Macedonian naming dispute continues - and Elvis of the Balkans
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009While writing the post about Kosovo, I was reminded of Macedonia. A former Yugoslav republic, Macedonia (like Kosovo) is also at a bit of a standstill regarding future membership in international organizations. After two unsuccessful applications, the country was finally allowed to join the UN in 1993, providing they didn’t use the name Republic of Macedonia, but rather the long, awkward-sounding provisional name FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Because of the naming dispute (covered in my Skopje article and in much more detail in Wikipedia), Greece has successfully hindered Macedonia’s membership in other organizations.
Last April, I visited Skopje. About the same time, NATO’s Bucharest summit decided not to issue an invitation to Macedonia to join the organization because of Greek objections. Curious to see whether there has been any developments, both regarding future EU and NATO membership, and relations with Greece, this is what I’ve gleaned:



