Line #128 UsefulNotes/NorthMacedonia


1	[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mk_map.gif]]
2
3	North Macedonia ('''Macedonian:''' ''Северна Македонија, Severna Makedonija'', '''Albanian:''' ''Maqedonia e Veriut''), officially known as the Republic of Northern Macedonia ('''Macedonian:''' ''Република Северна Македонија, Republika Severna Makedonija'', '''Albanian:''' ''Republika e Maqedonisë së Veriut'') and also known as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ('''Macedonian:''' ''поранешна Југословенска Република Македонија, Poranešna Jugoslovenska Republika Makedonija''), is a tiny Slavic Southern European nation nestled in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula. The capital is Skopje.
4
5	The country's national language, Macedonian, is closely related and mutually intelligible with Bulgarian. [[FlameBait It's a matter of controversy]] whether Macedonian and Bulgarian are dialects of the same language or separate languages; consensus among linguists is that the two form the eastern part of the South Slavic dialect continuum,[[note]]The gist of a dialect continuum is that the closer in distance two varieties are, the more likely they are mutually intelligible. Conversely, if they are located far away from each other, they become unintelligible[[/note]] with the western part being taken by Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian.
6
7	"Macedonia", the ethnic homeland of Macedonians, was historically a much larger region which was divided up in 1913 among nations who'd taken advantage of the weakness of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]]: the southern part went to UsefulNotes/{{Greece}}, the northeastern part went to UsefulNotes/{{Bulgaria}}, and the northwestern part -- the part that makes up the present-day Republic of North Macedonia -- became the southern half of UsefulNotes/{{Serbia}}. This Serbian region later became the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, as a constituent republic of UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}. When Yugoslavia broke up, this constituent republic became the independent Republic of Macedonia.
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9	However, the newly independent Macedonia found itself at odds with Greece, due to Greece's northern region (the territory annexed in 1913) having the same name. Greece felt that, due to its cultural and historic importance, the name should be considered exclusively Greek. Macedonia, on the other hand, felt that it was within its rights to call itself whatever it pleased and refused to even acknowledge the dispute. Greece had even argued that the nation's name implies a desire to annex the northern Greek region, which in Macedonia was seen as InsaneTrollLogic. As a result, the neighbors have had a rocky relationship, which has led to incidents such as the rejection of Macedonia from joining UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and the UsefulNotes/EuropeanUnion, as joining either group requires unanimous approval of the current members. Because of Greece's pressure, Macedonia was a member of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations under the name "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"[[note]]And yes, "former" is deliberately not capitalized.[[/note]] (as well as the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, where the full name was used in the alphabetical order it was marching in[[note]]For example, "F" in English, "E" in French (Ex-République Yougoslave de Macédoine) and "Π"/Pi in Greek (Πρώην Γιουγκοσλαβική Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας / Prōin Yiougoslavikí Dimokratía tis Makedonías)[[/note]]) and Greece itself only recognised Macedonia under that name or the name "Macedonia-Skopje", just to make the point.
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11	In 2018, a deal called the Prespa agreement was struck to rename the country to "Republic of North Macedonia"; previously the country called itself as simply "Republic of Macedonia". With the decision, Greece promises to drop its objections to NATO and EU membership. While the deal was controversial[[note]]On both sides. Some Macedonians resented having to change their country's name to appease the Greeks, while some Greeks suspect that once North Macedonia's membership in NATO and the EU is confirmed they'll reneg on the agreement and drop the "North" from their name, as while NATO and the EU both require unanimous consent to admit a new member, neither has ''any'' provision for ''kicking out'' an existing member (the apparent assumption being that any nation that turns against the organization's purpose would naturally leave on their own initiative).[[/note]], the rename eventually came into effect on the 12th of February, 2019, finally ending the naming dispute with Greece, and North Macedonia applied for NATO membership, with the country finally becoming part of NATO on March 27th, 2020.
