North Macedonia

The republic that left Yugoslavia without a shot and then spent twenty-seven years arguing about its name. The territory was the core of ancient Macedon, was Slavic-settled from the sixth century, and became in the nineteenth the most contested region in Europe - Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs all claimed it, and the word macedoine entered French for a mixed salad. It was partitioned in 1913 after the Balkan Wars, with this portion going to Serbia. Tito's federation recognised a Macedonian republic, nation and language in 1944, which Bulgaria and Greece both disputed. Independence in 1991 was peaceful, but Greece objected that the name implied a claim on its own province of Macedonia and blocked international recognition, so the country sat in the United Nations for decades under the provisional label of former Yugoslav republic. The Prespa Agreement of 2018 settled it as North Macedonia, and both governments took political damage for signing. A separate crisis in 2001 with the large Albanian minority ended with the Ohrid framework granting language and local government rights. NATO membership followed in 2020. Skopje is the capital and Ohrid a World Heritage site. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje. The country has about 1.8 million people and is landlocked. Lake Ohrid is among the oldest lakes in the world. Alexander the Great's statue in Skopje was renamed as part of the Prespa settlement. The Vardar runs the length of the country into Greece. Around a quarter of the population is Albanian. Macedonian is a South Slavic language closest to Bulgarian, which is part of why Sofia disputed its separateness.

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