelling in Greece!

Since 2016, the country has a new government which seems to be willing to accept the Greek soft spots and to make compromises. As a result, the country was renamed Republic of North Macedonia or short North Macedonia in 2019. In the same year, it became a member of NATO and began talks to join the EU.