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13	Other than the Macedonians, a quarter of North Macedonia's population (some 500,000 people) consist of ethnic Albanians. Albanians are the majority in some northwestern municipalities, which, alongside UsefulNotes/{{Kosovo}}, were briefly annexed by Italian-ruled UsefulNotes/{{Albania}} during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Although the country avoided any bloodshed during the [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars breakup of Yugoslavia]] (the only one of the republics to do so), there was a series of skirmishes between the North Macedonian police and armed forces vs. local Albanian separatists in 2001. The conflict left some 100-300 dead and ended with a compromise that promised to improve the rights of Albanians.
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15	By percentage, North Macedonia has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe. In addition to the Albanians, most of whom identify as Muslims, the country also hosts other historically Muslim ethnic groups, such as Turks, UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}, and centuries-old Slavic converts called ''Torbeši''. This is not surprising; North Macedonia was one of the first European territories the Ottoman Empire conquered and one of the last to break away; in total, the occupation lasted over five centuries. There are more mosques than there are churches in Skopje, although the city is nowadays predominantly Christian.
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17	All in all, this complex mix of nationalities and ethnicities in the area led to the invention of the French culinary term ''Macedoine'', which means a mixture of vegetables.
18
19	'''Famous North Macedonians:'''
20	* Historically, the country's greatest claim to fame is UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, who conquered much of the known world in the 4th century B.C.; his father, Phillip II, had conquered most of Greece. To this day, North Macedonians and Greeks have a bit of a rivalry over who can ''properly'' lay claim to Alexander the Great. Macedon was at the time considered to be part of the Greek world; the inhabitants of the territory generally spoke a form of Greek, but it was a dialect most other Greeks regarded as rather savage and rough, and although the Slavic language currently spoken by most citizens of the country we're talking about here didn't move in until no earlier than the 5th or 6th century AD, the fact is that the modern culture of Macedonia--on either side of the border--is a hybrid of both Greek and Slavic influences (with Greek ones predominating no matter what language you speak), and that the people on both sides of the border are probably a mix of both Greek and Slavic ancestry.[[note]]This is a legacy of UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire, particularly the era around the reign of the Empress Irene of Athens, who made the reintegration of Thrace and Macedon into the Empire a top priority. Imperial policy encouraged the by-then-mostly-Christian Slavs in the countryside and the Christian-for-centuries Greeks in the cities to get along and form a hybrid culture and turn any aggression they had against the at-the-time-still-Turkic-and-pagan Bulgars to the north. Historians who do not have any vested interests in this dispute generally agree that the closer you got to Thessaloniki and Edirne (Adrianople), the more likely it was that the local Slavs had learned Greek and become increasingly Hellenized, while the further away from those cities, the more likely it was that the local Greeks had learned Slavic and become increasingly Slavicized. Of course, Hellenizing influences were still felt far from the cities, since everyone was subject to the great big Greek-dominated Empire and its heavily Hellenized Church (which may have used Church Slavonic as a liturgical language, but which still took a lot from Greek culture, and of course Slavic churchmen still needed to speak Greek to communicate with their hierarchs and to read the New Testament in the original). Neither group regarded this as a big problem, because [[ValuesDissonance the important thing was that they were all]] UsefulNotes/{{Orthodox Christian\|ity}}s and were loyal to the Empire.[[/note]] Alexander was also born in a town which is ''today'' part of Greece and not North Macedonia, which complicates issues. It's nothing too serious, but it's worth knowing.
21	* Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in Skopje (then called Üsküp) to ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. She left for UsefulNotes/TheRaj at the age of 18, but she remained a Yugoslavian citizen until she voluntarily gave up the citizenship in favor of UsefulNotes/{{India}}'s.
22	* Music/BebeRexha is an ethnic Albanian with roots in North Macedonia: her father is an immigrant born in Debar, while her mother was born in the US to Albanian immigrants from Gostivar.
