The suppression of the Macedonian people shall not stand!

[Heresson]

Poles have equal right to Prussia as Germans. Prussians were originally a baltic nation. northern edge of prussia got lithuanised, middle - germanised and southern - polonised.

[Cort Haus]

Exactly, varwnos.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by varwnos
I do not think that the name is the worse of fyromian ( ) macedonia's problems.

Nobody is arguing that - but seeing as this thread is about the name, well, that's what we're talking about.

And i do not agree that a country can name itself anything it wants to. What if it has named itself Germany? Would that be accepted? What if northern Poland became an independent country, called itself Prussia, and started publishing books claiming that it is the successor of Prussia of old, which was never german?

What if? What's wrong with any of those things? It's a state's right to call itself whatever it wants, and the duty of the international community to recognize the constitutional names of duly recognized members of the international community. There have often been countries named the same thing, or close to it - two Yemens, two Koreas, two Chinas, and so on. But then again, the Macedonian situation doesn't apply here anyway, because to my knowledge there is no other state claiming to be called the Republic of Macedonia.

As MarkG said, the problem is more about policies than names. I don't deny the right of Greeks, or anyone else, to oppose policies they think are threatening (even if I don't see Macedonia constituting a real threat). This, however, should be separated from the name issue, which only serves to needlessly create further conflict.

As far as the name issue here, on apolyton, I don't really care. I'm not going to put the Macedonian flag on my profile because it's just stupid MarkG-baiting. I think that calling the country by the name which it wants to be called is the right thing to do - but in the end it's just a single flag in a database of a Civilization site in which Macedonians are probably not very common. Calling the country "fyrom" or any such nonsense is just that - nonsense, and changing it here won't really make a bit of difference.

[Varwnos]

I agree that the popular greek position (although there never was any coherent one, which was part of the problem) in the early 90's was just reactionary. Fyr Macedonia was a quasi-unknown entity, being part of Yugoslavia.
Personally i think that there is no contest between the greek part of Macedonia, and the slav Macedonia, in regards to who contains the most important cities of the hellenistic, roman or byzantine province of that name. Thessalonike obviously was/is by far the most important one, along with Pella, which also is in the greek part. Amphipolis and Philippoi are also in the greek part. The slav part includes Ochrid and Skopje, which were of significance in the medieval era, but not as defining as Thessalonike.
I would wish that there could be a fruitful dialogue between the two countries, but none of that seems to be going on. I detest people who just feel something strong and shout against a compromise, but unfortunately they are to be found on both sides.

ps: by Prussia, as i stated, i meant the german legacy of it, which is why i noted that the hypothetical entity calling itself Prussia would deny any german relation in the past of that land.

[Nubclear]

This is ATHENS!!!!111

[Alexander I]

FYROM should unite with Kosovo and call the resulting state "Dardania."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardania_(Europe)

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
I want a Confederate buncha slaveholding losers national flag.

Fixed.