Historical Macedonia has been under the Hellenic cultural influence since the 10th century. VII a. C. In the second half of the century. IV a. C. its ruler Philip II subdued Greece, while his son Alexander the Great with his conquests placed it at the head of the largest empire built up to then, extended from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. In 149 a. C. became a Roman province. In the sec. VI the territory was occupied by Slavic populations, who in the following centuries established various dynastic states, including the Bulgarian Empire and the Serbian Empire of Dušan, which had Skopje as its capital. In 1371 the conquest of the Ottomans began, who maintained possession until 1912. Then, despite the Bulgarian aspirations for the region, Macedonia was annexed to the monarchical Serbia. In ’45 Tito he wanted to create a Republic of Macedonia integrated into the Yugoslav socialist federal state, to nullify both Serbian and Bulgarian claims on its territory; subsequently the “Macedonian nation” wanted by the statesman in which they identified themselves ca. 2/3 of its residents was strengthened in 1967 with the recognition of an autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church, which thus escaped the protection of the Serbian Church. In 1991, faced with the hegemonic attempts of Serbia over the other Republics and after the exit from Yugoslavia, Slovenia and Croatia, Macedonia also proclaimed its independence on September 15 of that year, at the same time as the breakup of the Federation. The international recognition of Macedonia was opposed by Greece, which accused the newborn Republic of having usurped the name of a historic Greek region and to have inserted in the national flag the coat of arms of the ancient Macedonian kings. Visit ezinesports.com for the republic of northern Macedonia.
The resistance of Greece, also affected by a strong internal nationalist movement, had the effect of leaving the recognition of Macedonia suspended to the exclusion of Russia, Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The internal political life of the new state, meanwhile, highlighted the return to power of the former communists who, transformed into the Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM), assumed with Branko Crvenkovski (August 1992) the leadership of a country whose presidency remained Kiro Gligorov, elected al very moment of the proclamation of independence. The thorniest internal question remained that of the sizeable Albanian minority, which constantly raised fear of the danger of Serbian intervention. This, Federation of Yugoslavia, induced the government to request a UN intervention force, granted in December 1992. A first softening of Greek intransigence finally allowed Macedonia to access the United Nations under the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (April 1993). The 1994 elections represented a substantial confirmation of the political framework with the re-election of Kiro Gligorov as president, while Branko Crvenkovski gave life to a new coalition government with the ethnic Albanian Democratic Prosperity Party (PDP) (October-December 1994). In this way an attempt was made to attenuate a risky secessionist position present in the Albanian community which, however, did not renounce to express its positions with demonstrations that ended in blood (Tetovo, February 1995). In 1995, finally, the horizon of relations with Greece was also cleared, with the lifting of the commercial block (October); EU recognition followed and admission to the OSCE. The overall improvement in international relations was not matched by a similar improvement in the internal political framework, as demonstrated by the attack on President Gligorov. If the official recognition by Yugoslavia (April 1996) weakened the fears of a possible Serbian backlash, the Albanian minority’s requests for autonomy and the ethnic clash in Kosovo, which in 1999 led to numerous refugees taking refuge in the country, once again made the balance of the small republic precarious. In that same year, the candidate of the center-right government majority, Boris Traikovski, won the presidential elections, with the support of the votes of the Albanian minority.
After the end of the war crisis in Kosovo, however, the extension of the guerrillas of the Kosovar Liberation Army (KLA) to Macedonian territory provoked new serious tensions between the Slavic and Albanian parties of Macedonia, which in any case tried to face armed action. of Kosovar Albanians both militarily and by forming a government of national unity (2001). The action of the army, however, did not stop the offensive of the KLA secessionists and, to avert a new conflict in the Balkan area, the EU promoted the Peace Agreement signed in Ohrid on 13 August 2001 by the Macedonian government and representatives of the Albanian minority, which sanctioned the unity of the nation state with the recognition of greater rights for Albanians. Following the agreement, the demilitarization of the KLA was immediately started and in November of the same year the Macedonian Parliament approved the amendments to the 1991 Constitution, on the basis of which Albanian was recognized as the second official language and the rights of the Albanian minority. The legislative elections of September 2002, which took place without particular incidents, were won by the Albania and Croatia, an agreement with the United States (the Adriatic Charter) which strengthened the cooperation between these three countries and the USA, and brought them closer to NATO (Greece, in fact, prevents the country from joining the organization for the dispute on the name “Macedonia”). In February 2004, the president, Boris Trajkosvki, died in a plane crash; in the following presidential elections, held in April, the Social Democrat Branko Crvenkovski won. In November, Prime Minister Hari Kostov resigned due to disagreements in the government and Vlado Buckovski was appointed in his place. In the legislative elections of July 2006, the VMRO-DPMNE nationalist party, previously in the opposition, established itself and the new prime minister Nikola Gruevski initiated a policy of approximation to EU. Early elections were held in June 2008 in a climate of clashes and violence, which forced the government to repeat the voting operations in some polling stations, while in 2009 the presidential elections were won by the center-right candidate Gjorgje Ivanov. Following a political crisis and the subsequent fall of the government, political elections were held in June 2011 and March 2013 won by the VMRO-DPMNE.