23	----
24	!!North Macedonian media:
25	[[AC:Creators]]
26	* Creator/RomaTheatrePralipe
27
28	[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
29	* ''Film/BeforeTheRain'', the first North Macedonian movie to get an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
30	* ''Film/{{Honeyland}}'', about a rural beekeeper scratching out a precarious living selling honey
31	----
32	[[AC:The North Macedonian flag]]
33	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/macedonia_flag_3941.png
34	->Red and gold originate from the country's past coats-of-arms. At the center is an eight-rayed sun, symbolizing liberty. Originally the sun was in the form of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergina_Sun Vergina Sun]], a symbol found on the tomb of King Philip II of Macedon, father of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat. This move caused controversy with Greece, as it claims the Slavs are misappropriating Grecian symbols. This resulted in creation of a new symbol that is still recognizably a stylized sun, but bears little resemblance to the Vergina Sun.
35	----
36	[[AC:The North Macedonian national anthem]]
37
38	->Денес над Македонија се раѓа,
39	->ново сонце на слободата!
40	->Македонците се борат,
41	->за своите правдини!
42	->Македонците се борат,
43	->за своите правдини!
44
45	->Не плачи Македонијо мајко мила,
46	->Крени глава гордо, високо,
47	->Старо, младо, машко и женско,
48	->На нозе се кренало!
49	->Старо, младо, машко и женско,
50	->На нозе се кренало!
51
52	->Одново сега знамето се вее,
53	->на Крушевската Република!
54	->Гоце Делчев, Питу Гули,
55	->Даме Груев, Сандански!
56	->Гоце Делчев, Питу Гули,
57	->Даме Груев, Сандански!
58
59	->Горите македонски шумно пеат,
60	->нови песни, нови весници!
61	->Македонија слободна,
62	->слободно живее!
63	->Македонија слободна,
64	->слободно живее!
65	[[note]]
66	->Denes nad Makedonija se raǵa,
67	->novo sonce na slobodata!
68	->Makedoncite se borat,
69	->za svoite pravdini!
70	->Makedoncite se borat,
71	->za svoite pravdini!
72
73	->Ne plači Makedonijo majko mila,
74	->Kreni glava gordo, visoko,
75	->Staro, mlado, maško i žensko,
76	->Na noze se krenalo!
77	->Staro, mlado, maško i žensko,
78	->Na noze se krenalo!
79
80	->Odnovo sega znameto se vee,
81	->na Kruševskata Republika!
82	->Goce Delčev, Pitu Guli,
83	->Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
84	->Goce Delčev, Pitu Guli,
85	->Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
86
87	->Gorite Makedonski šumno peat,
88	->novi pesni, novi vesnici!
89	->Makedonija slobodna,
90	->slobodno živee!
91	->Makedonija slobodna,
92	->slobodno živee!
93	[[/note]]
94
95	--
96
97	->Today over Macedonia is born
98	->the new sun of liberty.
99	->The Macedonians fight
100	->for their own rights!
101	->The Macedonians fight
102	->for their own rights!
103
104	->Do not cry, dear mother Macedonia,
105	->Raise your head proudly high,
106	->Old, young, men, and women,
107	->have risen to their feet!
108	->Old, young, men, and women,
109	->have risen to their feet!
110
111	->Now once again the flag flutters,
112	->that of the Kruševo Republic
113	->Gotse Delchev, Pitu Guli
114	->Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
115	->Gotse Delchev, Pitu Guli
116	->Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
117
118	->The Macedonian woods resoundly sing
119	->new songs and news!
120	->Macedonia liberated
121	->lives in liberty!
122	->Macedonia liberated
123	->lives in liberty!
124	----
125	[[AC:Government]]
126	* Unitary parliamentary republic
127	** President: Stevo Pendarovski
128	** Prime Minister: Talat Xhaferi
129	** Chairman of the Assembly: Jovan Mitreski
130	----
131	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
132	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Skopje
133	* '''Population:''' 2,077,132
134	* '''Area:''' 25,713 sq km (9,928 sq mi) (145nd)
135	* '''Currency''': Macedonian denar (ден) (MKD)
136	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' MK
137	* '''Country calling code:''' 389
138	* '''Highest point:''' Golem Korab (2764 m/9,068 ft) (79th[[note]]shared with UsefulNotes/{{Albania}}[[/note]])

Context UsefulNotes / NorthMacedonia