Con el otoño abriéndose paso en Europa, es tiempo de cosechar los frutos de meses de arduo trabajo diplomático en los Balcanes. El día 30 de septiembre, se celebrará un referéndum consultivo en la Antigua República Yugoslava de Macedonia que podría llevar al país a adoptar el nombre de “República de Macedonia del Norte”. Una amplia victoria del “sí” —combinada con una elevada participación— reforzaría enormemente a los partidarios del cambio en el Parlamento macedonio, que deberá pronunciarse sobre la necesaria reforma constitucional. En caso de aprobarse, será el Parlamento griego quien tendrá la última palabra.
La adopción de este nuevo nombre no representaría un mero ejercicio de economía lingüística, sino que pondría fin a 27 años de tira y afloja entre los Gobiernos macedonio y griego.… Seguir leyendo »
After an astonishing 27 years at odds, in June, Macedonia and Greece reached a dramatic breakthrough in negotiations over what’s known as the Macedonia naming dispute. The dispute was, yes, over the former Yugoslavian nation’s name — but over much more as well, as we’ll see below. And after all that time, the June agreement solved the dispute simply: by renaming Macedonia as the “Republic of North Macedonia.”
What was at stake here — and why did resolving it take nearly three decades? Examining the long and complicated process can teach us a few practical lessons about international mediation.
A brief history of the naming dispute
In 1991, Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia and wrote into its constitution that its name was the Republic of Macedonia.… Seguir leyendo »
Huge demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki recently have shaken Greece’s politics and threatened its coalition government. After years of austerity and the humiliation of depending on foreign loans, many Greeks are rejecting the idea of their country sharing the name of its northern province, Macedonia, with a small northern neighbor, the Republic of Macedonia.
This decades-long controversy has undermined the role that Greece, as a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, could play in the Balkans. Even as a new government in the Republic of Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, appears keen on compromise and United Nations-mediated negotiations intensify, the issue could drive Greece’s domestic politics, as it has in the past.… Seguir leyendo »
Winston Churchill is thought to have said that the Balkans have produced more history than they can consume. The saying has been repeated by practically everyone who has had reason to deal with the region, for good reason.
The issue on the table now is about the legacy of Alexander the Great, who died in Babylon some 2,300 years ago, and the right to use the term Macedonia.
For more than a quarter-century, the mere existence of the Republic of Macedonia has infuriated Greeks who claim its neighbor’s name was stolen from the Greek province that borders Macedonia to the south.… Seguir leyendo »
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