The Republic of Macedonia, also known under the temporary UN reference as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia or FYROM)1, is an independent state on the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe, with an area of 25,713 km² and a population of just over two million. Its capital and principal city is Skopje (population 600,000).
The Republic contains roughly 38% of the area and nearly 44% of the population of the geographical region known as Macedonia, the remainder of which is divided between neighbouring Greece (with about half of the total) and Bulgaria (with under a tenth). The lands governed by the Republic of Macedonia were known as the Vardarska banovina before 1945.
The flag: the sixteen-ray "Vergina Sun" star that was to appear on the flag was a symbol of the ancient state of Macedon, to which Greece claimed to be the sole heir. (For more on this, see Vergina.)
The constitution: a reference in Article 49 to the Republic caring "for the status and rights of those persons belonging to the Macedonian people in neighboring countries, as well as Macedonian expatriates, assist[ing] their cultural development and promot[ing] links with them," which Greece interpreted as encouraging separatism among its own Macedonian Slav minority.
As a result, the United Nations recognised the state in 1993 under the temporary reference of the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". However, Greece, still dissatisfied, imposed a trade embargo on the Republic of Macedonia in February 1994. As part of an agreement to lift this embargo in September 1995, the Republic of Macedonia's flag was changed to an eight-ray sun and not the former star. The constitution was also changed to state explicitly that "The Republic of Macedonia has no territorial pretensions towards any neighboring state."
Given the long name, the state is often referred to as Macedonia colloquially and by non-Greeks despite the ambiguity of the term with the region of Macedonia. The state's name remains a source of local and international controversy. After the state was admitted to the United Nations under the FYROM name, other international organisations adopted the same convention, including the European Union, the European Broadcasting Union, NATO and the International Olympic Committee, among others. Most diplomats are accredited to the republic using the FYROM designation. The usage of each name remains controversial to supporters of the other. However, at least 40 countries have recognised the country by its constitutional name – the Republic of Macedonia, rather than FYROM. These include the Philippines, Iran, Estonia, Malaysia, Russia, Pakistan, China, Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and others. A permanent agreement on how the Macedonian republic should be referred to internationally has not yet been reached.
A brief armed conflict in March 2001 involving Albanian rebels in the west of the country ended with the intervention of a small NATO ceasefire monitoring force and government undertakings to concede greater rights to the Albanian minority.
On February 26, 2004, President Boris Trajkovski died in a plane crash. The results of the official investigation revealed that the cause of the plane accident was procedural mistakes by the crew, committed during the approach to land at Mostar airport.
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