Is it Macedonia by any other name?
Tatters of Alexander the Great's empire aren't arguing over territory, but what a nation can call itself.
from the March 27, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
But at the hulking, Soviet-era Museum of Macedonia, hard evidence of those links is harder to find.
Nada Andonovska, a museum representative, sweeps through fading exhibits of Paleolithic pottery and Bronze-Age jewelry and pauses in a room with a handful of classical sculptures and a few Hellenic pots, in front of a large map. Modern Macedonia was part of Alexander's ancient empire, and later, part of the Roman administrative territory of Macedonia, she explains. Alexander had to learn Greek, she notes. It wasn't his native language. Though she concedes, too, that he almost certainly didn't speak anything related to modern Macedonian – a Slavic language related to Serbian and Bulgarian that Greeks insist is a dialect of Bulgarian, not its own language – because Slavs only came to the region in the 6th and 7th centuries AD.
Across the room, Ms. Andonovska points to a tiny bust, displayed behind glass along with other artifacts. Doesn't it look like Alexander, she asks? "It hasn't been written up," she adds hastily. "So there's no absolute evidence."
Andonovska hustles on to a display of old coins. The museum has a collection of coins from Alexander and Philip's time, she says, but they're not on display for security reasons.
In fact, she concedes, the only undisputable depiction of Alexander in the museum is a giant gold-colored bust of his head (made of plastic) that greets visitors in the lobby.
The dispute over the name Macedonia has haunted this young country since it broke from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Greece initially imposed trade sanctions and blocked its entrance to the UN until the temporary compromise – to call the country the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – was reached. UN-mediated negotiations have continued, with little success, ever since.
The dispute stirs angry passions on both sides. Like Blazho, many Slavic speakers in Macedonia – more than two-thirds of the population – claim direct descent from Alexander. That identity – which is taught in schools here though it is considered dubious by most historians – gives Macedonians a way to differentiate themselves from their other Slavic neighbors.
Greeks doggedly refer to the country as FYROM and often respond angrily to anyone who uses the term Macedonia to refer to the country – claiming that allowing the name to be used could lead to territorial claims.
Denko Maleski, Macedonia's first foreign minister, recalls going on vacation in the Greek city of Halkidiki with his family a few years ago. They enjoyed the sun and the food, and interactions with Greeks were always pleasant. That is until people asked where he was from, and he answered "Macedonia." As Greeks realized he meant the independent country and not the region of Greece, he says, "It was as if thousands of years of history came down on our heads."
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