Macedonia

Description of the Republic of Macedonia

The Republic of Macedonia (in Macedonian: Република Македонија, romanization: Makedónija Republic) or Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is an independent landlocked country, located on the Balkan peninsula, in southeastern Europe. It limits to the north with Serbia and Kosovo, to the east with Bulgaria, to the south with Greece and to the west with Albania. Its capital is Skopje, with more than 700,000 inhabitants.

In 1991, the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of the constituent parts of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, proclaimed its independence under the official name of the Republic of Macedonia.The use of the term "Macedonia" was rejected by Greece, with the emergence of a dispute over the denomination of this country that lasts today. The country is sometimes referred to simply as Macedonia, while the provisional reference Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Поранешна Југословенска Република Македонија, Poranešna Jugoslovenska Republika Makedonija in Macedonian) is used to designate that state in various international organizations, such as United Nations, following a compromise reached between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia in 1993. The definitive name continues in negotiation between both states. Currently Macedonia is an official candidate for access to the European Union.

Travel Destinations in Macedonia

History

The territory of Northern Macedonia in various historical periods belonged to different states and empires - Peonia, Ancient Macedonia (whose name inherited the entire geographical region), Roman and Byzantine empires, the First and Second Bulgarian kingdoms, the Serbian kingdom, the Ottoman Empire. In 864, when the territory was part of the Bulgarian kingdom, Christianity was adopted by the state religion. Modern Macedonians are ethnically close to the Bulgarians. In the XIV century, these lands were conquered by the Ottoman Empire. In the XIX century, the national movement of the Bulgarians in Macedonia developed, which manifested itself in the form of a struggle for church and school independence of the Bulgarians, which was crowned with success in 1870 with the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which by the mid-1870s managed to include most of the ethnically Bulgarian lands of Macedonia in its diocese.

In 1878, as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Russia liberated Bulgaria and entered into the San Stefan world with Turkey, according to which the state of Bulgaria appeared, and parts of the territories of Ottoman Macedonia inhabited by southern Slavs entered the borders of Bulgaria. However, this was disadvantageous to the great forces in Europe, and the Treaty of San Stefano was followed by the Berlin Treaty, which cut Bulgaria into two parts - the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The territory of Macedonia with its South Slavic population again passed to the Turks.

In 1912, the First Balkan War began. Bulgarian and Allied Balkan Christian troops defeated Turkey. However, almost immediately, a war broke out between the allies - Bulgaria and the rest of the Balkan Christian peoples, as a result of which Bulgaria lost Macedonia.

As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the territory of Ottoman Macedonia was divided between Serbia under the name Јužna Srbiјa (“Southern Serbia”), Greece and Bulgaria (Pirin Territory). After World War I, Serbia entered the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the kingdom received a new name - Yugoslavia and was divided into provinces - banovans. The territory of Northern Macedonia became the Vardarsky banovina (Vardarska banovina).

In 1941, Yugoslavia was captured by the Axis Countries. The territory of the Vardar banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Albania. Some of the Macedonian Slavs supported the resistance movement, which was led by Josip Broz Tito, who later became president of Yugoslavia. The Bulgarian occupation authorities formed the Independent State of Macedonia, which lasted several months in 1944.

At the end of World War II, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was formed from six republics, including the People's Republic of Macedonia. When the association was renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, Northern Macedonia was also renamed the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.

1991 - declaration of sovereignty and a referendum on the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, which led to a bloodless withdrawal from Yugoslavia. The first president of the Republic of Macedonia was a native of the local nomenclature, Kiro Gligorov (1991-1999).
1991 - Bulgaria - the first state in the world to recognize the independence of the Republic of Macedonia.
1992 - the withdrawal of units of the Yugoslav army after the signing of the Treaty on the withdrawal of UNA troops on February 21 by the president of the new state, Kiro Gligorov, and the high command of the Yugoslav army.
1993 - Republic of Macedonia admitted to the UN as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
1995 - after the assassination attempt on Kiro Gligorov, Stoyan Andov was the acting head of state for a short period.
As a result of the war in Kosovo in 1999, some 360,000 Kosovo Albanians fled to the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. Refugees soon left the country, but a little later, local Albanians, following their example, put forward a demand for autonomy for regions of the republic with a predominantly Albanian population.
1999 - Joint Declaration, fixing the principles of good neighborly relations between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia; confirmed by a joint memorandum in 2008 /
1999-2004 - President Boris Traykovsky.
2001, March-August - the Albanian National Liberation Army (leader Ali Akhmeti) launched a guerrilla action against the regular army of the Republic of Macedonia in the north and west of the country (especially in the Tetovo region). Only NATO intervention ended the confrontation, as a result of which the Ohrid Agreement was signed with the Albanian separatists, providing limited legal and cultural autonomy (official status of the Albanian language, amnesty of the rebels, Albanian police in the Albanian areas).
2002 - sporadic relapses of the Albanian-Macedonian inter-ethnic conflict.

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