What should Macedonia (FYROM) be called?

[Tintrlvr]

"The Really, Truly Hellenic Republic of Northern Greece, and also Macedonia"

But if the Macedonians want to compromise on this ridiculous issue, Vardar Macedonia is a great name.

[Tintrlvr]

While I agree that this is really a non-issue and its a little sad that this is something that will get thousands of people on the streets to protest on both sides, I think that non-Greeks clearly fail to understand the importance of this issue to Greece, the idea that this is merely about snowflakism is clearly mis-informed.

The Greek region of Macedonia holds a significant part of Greece's population, so when another country continually implies a claim to that area, of course Greeks will be angry, especially those who live in Macedonia. Most other countries would react in the same way that Greece has reacted, if not much worse.

Also, the idea that this has any impact of Greece's economy and that if Greece simply focused on its economy rather than complaining about Macedonia, it would be better off, is preposterous. Not to mention that Macedonia/FYROM has much bigger problems than Greece could even dream of.

I guess an American analogy would be if Mexico suddenly renamed itself to Texas?

Exactly.

No, this not true at all and is way too friendly to the Greek position.

The analogy would only apply if the entirety of Mexico, and also the US state of Texas and some parts of Guatemala and Belize were all part of a historical region known as "Texas" the name of which had been applied by the United States to its portion of that region, generating American Texas, but which also legitimately and accurately could be used to describe all of Mexico and even some parts of Guatemala and Belize, then Mexico decided to start calling itself "Texas", too, but the United States responded by insisting that only American Texas was the real Texas even though people had been using "Texas" to refer to the entire larger region that included all of Mexico as well as American Texas and parts of Guatemala and Belize for literally millennia. So it's not analogous to the "Mexico-renames-itself-Texas" hypothetical at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(region)

[Tintrlvr]

While I agree that this is really a non-issue and its a little sad that this is something that will get thousands of people on the streets to protest on both sides, I think that non-Greeks clearly fail to understand the importance of this issue to Greece, the idea that this is merely about snowflakism is clearly mis-informed.

The Greek region of Macedonia holds a significant part of Greece's population, so when another country continually implies a claim to that area, of course Greeks will be angry, especially those who live in Macedonia. Most other countries would react in the same way that Greece has reacted, if not much worse.

Also, the idea that this has any impact of Greece's economy and that if Greece simply focused on its economy rather than complaining about Macedonia, it would be better off, is preposterous. Not to mention that Macedonia/FYROM has much bigger problems than Greece could even dream of.

I guess an American analogy would be if Mexico suddenly renamed itself to Texas?

Exactly.

No, this not true at all and is way too friendly to the Greek position.

The analogy would only apply if the entirety of Mexico, and also the US state of Texas and some parts of Guatemala and Belize were all part of a historical region known as "Texas" the name of which had been applied by the United States to its portion of that region, generating American Texas, but which also legitimately and accurately could be used to describe all of Mexico and even some parts of Guatemala and Belize, then Mexico decided to start calling itself "Texas", too, but the United States responded by insisting that only American Texas was the real Texas even though people had been using "Texas" to refer to the entire larger region that included all of Mexico as well as American Texas and parts of Guatemala and Belize for literally millennia. So it's not analogous to the "Mexico-renames-itself-Texas" hypothetical at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(region)

I don't think there is too much of a point going into the semantics of the exact details, its an analogy so of course it can't fit perfectly but it does fit the general point I was making.

As for what counts as Macedonia, is it just Greek Macedonia or is it FYROM and small sections of other countries too? It could very well be argued that the territory of FYROM isn't Macedonia given that the vast majority of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia's territory was in Greece and a very small part was north of the border. It was only later when Macedonia was used to refer to the entire region as Macedonia, depending on what those in charge of the region at the time wanted (ironically just like Texas).

But, I digress. It is besides the main point - the point remains the same, FYROM has a name (and other policies) that clearly imply a claim on a large amount of Greek territory, as would be the case if Mexico called itself Texas.

No more than Germany calling itself "Germany" and not "Northern Germany" implies a claim on Austria and German Switzerland.