The small Balkan country of Macedonia, soon to be named North Macedonia if citizens vote to change the name in a referendum on Sept. 30, is finally being given a chance to join the community of Western nations. If the country’s citizens endorse the name change, Greece has said it will stop blocking its neighbor’s membership in NATO and the European Union.
The dispute dates back to 1991, when Macedonians declared independence from Yugoslavia by establishing a Republic of Macedonia, which led Greece to object that the new country was usurping its history and laying claim to its land by appropriating the name of its northern region, also called Macedonia.
