What is the difference between Macedonia in Greece and the homonymous Republic?

Answer 1

In order to answer to this question we have to take a look at the ancient Greek history. In ancient times Macedonia was a large Greek kingdom -Ancient Greece was not a single country, not even a federation, as a single city could be a different state (Athens, Sparta, Corinth), but there were also some territories that had a larger type of state as we know it today (Macedonia, Epirus, Acarnania). The main point is that despite they were not unified Macedonians, Epirotes, Athenians, etc they were the same nation. The region of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia or Macedon was consisted by the Greek prefecture of Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Homonymous Republic and insignificant small parts in today Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria.

The Greek part, known as well as Aegean Macedonia is today Greece's biggest prefecture and the largest part of the geographical region of Macedonia (52%). That part became a part of Greece in 1913 and Greeks named it Macedonia, due to the fact that there have been long-lasting and terrible wars between Greeks with Ottomans and Bulgarians and Serbs, who wanted access to the Aegean Sea through Macedonia, due to the fact they wanted to include this historically Greek region to their state.

The Greek part is named Macedonia, but the part of today's homonymous Republic was taken by Serbia and became its southern territory under the name Vardarska Banovina, which means "the land of Vardar''. It was only in 1948 that Tito turned the southern part of Serbia into a Federal Republic within Yugoslavia, under the name "Socialist Republic of Macedonia". During those years there was acted a Propaganda in the people's knowledge about the history of Macedonia. When Yugoslavia was dissolved the country declared its independence under the name "Republic of Macedonia", but Greece asked the UN not to recognise this state as "Macedonia", due to differences between the prefecture and the Republic in name of the Republic's nation, language and history, as the Republic declares that the Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks, but a different nation of which they are descendants. Greeks on the other side claim the "Greekness" of Macedonia in language and history, as the Republic's people came to the Balkan peninsula a thousand years after the conquer of Greece, including Macedonia, by the Romans and its language cannot be called Macedonian, as Macedonian was a Greek dialect and their language is Slavic, an impurity of Serbian and Bulgarian.

In order to give a solution the two countries agreed that the the new state was going to be globally recognised temporarilly as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" or "FYROM" till the FYROM and Greece would come to an agreement about the Republic's name. Though it is recognise by most of global organisations as the FYROM (UN, EU, Olympic Games etc.), the country has as a constitutional name the term "Republic of Macedonia" a name that most UN countries have recognised, but Greece says will never accept, as it is deception with ultimate goal the steal of a large part of its history and the expansionist ambition in the Aegean Macedonia.

In short Macedonia today is a prefecture in Northern Greece and the self-proclaimed Republic of Macedonia, more accurately: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or the FYROM, is an independent country bordering Greece in the Prefecture of Macedonia. Both territories are parts of Ancient Macedonia, but each of them has different history and relation with the ancient kingdom.