Republic of Macedonia

[gordan]

No one wants to be called former.
I think the administrator of TE should change the funny referance Macedonia FYR.
I'm not former...

[joseelias]

Hi Gordan,

It seems that this is the official name under which your country is registered in the United Nations, and in this questions TE uses the definitions of the UN.

Check out this link:

http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html

[danbachmann]

I've read (in a recent, but unreliable book) that people in the south of Macedonia would be offended if you just call the country Macedonia and you should call it FYROM (Fee-rom) or the Former Yugoslav Repulic of Macedonia.

[nbournas]

Actually all of Greece will be offended. Do not do it while in Greece. It is too long of a story but in a nutshell Macedonia is the home of Alexander the Great one of the greatest Greek heroes ever. To have a non-Greek country to the north be named Macedonia implies that he was not Greek.

The area of FYROM was never called "Macedonia" before the 2nd World War. This name was given to the Southern Yugoslavian providence by General Tito aiming to create conflicts in the region and to obtain Greek and Bulgarian teritories. Before the 2nd World War FYROM was called Vardarska.