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The New York Times, May 2, 1897, p. 18:

THE MACEDONIAN CRISIS

A Predominant Subject of Interest
to the Diplomatists of Austria.

ALL EUROPE DESIRES THE LAND

A Country with No Individual People
for Which Every Nation Is Longing.

    VIENNA, April 18.— The crisis at the Macedonian frontier has brought the question of Macedonia's future more than ever to the front, and here in Vienna it is the predominating subject of interest to Austrian diplomacy. Of all the problems in the vexed Eastern question it is by far the most difficult to solve.
    The Roumanian problem received a satisfactory solution because there exists a Roumanian people, and the Bulgarisn question was likewise solved because there has always existed a Bulgarian people...
    Crete, Cyprus, and all the islands of the archipelago are unquestionably Greek and must come back to Greece in the future partition of Turkey... But there exists no Macedonian people, and it is impossible to pretend that any single nationality has a right to claim possession of Macedonia.

    Macedonia, which under Alexander the Great acquired a title to immortality in history, is a country the central portion of which is formed by the Valley of Varder, bounded on the north and south by Greece, Montenegro, and Bulgaria; on the east by the Mitza Valley; on the west by the Pind chain of mountains.
    There did formerly exist a Macedonian people who played a great role in the world under Philip, Alexander, and his lieutenants. But this Greek people has disappeared, worn out by long and bloody wars, and was finally submerged by foreign invasions. Macedonia has become the home of many races and the coveted possession of many nations.
    The Greeks rely upon their historical right to claim as their own the patrimony of Philip, of Alexander, and Constantine. Unfortunately for them, since Alexander conquerors from the north have overrun Macedonia, drawn hence by the country's fertile plains, fruitful valleys, and smiling hillsides bathed by the sea. Invasions followed invasions until the Greeks were pushed back to the seacoast, and to-day there only remain of the former Greek Macedonians a small number along the Mitza coast, around Xznthus and Kavala, Vardar, Stronma, Salonica and Vodena. Behind this seacoast zone the inhabitants of Macedonia are Slavs.

    There exists, therefore, no Macedonian people. But, instead, the fertile plains of this Turkish province are inhabited by ten different races, living side by side, but rendered antagonistic by the difference of race, language, and religion. The truth is that Macedonia has always been a battleground of rival races and religions, though no race or religion has ever been able to establish its predominance...
    Salonica, where the Jews exiled from Spain formerly took refuge, is a Jewish city. In the interior of the province the Servian and Bulgarian groups are so intermingled that it is often impossible to distinguish them one from another. The Turks are concentrated in and around a few large towns. The Albanians have spread chiefly over the large plain of Kossovo. The Slavo-Wallachian Empire of the eleventh century left a population of Koutso-Wallachians in the valleys which lie between Ochrida and Trikkala...

    The Turkish domination is fast crumbling away, and an unpaid army is not sufficient ot maintain the province under Ottoman rule...
    Neither Greece, Servia, nor Bulgaria is powerful enough to put hands on Macedonia. A fair division of the spoils is out of the question. Austria does not spare money to convince the population of Macedonia that it is to their best interests to be governed from Vienna, in the same manner as Bosnia and Herzegovina. But Russia also has her crafty emissaries in Macedonia, all working in the interests of the great white Czar at St. Petersburg...


    North Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from Yugoslavia in 1991 under the name of "Macedonia." Greek objection to the new country’s name, insisting it implied territorial pretensions to the northern Greek province of Macedonia, and democratic backsliding for several years stalled the country’s movement toward Euro-Atlantic integration. Immediately after Macedonia declared independence, Greece sought to block Macedonian efforts to gain UN membership if the name "Macedonia" was used.

    The country was eventually admitted to the UN in 1993 as "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," and at the same time it agreed to UN-sponsored negotiations on the name dispute. In 1995, Greece lifted a 20-month trade embargo and the two countries agreed to normalize relations, but the issue of the name remained unresolved and negotiations for a solution continued.

    Over time, the US and over 130 other nations recognized Macedonia by its constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia. Ethnic Albanian grievances over perceived political and economic inequities escalated into a conflict in 2001 that eventually led to the internationally brokered Ohrid Framework Agreement, which ended the fighting and established guidelines for constitutional amendments and the creation of new laws that enhanced the rights of minorities. In January 2018, the government adopted a new law on languages, which elevated the Albanian language to an official language at the national level, with the Macedonian language remaining the sole official language in international relations. Relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians remain complicated, however.

    In June 2018, Macedonia and Greece signed the Prespa Agreement whereby Macedonia agreed to change its name to North Macedonia. Following ratification by both countries, the agreement went in to force on 12 February 2019.

    North Macedonia then joined NATO in 2020 after amending its constitution per the deal and opened EU accession talks in 2022 after a two-year veto by Bulgaria over identity, language, and historical disputes. North Macedonia has been an EU candidate since 2005. A nearly three-year political crisis from 2014 to 2017 began after the 2014 legislative and presidential election, and escalated in 2015 when the opposition party began releasing wiretapped material that revealed alleged widespread government corruption and abuse.

    The country still faces challenges, including fully implementing reforms to overcome years of democratic backsliding, stimulating economic growth and development, and fighting organized crime and corruption.

    CIA World Factbook: Macedonia
All of Macedonia is
one time zone at GMT+1,
with European Union DST.

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Area of North Macedonia: 25,333 sq km slightly larger than Vermont

Population of North Macedonia: 2,071,210 July 2004 estimate

Languages of North Macedonia:
Macedonian 68%, Albanian 25%, Turkish 3%, Serbo-Croatian 2%, other 2%

Macedonia Capital: Skopje

SKOPJE WEATHER

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